Spartan (2004) has a Tom Clancy type espionage potboiler story: The President’s Daughter Is Missing. Yet it’s another example in good storytelling not being about the what, but the how – it’s all given purpose and style through director-writer David Mamet’s distinct way with dialogue and plotting. Even in comparison to other spy thrillers at the time, the Jason Bourne series, this is a moderately budgeted affair with sets and sound stages used to cover up a lack of international locations. Spartan also represents one of the last cinema releases star Val Kilmer would have before a decade of direct-to-video releases, starring alongside 50 Cent in movies like Streets Of Blood and Gun. As the military operative called on for duty, Kilmer has a wry, bemused charm that pulls you into his mysterious character, even when he is being brusque and obtuse with the trainees who want to know more about him (Derek Luke, who’s also great, and Tix Texada). Called in to find a missing girl, unbeknownst to the kidnappers is the president’s daughter, Kilmer’s character slips in and out of roles, tasked with a mission that he will follow through to the letter. Mamet folds his interest in con-artist plots into a wider government conspiracy, which puts Spartan in the league of paranoid thrillers like Three Days Of The Condor. “Where is the girl?” is repeated as much as a line of dialogue as “this is the girl” was in Mulholland Drive. Mamet is pretty functional as an action director – it is more about the continual revelation of deceit and the dialogue that mixes old sayings, symbolic stories and coarse language as an insight into a macho-warrior world that he’s besotted with. Kristen Bell plays the missing girl, and a host of character actors – Ed O’Neill, William H. Macy, Clark Gregg – appear as the government agents tasked to resolve the increasingly dire situation. Hey, even Looking For Alibrandi’s Kick Gurry shows up as a mercenary (great to hear Mamet recycling a line from The Untouchables into an Aussie accent). Anyway, love Val, love Spartan, can rewatch this anytime. Available to rent/buy on YouTube Movies. “You wanted to go through the looking glass. How was it? Was it more fun than miniature golf?” Recommended.
VHS Tracking 