John Woo is one of the pioneers of gun-fu and one of the greatest action directors, and his new movie, Silent Night marks the end of a 20-year wait.
Summary
- John Woo’s new film, Silent Night, is his first American project in 20 years.
- The movie promises to be violent and blood-filled, featuring intense shootouts and a brutal criminal underworld.
- Silent Night shows influences from John Woo’s earlier works and the success of the John Wick franchise, which itself was inspired by Woo’s films, making it a must-watch for fans of stylish action movies.
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John Woo is one of the most celebrated action directors of the 20th century, and his exciting new movie, Silent Night, has been anticipated for over 20 years. The Hong Kong filmmaker was hugely influential in the 1980s and 1990s, and countless Hollywood directors were inspired by his style. Woo pioneered a number of action tropes, such as his use of detailed slow-motion shootouts, “bullet ballet,” and gun-fu, which has since been popularized by John Wick, even though Woo had been practicing the style decades earlier. A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, and Hard Boiled are just some of Woo’s noteworthy movies that feature elaborate and jaw-dropping action sequences, and he now has a brand new film.
Though Silent Night sounds like a festive movie, the Silent Night trailer promises Woo’s most violent and blood-filled film in decades. The movie sees Joel Kinnaman playing a man who seeks revenge for the death of his son. The man’s son was collateral damage in a rare suburban shoot-out, which leads Kinnaman’s character into a brutal-looking criminal underbelly. While Woo’s popularity has decreased in the 2010s, Silent Night looks like it could be a tremendous return to form for the director. The film marks another major return for the filmmaker too, as it delivers on something that audiences have been waiting to see for 20 years.
Silent Night Is John Woo’s First American Movie In 20 Years
Silent Night marks Woo’s first American movie in 20 years, as his last movie made for an American studio was 2003’s Paycheck. Woo hasn’t had much critical claim with his American films, as Hard Target was a somewhat forgettable ’90s action flick, Mission: Impossible 2 is widely considered the worst Mission: Impossible movie, and Paycheck was far from his best work too. Face/Off is the diamond in the rough when it comes to Woo’s American-funded movies, but it seems like Silent Night will break this trend and see the return of the director’s best qualities.
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Even those negatively received American movies are full of Woo’s signature trademarks, such as tons of epic shootouts and, of course, a lot of doves. The problem was that Woo’s action style didn’t mesh well with the Hollywood action trends at the time. However, following the success of the John Wick franchise and how it popularized gun-fu, something that Woo had been developing for decades, there’s no better time for another John Woo-directed American movie than now, even if it did take two decades.
Silent Night Looks Like It Will Be Worth The Wait For John Woo Fans
Ironically, Silent Night seems heavily influenced by the first John Wick movie, which itself was massively influenced by the movies of John Woo. However, as most Hollywood action movies need at least one gun-fu sequence following the success of the John Wick series, Silent Night’s trailer teases some of the best gun-fu in a major Hollywood movie outside of the Keanu Reeves films. Woo hasn’t released a movie with modern-day, stylish action in decades, but Silent Night will deliver exactly that.
Even outside of the epic-looking shootouts, Silent Night features some jaw-dropping car chases, and one shot sees Kinnaman’s character climbing along the ledge of an elevated house with a deadly drop below him. That hints at Kinnaman’s character having some kind of history as a skilled assassin, adding to the parallels between Silent Night and John Wick. As the John Wick series has come to an end, for now, Silent Night looks like the perfect movie to fill that gun-fu craving, especially with John Woo at the helm.
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