Luigi turned me on to David Mamet's Spartan, in a discussion of what was worth watching on TV these days.1 I loved it. Not just for the violence, which is considerable and effective. Not just for the secret service procedurals, which are everywhere these days and which for all I know are having the same effect on real agents that gangster movies have had on real gangsters. Not just for the tautness of the suspense or the music of the script. More for the flawlessness of the Spartan himself. 2
Laura: I'm just a whore.
I'm just a little whore.Scott: Yeah, how'd you get like that?
Laura: I was raised by wolves.
All around him are so damaged. He’s the one that does the dirty work, the jobs that “you're gonna take to bed with you for a long time,” and yet he’s the one that seems so secure in himself. And yet, he’s so innocent:
Scott: I know they lied
How do you fake the DNA?Donny: You don’t fake the DNA.
You issue a press release.
A wonderful film, well worth seeking out. And we’ll see what The Unit has to offer in due course.
[Rating:4/5]
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The Unit, apparently. ↩
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Nice, too, to see how the script changed from as written to as performed. ↩
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