Title : Olympus Has
Fallen
Director : Antoine Fuqua
Producer : Gerard Butler, Alan
Siegel, Mark Gill
Year : March 22, 2013
Place : United States
Genre : Drama Action
Duration : 120 Minutes
Reviewed by : St. Naftari
I.
INTRODUCTION
A. Background
Fuqua was born on January 19, 1966 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
After going to school for electrical engineering, with the hope of going on to
fly jets in the military, Fuqua began his career directing music videos for
popular artists like Toni Braxton and Prince, and then went on to become a successful
film director. He is perhaps best known for the award-winning film Training
Day. Fuqua was scheduled to direct Prisoners, based on a storybook from Aaron
Guzikowski, but left the project.
CBS Films has hired Antoine Fuqua to direct a new movie based on a Vince Flynn
novel, Consent to Kill.
In March 2011, Fuqua signed on to direct a film featuring the romantic
love story between Consort Yang Yuhuan and Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang
dynasty. As reported in March 2013, he has stated that he's awaiting for
the film project to go through the appropriate Chinese government channels
before directing the historical epic film, currently known as The Tang
Dynasty.
He was slated to direct Tupac
Shakur's official biopic. The project was postponed to allow Fuqua to
direct rapper Eminem's
second feature film, Southpaw. However, Eminem put the Southpaw
film on hold to focus on music. Fuqua moved on to Olympus Has Fallen, an action thriller
starring Gerard Butler and Morgan
Freeman.
In May 2014 20th Century Fox set Fuqua to direct a drug
smuggling thriller film Narco Sub which is scripted by David Guggenheim.
B. Summary
Mike Banning is a Secret Service Agent who is assigned to
the President and is close to him and his family. When there is a situation
where in the President and the First Lady's life is endangered and Mike can
only save one of them, he saves the President. As a result the President has
Mike reassigned to a desk job. A few years later, Mike wants to come back but
the President though not holding a grudge is not ready to have him back. The
President has a delegation from South Korea visiting. Shortly after they arrive
a plane shows up and when it is told to land it refuses and when aircraft comes
to it, it shoots it down. Eventually it crashes at the White House, that is
when some people in the crowd pull guns and shoot the secret service agents. Then
the Secret Service gets the President into a bunker.
Mike who sees what is happening from his office goes
there and starts shooting at the shooters. Later in the bunker, some of the
people from the delegation pull out guns and shoot all the Secret Service
agents. And outside all the Secret Service agents are killed and the shooters
take over the White House. Eventually they call the Pentagon where the Speaker
of the House is now in charge and the leader in the bunker makes his demands.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs tells the Speaker they can't give in but to
prove he is serious he kills someone and will continue to do so till they give
in. But what can they do. Mike, who is in the White House, eventually gets a
special cellphone and calls them. He tries to do what he can first by locating
the President's son and getting him out. He then goes to save the President.
II. TEXT ANALYSIS
A. Theme
Olympus Has Fallen is a drama-action about an attack on
the presidential home by a bunch of loathsome North Korean terrorists who
circumvent security with worrying ease. But they prove to be vulnerable to
counterattack from one guy, just one guy, armed with nothing but guns, guts,
patriotism and a pair of cojones the size of Saturn's moons.
B. Character
Ø Gerard Butler as
Mike Banning.
Mike Banning is a former member of the 75th Ranger Regiment
and now Secret Service
agent. Agent Banning is a Secret Service agent assigned to Presidential Detail.
After a tragic accident, he is demoted and assigned to desk duty. But when
terrorists capture the White House and kidnap the President, Banning takes
action and, using his in-depth knowledge of the White House, finds himself with
one more chance to make things right.
President Asher is everything the
President of the United States should be - strong, proud, and unyielding. He
loves his country almost as much as he loves his son - his only weakness. With
the country facing its biggest threat, Asher must remain steadfast and
resourceful, even as he faces a terror unlike any he could have ever foreseen.
Congressman Martin Trumbull is the
seasoned Speaker of the House. A veteran politician, he is well-spoken,
perfectly composed, and a respected leader. He has no problem assuming command
when the President is taken hostage. He will unflinchingly make even the most
difficult decisions when it comes to protecting the country.
Lynne Jacobs is the steely, strict, and
tough director of the Secret Service. Excellent at her job, shes known for
always having everything under control. After terrorists take control of the
White House, she is a vital part of the security team working feverishly to
save the president and her country during the crisis.
Ø Rick Yune as Kang Yeonsak, a North Korean terrorist mastermind disguised as a South Korean ministerial aide.
As an aide to a visiting Foreign
Minister, Kang appears to be unassuming, with the quiet demeanor of an
accountant - but beneath his reserve lies the heart of a cold-blooded killer
whose only goal is to bring the United States of America to its knees.
A
former Secret Service
agent now working for South Korean Prime Minister's
private security detail. But he was
betrayed by working together Kang, However
eventually he realized
that he had
strayed.
Ø Finley Jacobsen as Connor Asher.
The
son of Benjamin and Margaret Asher. Connor is good friends with Banning, so he learned a lot
about the secret agent. He was also smart
in dealing with difficult situations
that occur in the
White House.
C. Structure
Ø Exposition
While the first family is being ferried
away from Camp David one night in heavy snow, the president's stretch limo
blows a tyre and teeters terrifyingly over a bridge with only the VIPs in the
back keeping it from toppling over. What they needed was a young
Michael Caine to show up and say he's got a great idea. Sadly, what they
got was the president's secret service bodyguard and total best bud Mike
Banning, played by Gerard Butler, who makes a fateful, split-second
decision.
Ø Complication
During a presidential meeting with
South Korean diplomats, some kind of souped-up cargo plane invades D.C. air
space, riddling people (Secret Service and bystanders alike) with bullets and
firing into the White House. Half the Washington Monument crumbles — symbolic
on a couple of levels. Olympus — the code name for the White House — falls.
Terrorists shoot almost everyone inside and take the president, the
vice-president, and the secretary of State (Melissa Leo) hostage in an
underground vault. But one man drives like mad to the scene, dodges bullets and
explosions as agents drop around him, and gets inside, alone but on his game.
Ø Resolution
Banning kills Kang by stabbing him in
the head with a knife after overpowering him in hand-to-hand combat. Banning
then disables Cerberus with the assistance of Trumbull with only seconds to
spare. During daybreak that day, Banning walks out with Asher and is received
by the soldiers posted to await their arrival. Sometime after the events,
Washington begins to rebuild from the terrorist attack, while Banning once
again becomes head of the Presidential Detail.
D. Style
and Imagery
Ø Style
The
tones of the drama action takes
the theme of governmental activities and the secret service in
the White House that
explores the meaning of loyalty,
responsibility, and nationalism.
Ø Imagery
·
No, you're not. But you box like
one. This came
out when President Ben was training boxing
together with Banning and he felt he was old, then Banning
denied it by saying that the President as
an expert boxer.
·
Banning is ex-special forces.
Ranger battalion. He will move mountains or die trying!
It indicates that Banning will try hard
and could be
trusted. This came out when some people
in the Pentagon do
not believe that Banning trustworthy.
·
Yeah, I guess I'm a little rusty.... Banning says that when
he was interrogated two Kang’s men, then
he killed one of them with stabbing his neck. Then he said to the other that he
still felt stiff
with what he had
just done.
III.
REVIEW
This film's title comes from the
fictional Secret Service code ("Olympus") for the White House. "Olympus
Has Fallen" is about as satisfying an action thriller as can be hoped for,
with an irresistible premise and nothing but follow-through all the way to the
finish. It's too derivative to be a classic - practically an uncredited remake
of "Die Hard", but such a work of craftsmanship as to command
respect, at times even awe. It's that wonderful, totally unambitious yet
satisfying thing, a really good movie.
Let's just hope
that there's nothing accurate about it and that they're all laughing it up in Washington,
because if you believe "Olympus Has Fallen," it really wouldn't be
all that difficult for terrorists to take over the White House. They would just
need a fighter plane, 50 or so guys with automatic weapons and a handful of
traitors to work the inside. Plus, the all-important element of surprise.
Obviously, that would all take some doing, but the movie makes you feel that
such a thing is at least possible.
The film has
the sheen of a first-rate production. Director Antoine Fuqua ("Training
Day") turns the whole invasion scene into an extended, wrenching sequence.
The enemy plane flying low over Washington, blasting pedestrians with
machine-gun fire, announces the movie's terms - it will pull no punches, and
it's going to be bloody.
The fight for the
White House is brutal and pulse-pounding, and there's no question that the
sight of one of our defining structures getting defiled by bullets and missiles
is disturbing on a primal level.
Think "Die
Hard" with a touch of "Air
Force One": As in the latter movie, the president is held captive on
his home turf. As in the former, a lone, capable good guy is in the building
where the hostages have been taken. This time the building is the White House.
The enemy is a North Korean terrorist, and the main hostage is the young and
vigorous president of the United States (Aaron Eckhart). Gerard Butler plays
Banning, a hardened Secret
Service agent who never quits.
How tough is
Banning? He's the kind of guy who not only kills multiple henchmen but gets a
big kick out of taunting the chief terrorist, Kang (Rick Yune) with wisecracks
and threats. But wait ... That sounds familiar, a lot like Bruce
Willis, doesn't it? Also like Willis in a famous scene from "Die
Hard," Banning warns the authorities not to try to land helicopters on the
roof, but do they listen? Such obvious sourcing keeps "Olympus Has
Fallen" out of the classic pantheon.
As Banning,
Butler isn't as funny or as charming as Willis, but as one politician once said
of another, he's likable enough. Butler's chief asset is his violence. It is
easy to believe in his anger, and just as easy to believe that he would kill
all those people. As action heroes go, next to Butler in this movie, Willis is
a pacifist.
Ashley
Judd makes a sparkling first lady, and Melissa
Leo is superb and barely recognizable as an angry and desperate secretary
of defense. Morgan Freeman has a nice supporting turn as the tough-talking
speaker of the House, who finds out that it's easier to talk tough when you
have no power than it is to be tough when faced with life and death choices.
IV.
CLOSING
A.
Conclusion
The message we can take from this film is
that the condition
however, we as
part of the
country must remain responsible and have
a high nationalist attitude to protect the
country.
When watching this movie, I was initially
surprised. How there
is no known aircraft made it into the
airspace of Washington DC which should be the safest
region in the
United States. The plane was
filled with traps that had dropped class
fighter aircraft F-22 Raptor and escape from deadly attacks.
Then I was
surprised when forces Secret Service be eradicated simply by insurgent
forces.
Policy of the United States
who do not negotiate with terrorists was as a slogan in this movie. Terrorists easily
bend the policy. Then
we are shown a series of follies committed US
officials. For example, compliance is done Admiral
Hoenig (James Ingersoll)
that seemed to let the attack happen, then
willingly acting president
at the time, Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman),
agreed with Kang’s demands without any resistance.
However, if we get rid of these
jokes stories, Olympus
Has Fallen actually an entertaining
spectacle. The film is capable of
presenting a row of action
shootouts and fisticuffs
were neat, exciting,
and certainly strained.
Luckily for the film, the
director, Antoine Fuqua can provide breath
suspense and shock
in some side
so that the film is interesting to watch.
B.
Suggestion
Olympus Has Fallen movie is very interesting to watch, especially if the action movies lovers must watch
this movie. In
this film highly values
the nationalist someone to serve his country
and was willing to risk his life to save
a leader of his
country, but in this film rather disfigure the
Northern Korean state
as a terrorist in
the film disguised as an aide to the President of South Sorea. In the outline
of the film is very interesting
to watch and enjoyed by lovers of
action movies were quite tense.
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