Unleashed

—Overview
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—About this Film pdf
—Spiritual Connections

Unleashed is far and away Jet Li’s best English language film to date. Boasting an actual plot, a unique concept, and a solid cast, this little film has carved out a spot for itself which is unique in the action genre: it stands out.
Written for the screen by Luc Besson, the hit or miss director who brought us The Professional and The Messenger, respectively, Besson also turns out his best film in years. Jet Li plays Danny the Dog, who is raised by a ruthless master Bart (played by Bob Hoskins in his best role in years). He is called Danny the Dog because he is literally raised as though he were a dog, complete with a collar which controls Danny’s entire life psychologically. Bart is a debt collector, and when he removes Danny’s collar, Danny is trained to instinctually destroy on Bart's command. "Get 'em". But when Li’s character believes his master has been killed, he turns to the only other person he has ever known, a blind piano player named Sam (Morgan Freeman). Danny becomes part of a makeshift family, with Sam’s stepdaughter also along for the ride. But this is an action movie, so this family cannot live happily ever after just yet…

One of the reasons this film stands out will be clear to any action fan. The fight scenes are truly excellent. Choreographed by action legend Yuen Wo Ping, the fights reflect the character of Danny, and are shaped by their settings. The opening fight is just plain dirty. We see the ferocity with which Danny fights, swinging wildly, biting and kicking, reacting to his own injury with rage. Jet Li isn’t graceful in these scenes, his character is rabid. Another incredible fight takes place in a water closet which can’t even be four feet wide. A litmus test for quality fight scenes is also the “close up / shaky cam� factor…can you actually see what is going on? This film holds together the raw nature of its fights with camera work which actually allows the audience to see what Jet Li is doing, and that is always a plus.

Some hardcore action fans will likely be disappointed with this film, though, because it deals primarily with a subject ignored by most action films: family. The most central premise to the film seems to be this: Family stays together no matter what. Danny grows up seeing family as the man who feeds him when he does what he is ordered to do. He grows up a slave. Yet when Danny learns what true love is, through his new family of selfless soul searchers, he begins to grow up and stand up to the falsehood of his upbringing. Li does an impressive job of embodying this submissive and pathetic dog-like character who is made whole by the love of a true family.

An interesting idea which comes through in the film is the idea that family is defined more by the depth of relationship, the depth of love, than actual blood relation. There is no blood relation between Bart and Danny, yet Bart endoctrinates Danny with the idea that he cares about him, that he is Uncle Bart. Then Danny meets up with a black man and his adopted white daughter, again no blood relation. This group, the film asserts, is more of a family than the relationship between Bart and Danny. The difference is the sacrificial love displayed by the father and daughter which completes Danny and elevates him from his animal instincts into the higher faculties of humanity.

Unleashed offers its viewers quite a bit, and this raises the film far above traditional action fare. Besson takes a unique approach to storytelling, focusing in on the characters when he could have decended into action pap. Li creates an engaging character who displays his considerable martial arts talent, but also his endearing humanity. Finally it asks us some significant questions: What exactly makes a family a family? Are love and protection required to define a family? Is family really simply what you have always known, or who we are related to, or is there more to it? Danny finds freedom from slavery through sacrificial love, and finds his ultimate identity as a functioning member of a new family, loving and being loved.

—Overview
—Photos
—About this Film pdf
—Spiritual Connections