I am trying very hard to avoid scrapping with other reviewers -- after all, each of us means well, each of us is doing the best we can -- but to suggest that the newer Denzel version is a remake of this, the "original" is completely and absolutely incorrect. The truth is that, once upon a time, there was a reclusive European author with the pen-name A.J. Quinnell who gained notoriety among a select group of fans for his excellent series of novels about an ex-merc named Creasey who lived on a remote Greek island, and only left that island from time to time to take special "jobs;" or to seek revenge for friends that had been wronged. When he would take these special jobs, he almost always did so with a "team" formed of his old buddies, also mercs. The novels were uniformly excellent but never found a mainstream following. In fact one of the last ones had a very limited print run and you want to read it you may have go to a rare bookseller and pay a steep price. Of the set of Creasey novels, MAN ON FIRE was the odd man out, featuring the protagonist on his own (not in a team) and having some stress issues to boot. Just like (see my other reviews) the actor chosen to play the lead in SHOOTER looked nothing whatsoever like the character as described in the source novel by Stephen Hunter, Scott Glenn in this film looks nothing like Creasey in the Quinnell series, nor does he act like him. (Creasey was huge, and a stone-faced killer.) Which is not to say this is a bad film -- I ACTUALLY PREFER IT OVER THE DENZEL VERSION -- merely to point out that this is just one more sad example of the film biz "having its way" with a good work of fiction, and leaving mainly ashes in its wake. Once you overcome the fact that the director is not really following the source material very closely, you end up with a passable film, that perhaps makes up for in passion what it lacks in technique. Compared to a Bourne film, for example (one of the only examples I can think of where the films do actually resemble the source material -- HOW RARE IS THAT?) the deficiencies soon become obvious, however.
Review of Man on Fire
