When
The Hunted, directed by William Friedkin, begins, two hunters
are killed and savagely butchered in the Oregon wilderness
while hunting elk. The FBI summons L.T. Bonham (played
by Tommy Lee Jones) from his hideaway retreat in the British
Columbia wilderness to track the murderer. LT quickly concludes
that the murder suspect is Aaron Hallam (played by Benicio
Del Toro), whom he trained as a killer for action in Kosovo.
Hallam apparently has a case of posttraumatic stress syndrome
from his experience with Kosovo's ethnic cleansing. Hallam
also lives in the wilderness, to wit, the Cascade Mountains.
His execution of the two hunters is because he believes
that humans are savagely destroying the wildlife and must
be stopped. However, the FBI wants to apprehend the killer,
and LT indeed tracks Hallam, who surrenders to the authorities.
However, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) assumes jurisdiction;
after he was officially reported as "missing in action," they
have used him for political assassinations, so any publicity
about his identity supposedly would compromise covert operations.
Transferred to a DOD van, Hallam pulls off an escape, leaving
his captors dead. After he briefly visits the home of his
wife and child, where LT and the FBI find him, Hallam then
flees through downtown Portland, down the Columbia River,
and ultimately to a predictable showdown with LT in the
wilderness. The film's message is that animals should be
allowed to live in the wilderness rather than being "the
hunted." The film's cinematography of Oregon is breathtaking.
The fight scenes, in which LT and Hallam use only knives,
are rather amateurish, as even the simplest of kungfu moves
would have been possible, very effective, and much better
choreographed. Who would imagine that fifty-six-year-old
Tommy Lee Jones would be able to hold his own against agile
thirty-six-year-old Benicio Del Toro? MH
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