Taken
The General story:
Retired operative Brian Mills spends his time living for his daughter. Making
up for lost time in her younger years, his daughter Kim now lives with her
mother and step-father. Just shy of her 18th birthday, Kim wants to head to
Europe for the trip of a lifetime; visiting museums! Or so she says. Brian discovers
she’s following U2 around the continent, and overcoming his hesitation, finally
has to let go, so his daughter can live. Despite Brian’s warnings that his
daughter wouldn’t be safe (which no one listens to), Kim is indeed, taken;
abducted by Albanian human traffickers. Retired doesn’t mean dead, and in a
flash Brian’s springs into action, flying to Paris to track down his daughter
and find the men who took her.
What influenced the
movie? Little known director Pierre Morel, who was a household name in
France, wasn’t the drawcard of this movie. In fact, it was the compelling story
of a man saving his daughter by any means necessary. Sure, we’ve all seen
plenty of movies before about kidnappings, and the parent being the only one
who can do anything about it… but not like this. Despite it’s violence and
serious subject matter, Taken was driven by an emotionally resonant dilemma. A
father will do anything for his children and losing one to abduction is every
parent’s worst nightmare. And all of this played out on screen wouldn’t have
been as riveting and brilliant as it was, were it not for the performance of
Liam Neeson.
How the movie
influenced the 00's: Coming out of nowhere, generated by very positive word
of mouth, and starring an actor more associated with dramatic roles, Taken
broke the mould and took action movies to a new place. The action stars we knew
and grew up with (Schwarzenegger, Stallone) were getting old, and although Liam
Neeson was in his late fifties at the time of filming, he proved age was no
barrier to kicking ass! So convincing was Neeson as the action hero with a
heart, that Taken was a massive hit, garnering a huge following, and earning
the actor even more widespread respect and acclaim, for playing a character
against his type, and pulling it off so well. In the years that followed Taken,
every ageing actor in Hollywood decided to film their own tale of revenge and
play the part of a one-man killing machine.
What makes it stand
out as a film of the 00's? The Jason Bourne franchise was influential for
making action gritty, frenetic and fast paced, which would in turn influence
the James Bond franchise of the 00’s, and also spawn the revival of action
heroes from the 80’s and 90’s, which resulted in “The Expendables”. Taken,
which probably didn’t intend to have as much of an impact as it did, also took
Liam Neeson’s career to new heights, breeding two sequels, and a slew of
Taken-esque action films, all featuring Neeson as the Everyman, suddenly thrust
into a predicament he didn’t see coming, but which he adapts to with his unique
fighting style and clever resourcefulness. Without Taken, he surely wouldn’t
have made “The Grey”, “Non-Stop”, “A Walk Amongst the Tombstones” and virtually
every other action film he’s made since.
Impact of the movie
still felt today: Setting an example for all his 50 years age + actors to
follow, Taken still continues to influence action movies today; in particular
how they are made and what they’re made about. 50 was the new 30 it seemed, as
ageing actors graduated into stylistic action films instead of smaller
supporting roles in dramatic films. Even Keanu Reeves got in on the action, for
this third career revival as an action hero, when he made “John Wick”. The
message of all these films, originating from Taken was;
“Take a man, with
former skills in fighting and espionage, and he may lay dormant for a while. But
like a volcano, it only needs to erupt and when it does, everything and
everyone better get out of it’s way”
Appealing to the angry, violent, machoistic hero that lies
inside every man, Taken and its copycats were embraced most of all by men, resonating
with the everyday guy pushed to the limits by doing the unthinkable to avenge
the one’s he cares about most; his family. Pretty substantial for an action
movie, and Taken showed another side to our dark world, that violence can be
justified, if it’s used to stop more violence.
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This review was originally part of a special review of films called "Most Influential Movies of the 00's", which you can check out here.
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