Silent Night (2023)

Alright guys Silent Night is pretty rad.  I had a blast taking in the latest John Woo action extravaganza and this is only a brief message to let you know that it’s definitely worth your time.

Amazingly the title has no less than three meanings.  It’s basically a silent movie in part due to the main character, Brian (Joel Kinnaman (Child 44)), not being able to speak.  The film opens with him getting his throat shot out (ouch) so it’s a legit physical impairment.  On top of that the concept is then taken to the maximum natural end point of having no characters say any dialogue at all!  Everyone’s emotions and thoughts are expressed totally clearly without speaking and that’s a daring avenue to explore in this day and age.  Additionally, this is a revenge story and the best time to enact that revenge is at night so that checks out.  But then of course the date in question is Christmas night.  It’s like the filmmakers actually thought about it.  An accurate title where every part checks out is really just icing on the cake but man I love it.

And shit, besides no dialogue John Woo takes a run of the mill picture about a father going after the people who shot and killed his five year old son and makes so many other unique choices.  For example having the bad guys be Latino gangbangers instead of the usual Russians, setting the story in Texas instead of California, the lead is simply some average Joe with no hints that he’s an ex-cop or ex-military or anything, the extreme sentimentality Brian displays over his dead son, there’s sort of a jazzy song used for the getting tough/gearing up/training montage, the main villain and his lady waltz to an industrial song, his lair has giant Christmas ornaments hanging from the ceiling and skulls projected onto the walls, a teardrop falling is intercut with a bullet falling to the ground and etc.

One particularly cute part is when a henchman is battling Brian and gets thrown into a table full of handguns but then reaches next to it to pull a machine gun that was out of view.  My complements to the chef.  I also like that Brian has a look on his face sometimes like even he can’t believe the incredible shit he’s pulling off and what he’s up against.

Look, this isn’t on the same tier as Woo’s masterworks but for a guy in his late 70’s who hasn’t been in the game for a long while this is fuckin’ cool as hell.  He had to learn a few new tricks to adapt to modern action and sure, there’s part of me that wishes he would’ve made this thing as if it were still the 80’s or 90’s but you know what?  That’s ok.  Setting aside the kind of not great looking digital blood splatter he updates himself well.  One instance is the (probably fake?) oner where our hero ascends five or six flights of stairs all while dispatching baddies.  It’s a neat sequence but admittedly is a touch clunkily executed hinting that either John wanted to prove he could be just as relevant as current action filmmakers or it was something he felt was essential for today’s audiences.  With that said let’s not forget he gave us one of the all time best oners during the hospital scene in Hard Boiled.  So he has nothing to prove in that department.

I mean what’s impressive is because it’s John motherfuckin’ Woo we essentially got a direct to streaming picture on the big screen and in my book that alone counts for something.  Not to mention he delivered a fun piece making his comeback a sweet one.  If he’s feeling spry and gets the opportunity to make more films there’s no question that I’m there.