Silent Night (2023)
Fancy a Christmas present courtesy of John Woo?
Are you in the market for an adults only Christmas themed vigilante revenge thriller in the style of John Wick and through the slow-motion cinematic lens of John Woo where, as the film poster would suggest, “Action Speaks Louder Than Words” and where there is barely a word spoken in the entire film?
Intrigued?
Here’s a brief dissection of the opening 16 minutes:
Following deliberately silent production credits, the first sounds of the film are the simple strains of a music box as a red balloon floats high into the sky and “SILENT NIGHT” is displayed in the centre of the screen. Amid the opening credits we cut to a close up shot and face of a man captured in typical John Woo slow motion running in a Christmas jumper, and as the camera slowly moves around the running man we see a Christmas bell bouncing around his neck and the very bloodied hands of a very distressed and concerned man. As the slow motion beginning continues the only sounds are the jingling of the Christmas bell and in the distance, repeated gunshots and a continuing police siren. Now captured in full motion, both physically and cinematically, the man is captured sprinting through busy, litter filled and graffiti covered streets and crossing nearby train tracks he continues to follow the red balloon floating high in the sky. The next distinct sounds of the film are of squealing car tyres in the near distance and as the man continues to follow the train tracks the camera cuts to two cars side by side and a moving shootout that ends spectacularly with the murder of one passenger before the killing of the driver of one car that then crashes into a yellow water hydrant and via yet more John Woo slow motion capture, somersaults through the air before crashing.
All of this is watched by the pursuing man who retrieves a piece of lead piping from a nearby dumpster before hiding behind a wall to await his prey. As the car approaches he smashes the windscreen violently, sending the car spinning out of control to the side of the street and now back under control, the car now chases the man down an alleyway shooting repeatedly at the man before, again in slow-motion, the man leaps atop a forklift truck which plows directly into the pursuing car, severing the head of a man in the passenger seat. The driver of the car now stumbles from the vehicle before shooting the man in the back, sending him sprawling and bleeding into a wire fence. As the man lies bleeding and facing the shooter, the gunman shoots the man again, this time in his neck, and leaves him to die.
We cut to yet more slow motion capture, of the bleeding man being wheeled quickly through a hospital corridor and into an emergency surgery in an attempt to save his life as an eerily quiet “Silent Night” soundtracks his bloody and brutal ordeal. We now see a distressed lady, presumed to be the man’s wife, twice, in two separate extreme close-ups, distressed and crying in the hospital corridor, before we return to the operating theatre and bloodied and graphic close-ups of the surgery, blood oozing from the man’s horrific neck wounds. “Silent Night” continues as we cut back once more to the hospital corridor and a worried and distressed lady.
We now cut to post-surgery and a young man entering a hospital room containing the barely alive man. After checking that he’s breathing and seeing the lady from earlier asleep in a chair in a corner of the room, he leaves his card, shown in close up as “Detective Dennis Vassel” (Kid Cudi). From outside the hospital window we now see a tiny and very colourful parrot perched on the window ledge and as we dissolve back into the room the man slowly opens his eyes and stares intently at the parrot before fully awakening with a cough that startles the lady awake in the chair beside him who rushes to his aid. A further cut now sees the man able to walk, stiffly, and recuperating from his ordeal slowly entering the bathroom he now stares at the mirror as he attempts to speak, scream or shout, but is unable to do so. Later the lady presents him with a box containing two speaking aids one of which he places against his neck and attempts to speak. But with no verbal or recognisable speech uttered he throws the implements to the floor in anger.
Leaving the hospital, the lady drives the man through the litter strewn and graffiti covered streets of earlier as more recognisable sounds such as a car radio, children playing in the street or police sirens return to the film once more. A close-up on the man shows his disgust for a cheap drug deal taking place on the side of the street and his non-verbal anger rising at the gang signs amid the graffiti scrawled on seemingly every wall. A final close-up shows the man angrily grabbing at a gold chain hanging around his neck before he snaps it into his hand as shortly, both the man and the lady driving him arrive at a clean and quiet suburban home a long way from the litter and graffiti filled streets of earlier. The lady is crying as they park on the driveway of the house before kissing him tenderly on the cheek and perhaps whispering something to him as he gazes through the passenger window. Bewildered, the man stares through the window at the front yard as the sounds of squealing tyres and police sirens return before quickly dissolving into a flashback of the younger man arriving home from work and playing football in the yard with a young boy. As the camera moves back to the right, away from the yard and back to the present day, a bereft and broken man is seen staring at the yard where he once played football with this young boy, the lady is now seen standing just behind him.
There you have the opening 16 minutes to John Woo’s Silent Night and, breaking from tradition, I will add nothing further whatsoever.
Well, apart from crediting my son for choosing this film and persuading me to watch it and, as the film poster so eloquently states:
“Action Speaks Louder Than Words”
See you next time.
Thanks for reading. Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my latest self-published book (Sunday 8th December 2024) as it’s a real doozy and a pride and joy from my English summer. Free to read if you subscribe to Amazon Kindle “Unlimited” or reasonably priced in both paperback and hardback. Go on, treat yourself or a loved one this Christmas and help out an Indie Author! Buy the book if you’re financially able to.
We HAVE to keep the spirit of reading books alive and well.
Thanks.
"My Ironbridge Summer" - link to Amazon
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.