Someone once posted a brilliant article about the central motif "chimera"
in John Woo's _Mission Impossible 2_ on the internet. I misplaced my
copy long ago, but rewatching the film I am tempted to channel it (with
help from wikipedia).

A pair of scientists created a deadly virus Chimera so as to test out the antidote Bellerophon meant to cure all flu's. (Chimera is a monster with
a lion's head and a serpent's tail in Greek mythology, and Bellerophon
is the hero who kills it while riding on winged Pegasus -- hence all the aerial, vertigo-inducing camera work and leaping hand-to-hand combat?)
Drug companies and Sean Ambrose -- former agent of Mission Impossible
commander Anthony Hopkins -- try to capitalize. Evan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is directed to recruit master thief Nyah Hall (Thandie Newton) to infiltrate
the rogue agent's gang. Her cover is blown, and injects herself with
the last vial of the virus to prevent Ambrose from shooting her. She
is now Chimera, embodiment of the monster herself. Hunt and company,
riding airborne motorbikes and helicopters, injects her with the antidote
just before she jumps off the coast of Sidney.

In modern biology, Chimera has come to mean something slightly different.
It is any organism with dual DNA, without the black-and-white morality
of its creation myth. In that sense both the female star (Newton is
of mixed African and British descent) and the director (Woo is Chinese
but is steeped in Western culture) are shining examples of Chimeras.
The action scenes, especially Woo's trademark pistol-in-both-hands
shootout, reflect the best mix of Eastern and Western genre filmmaking.

Ronald D. Moore, of "Battlestar Galactica" fame, is co-credited with the
story. In "Galactica" genocidal artificial intelligence ("cylons")
ultimately band and breed with humans to give birth to a mutual future.
One can assume the ambivalence, the sense of complicity, comes from Moore. Ambrose is Hunt's double, and indeed used to don a mask of Hunt's to work
their assets. Having gone rogue, he uses the mask to bring down a fully
loaded 747. In turn, Hunt puts on a mask of Ambrose to foil his deal
with drug company CEOs. Nyal becomes an added source of their rivalry.
In the stunning post-open-credit sequence, Newton in a low-cut gown trades double entendre with Hunt in a Seville palace attic as Flamenco dancers practice their florid moves below; moments later the two are locked in
a Eros vs. Thanatos duel on winding highways. If the archly romantic, oversexualized tone offends today's sensibility, it may have been meant
to implicate movies and moviegoers all along. Soon Hopkins is outed as
an unscrupulous spymaster who has selected Nyah for her prior liaison
with Ambrose, not her skills; his view of how she would ensnare Ambrose
is graphic and repulsive. Director John Woo is highly complimentary of
Newton in the DVD commentary, comparing her to Audrey Hepburn; then
again, didn't Hepburn's role in _Breakfast at Tiffany's_ amount to that
of a modern courtesan?

Yet John Woo is Christian, and ultimately his classicism and Manichaeism
sweep aside more shaded interpretations. In the last action sequence
we are back to Medieval morality, Hunt's hero battling Ambrose's
indiscriminate killer to save a damsel in distress. And what a battle
it is; the extended motorcycle duel is a joust between armor knights,
harkening back to Iberian exoticism of the film's beginning. The
subsequent hand-to-hand combat, always required to end American genre
films, could be the usual bore, but Woo brilliantly intercuts it with
Nyah at the edge of a cliff pounded by high tide, creating a montage
worthy of Wong Kar-Wai's martial arts romance _Ashes of Time_. If
the screenplay lacks consistency in its Chimera/Bellerophon duality,
the uniformly brilliant, balletic, operatic action scenes that anchor
the film more than make up for it.

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I was in Madrid and San Sebastian once, but these new/rebuilt cities
lack the charm of Seville. Last month I was in Atlanta for the first
time (not counting the airport). Atlanta has very little charm at all,
but -- being the Turner cable headquarters -- the hotel carried the
TCM channel! Unable to sleep I caught the beginning of Antonioni's _L'Eclisse_. The TCM host helpfully pointed out Monica Vitti's blackface
scene is now badly dated. It is unfortunately -- putting on blackface is
the only time her character (and the actress?) ever shows sign of life!
The scene reminds me of Jun Jong-seo's tribal dance in _Burning_.
But no ridicule is intended in the Korean's soul-searching play-acting.
The same cannot be said of _L'Eclisse_, which otherwise boasts
immaculate camera work and image composition.

Italy has some of the worst racism issues in Western Europe; in
Series A soccer matches racial abuse often breaks out. The dearth
of African immigrants there is ironic; in the days of Julius Caesars
Rome was such a multicultural place, and their auxiliary cavalry no
doubt had a healthy portion of African mercenaries. Italy is a country
that can use more Chimera's.

(for A.)

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