The Hunted (2003)

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Very difficult to make a movie where the antagonist is invisible. The killer suffers from delusions and is supposedly a skilled knife fighter, taught by L.T. (Tommy Lee Jones). The problem is that the story doesn't go anywhere. How do you fight an enemy you can't see? I kept asking myself why I was watching. Lots of action, but dull. I also thought the knife-fight training was ridiculous. You only have to cut the carotid artery, and the person bleeds out in a minute or two, if that.

A soldier (Benicio del Toro) with PTSD takes to the Portland, Oregon woods in Rambo-like fashion. He's paranoid and kills a couple of businessmen from nearby Medford who were weekend deer hunters. The soldier believed the men were CIA spooks sent to find him. The film reveals that he's a Special Forces operator named Aaron Hallam who is AWOL. Hallam is shown to be haunted by his service during the Kosovo War, where he assassinated high priority targets with his hand-forged combat knife. The knife and others like it were forged by Hallam and the others he trained with and is a weapon of significance in the film. An FBI-led manhunt manhunt begins with Special Agent Abby Durrell (Connie Nielsen), who's assisted by L.T. Bonham (Tommy Lee Jones). Bonham was a civilian survival and combatives expert who instructed Hallam during his advanced training. Bonham is a recluse but the FBI bring him into the investigation as a consultant. He's able to identify the specific type of knife and footwear, a moccasin with no tread, used by the killer. It turns out Hallam felt a paternal connection to Bonham that the latter didn't reciprocate. Bonham reveals during a conversation with Durrell that he was never in the armed forces because his father, an Army colonel, had kept him from enlisting after his older brother was killed in Vietnam. His father was also an outdoorsman and survivalist who taught Bonham everything he knew. Hallam becomes more violent and dangerous as the manhunt for him tightens and increases in size. Bonham and Hallam are forced to confront each other in a strange almost kung fu movie style student-mentor battle. There are a few problems I had with this movie. Why would a Special Forces soldier have a hand-forged knife as his only weapon? If the FBI and police had arrested an armed and dangerous fugitive with specialized military training wouldn't he be in a maximum security lock up? A civilian would probably not be allowed to interrogate him either. Oh, well. The Oregon wilderness of Silver Falls State Park where the wilderness scenes were shot is magnificently beautiful. The combat is intense and well-choreographed. It was base on the Filipino martial art of Kali. Kali relies on close-quarters grappling, striking, stick and of course knife fighting. It resembles the close combat style featured in the Bourne films with Matt Damon.

I love this film. It's one of my favorite William Friedkin films. Although it lacks wit and edginess that some of his other films have, like the overrated French Connection, Exorcist and To Live and Die in L.A., The Hunted is still very much grounded in reality like most of his films. It also features Friedkin's signature car chase sequences, which he's only done four (French Connection, To Live & Die in LA, Jade, and The Hunted).Being from Portland, Oregon, the movie does a stellar job of portraying Portland visually with it's cloudy overcast and raining appearance, as it happens about 9 months out of the year. The Cinematography is great, which is always expected from a great cinematographer like Caleb Deschanel. However, the cinematography still has Friedkin's signature all over it with Hand Held cameras, Natural lighting or aka Induced Documentary, a style which is now overused today since the French Connection.The story although very simplistic yet is quite complex. Many reviewers on here refer to this film a duplicate of First Blood, but it doesn't come across to me that way nor do i see the connection other than its military aspect. The Knife fight scenes are pretty amazing. Overall i still love this film today. Metaphorically the film is pretty much the game hide and seek except, if you're it, you're dead. Let the games begin. I hope the film comes out on Bluray soon.

L.T. is a trainer that teach others how to kill in the fastest and precise way possible. After several deer hunters are found dead in the woods FBI seeks the help of L.T. in order to find the person who did this and he knows after seeing the place where the murders occurs that never the less the author is his best student that he had Aaron. Now he begin his pursuit after him but finds out that is not that easy catching a man who is younger and fastest then him.The Hunted is a good action movie, with two of the best actors for this gender and switching the landscape from an forest to the crowded city make the film more interesting to follow and keeps the spectator on the edge of the seat.