Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3256 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-02-01
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 120 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Robert De Niro stars as an American intelligence operative adrift in irrelevance since the end of the Cold War--much like a masterless samurai, aka "ronin". With his services for sale, he joins a renegade, international team of fellow covert warriors with nothing but time on their hands. Their mission, as defined by the woman who hires them (Natascha McElhone), is to get hold of a particular suitcase that is equally coveted by the Russian mafia and Irish terrorists. As the scheme gets underway, De Niro's lone wolf strikes up a rare friendship with his French counterpart (Jean Reno), gets into a more-or-less romantic frame of mind with McElhone and asserts his experience on the planning and execution of the job--going so far as to publicly humiliate one team member (Sean Bean) who is clearly out of his league. The story is largely unremarkable--there's an obligatory twist midway through that changes the nature of the team's business--but legendary filmmaker John Frankenheimer (Seconds, The Manchurian Candidate) leaps at the material, bringing to it an honest tension and seasoned, breathtaking skill with precision-action direction. The centrepiece of the movie is an honest-to-God car chase that is the real thing: not the how-can-we-top-the-last-stunt cartoon nonsense of Richard Donner (Lethal Weapon) but a pulse-quickening, kinetic dance of superb montage and timing. In a sense, Ronin is almost Frankenheimer's self-quoting version of a John Frankenheimer film.There isn't anything here he hasn't done before but it's sure great to see it all again. --Tom Keogh

Amazon.co.uk Review
Robert De Niro stars as an American intelligence operative adrift in irrelevance since the end of the Cold War--much like a masterless samurai, a.k.a. "ronin". With his services for sale, he joins a renegade, international team of fellow covert warriors with nothing but time on their hands. Their mission, as defined by the woman who hires them (Natascha McElhone), is to get hold of a particular suitcase that is equally coveted by the Russian mafia and Irish terrorists. As the scheme gets underway, De Niro's lone wolf strikes up a rare friendship with his French counterpart (Jean Reno), gets into a more-or-less romantic frame of mind with McElhone, and asserts his experience on the planning and execution of the job--going so far as to publicly humiliate one team member (Sean Bean) who is clearly out of his league. The story is largely unremarkable--there's an obligatory twist midway through that changes the nature of the team's business--but legendary filmmaker John Frankenheimer (Seconds, The Manchurian Candidate) leaps at the material, bringing to it an honest tension and seasoned, breathtaking skill with precision-action direction. The centrepiece of the movie is an pedal-to-the metal car chase that is the real thing: not the how-can-we-top-the-last-stunt cartoon nonsense of Richard Donner (Lethal Weapon), but a pulse-quickening, kinetic dance of superb montage and timing. In a sense, Ronin is almost Frankenheimer's self-quoting version of a John Frankenheimer film. There isn't anything here he hasn't done before, but it's sure great to see it all again. --Tom Keogh

Video Description
DVD Special Features

Alternative Ending
'Filming in the Fast Lane' making-of featurette
Feature-length commentary by director, John Frankenheimer
Original Theatrical Trailer
8-page booklet containing exclusive behind-the-scenes information
Soundtrack English 5.1
Subtitles: English/Hard of hearing English

Customer Reviews

Post Cold War Samurai Soldiers
"Ronin", is for everyone who enjoys Robert DeNiro, a great spy tale, a host of great supporting actors, and some of the more amazing car chases filmed on Europe's very narrow, pre-automotive designed streets. The word Ronin describes a Samurai who has lost his master, and in this film, the word serves as a metaphor for cold warriors that no longer have the same Cold War to fight. The threats are not gone only changed, so the great games that have played host to a variety of films and movies are still available to talented writers and directors who can adapt.

A great deal of the action takes place at high speed on either very narrow urban roads, or wildly twisting mountain stretches that lack the same manner of safety barriers we are accustomed to in The USA, that make the chase scenes all the more amazing. The director and other key players who made the film have racing backgrounds which allowed them to bring a type of realism that goes beyond the typical Hollywood chase.

Jean Reno, Natascha Mcelhone, Stellan Skarsgard, Sean Bean, and Jonathan Pryce all make for a wonderful ensemble cast. The chase is for a case, and the cast that is assembled are allegedly a team in the hunt for a box that no one knows the contents of. The traditional players like the Russians are involved, the CIA, and then the new Russians along with the Irish, and members of agencies that either are active or are not, you never know until the film ends. And even when it does, the DVD offers an alternate ending that changes in a very dramatic manner how the film you just watched concluded.

"Ronin", is a very good film, a definite cut above the average, and well worth the one minute and two hours of your time it will occupy.

cars guns and a briefcase...what more could you want?
anyone out there looking for a pure "action" film in every sense of the word will be more than mpressed with Ronin - the latest addition to my DVD collection.

Ronin is the story of 5 freelance killers, who are mysteriously employed to obtain a briefcase before it is sold to "The Russians"

fast paced, and well executed from the start, this film did a lot for me and would be the perfect accompanyment to any night when there is bugger-all on the telly.

DeNiro delivers a typically slick performance to go along with another from Jean Reno, which confirms what already knew - he is one of the best actors in the world.

i must say i was dissapointed with Sean Bean's character, not because of hs acting (which was brilliant) but with his character. Being English i took a little bit of offense at the insinuation that an ex-SAS soldier could be so inept, but maybe that was just me. i am afterall used to seeing Bean in roles such as Sharp from the TV series of the same name, so it seems wrong for him to be such a snivveling coward. if you have never seen Bean in any other role (have you been living in a cardboard box behind marks and spencer?) then you would never know his "action man" past; he performs so well in hs role in Ronin. it just goes to show that he is a talented and adaptive actor.

the highlight of the film is it's beautiful carchase in and around Paris.

all in all Ronin s a solid action thriller. it loses something in the plot and a few details seem to be skipped over quickly but this makes the film fast paced and action packed.

the 2 hours will pass all too quickly

The Warrior Code.
There's a centuries-old unwritten code shared by all members of the "warrior" class; soldiers, policemen, intelligence operatives and other members of security forces old and new - a code of professionalism, of unwritten rules of conduct and moral attitudes allowing them to interact on a level outside verbal communication, and beyond the social and political mandates of the day setting the outer parameters of their job. Not all take the tenets of that code as far as the 47 masterless samurai ("ronin"), whose 18th century story, known in Japan as "Chushingura" and still one of its most famous kabuki plays, inspired this movie's title, and who committed seppuku - ritual suicide by disembowelment - after revenging their master's death; the honor-mandated punishment for having failed to protect him in the first place, and for bringing weapons to Edo [Tokyo] to kill the shogun's master of ceremonies, responsible for their liege lord's demise. But all members of this class recognize each other instinctively, and can infer more from small gestures and attitudes than others can from long conversations.

We learn little about the ronin who are the protagonists of this movie, and one of director John Frankenheimer's greatest coups is the understated way in which he uses that very mystery to keep the viewer's interest: not hyping it up, making us want to find out more, but downplaying it: What matters is not who precisely they are but their interaction as such. So, we only learn that there is Sam (Robert de Niro) who, although initially keeping his cards close to his chest, is eventually cornered by Vincent (Jean Reno) into implicitly revealing his CIA past (even though later he still refuses to directly own up, responding "I don't remember" to Vincent's question who trained him: "That's the second thing they teach you;" the first lesson being how to spot an ambush) Vincent himself - hired mainly for his local expertise as a Frenchman and soon striking up a friendship of sorts with Sam - manages to keep mum about his past throughout; as does Larry (Skip Sudduth), the team's car expert. Gregor (Stellan Skarsgard) specializes in electronic surveillance and has obviously learned his craft in the KGB ... and Spence (Sean Bean) tries hard to convince them that he is ex-22SAS. But he merely talks the talk (and way too loudly at that), and after having jeopardized a weapons deal preceding the team's main operation he is effortlessly exposed as a fraud by Sam, and dumped with a stern warning to forget them. - The operation is headed by Deirdre (Natascha McElhone) on the behest of renegade IRA terrorist Seamus O'Rourke (Jonathan Pryce), with the aim of commandeering a certain case, whose content - again, in one of Frankenheimer's little ploys - remains unknown throughout the movie. At some point, the overall objective shifts when Gregor takes off with the case alone, trying to sell it to the Russians; although from a revelation by Sam to Deirdre towards the end (and by a close look at his final exit) we can infer that his true purpose never really changed at all.

There are several things that make "Ronin" compelling even to someone who, like me, doesn't generally count action movies among her favorites. First, and obviously, the stellar cast: Robert de Niro in one of his last truly good recent performances (even sporting a virtually accent-free French), Jean Reno his match in acting skill, mysterious aura and veiled menace paired with straightforwardness, Stellan Skarsgard as the chillingly ruthless Gregor, Michael Lonsdale in a brief but crucial appearance as Vincent's mentor Jean-Pierre (likewise without any English accent whatsoever), Jonathan Pryce as the coldblooded IRA renegade, Natascha McElhone looking and sounding as if she had no problem at all standing up to a group of alpha male stars such as these (even managing to keep her cool after a brief fling with de Niro's Sam) - and last but not least double Olympic and quadruple world ice-skating champion Katarina Witt as Russian skating princess Natacha Kirilova, during whose performance the action's climax is set.

Moreover, this is the masterpiece in editing and camerawork we came to expect from director Frankenheimer ever since "The Manchurian Candidate," "The Birdman of Alcatraz" and, for that matter, "French Connection II" (I am also glad the DVD was produced in time to ensure a directorial commentary track before Frankenheimer's 2002 death); complete with his excellent sense of authenticity, making France come to life even in shots not done on location, and paying attention to a myriad details as much as the big picture. And then, of course, there are the car chases: If you've ever been to Vieux Nice, driven along the Corniche outside Nice, in downtown Paris or on the "Peripherique" (freeway circle around the city), you know that you need to be on your toes there even under normal circumstances - now imagine creating car chases in these settings, one of them even against the oncoming traffic from La Defense outside Paris! This takes both an immense amount of precise planning and highly skilled, thoroughly unafraid stunt drivers; not surprisingly, some stunts were performed by race-car drivers - although Skip Sudduth even did some of his scenes himself; and all sequences were filmed with the actors actually in the cars. Kudos to everyone who participated in these scenes and came out physically and mentally intact!

"Ronin" does have a conclusion of sorts, but leaves both Sam's relationships with Vincent and Deirdre partly unresolved. Yet, the warrior code doesn't always require an express resolution. Even the last dialogue between Vincent and Sam feels more like a translation added for the viewer's benefit, expressing things they ordinarily would not have to say in words. And Vincent's last lines provide a perfect closing summary: "No questions, no answers. That's the business we're in. You accept it and move on. Maybe that's lesson number three ..."