Mark Reviews Movies: WITHOUT REMORSE

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | April 29, 2021

Like Tom Clancy's most famous character, John Kelly (later known by another name) is intelligent and works in the shadows of international intrigue. Unlike Clancy's better-known hero Jack Ryan, though, John's first reaction seems to be violence—efficiently executed and occasionally brutal.

This isn't the first time we've met this character in a movie adaptation of one of Clancy's novels (He has been played previously by Willem Dafoe and Liev Schreiber), but Without Remorse serves as an introduction to the character—who he is, what he does, and, most importantly, how he became such a ruthless exactor of violence for his ideas of what's good and right. One imagines we'll see this iteration of the character again, in the current or some new adaptation of the adventures of Jack Ryan and, with almost a guarantee, in the sequel that director Stefano Sollima's movie promises.

One hopes that whatever is in the future for John, as played with a chilly sense of cunning by Michael B. Jordan, will live up to the quick-witted, amoral agent of calculated chaos that this movie's best moments promise. There's a cynical pragmatism to this characters and this story that couldn't be achieved with Clancy's other famous protagonist. John is little more than a sociopath, killing at will and with almost mathematical rationale in his globe-trotting adventure for revenge. While we don't have to like him or his methods, we can be slightly eased by the assurance that at least he's our sociopath, working for an understandable goal here, stopping a potentially devastating global conflict in the process, and, later, announcing his intentions to put bigger goals on the table.

This movie, written by Taylor Sheridan and Will Staples, doesn't have the time or the inclination to put John's ideas and actions into a bigger perspective of world politics or basic morality, although he does receive and ignore a few scoldings for his reflexive tendencies toward killing and destruction. That only becomes something of an issue here during the story's climactic action sequence, which sees John, quite naively, believing that he can get away with killing a bunch of Russian police officers and soldiers without causing some kind of international crisis. He is, after all, no longer a soldier, so surely the Russian government won't be able to do anything about it. If only our clearly intelligent protagonist took a second to recall the history of the violence of non-state actors causing assorted wars, he—and the screenwriters—might have reconsidered.

The screenplay, though, doesn't want us to think about such matters as history or politics or morality. It is, first and foremost, a pretty generic revenge thriller, which just happens to feature an intriguing—and intriguingly problematic—character and a plot that eventually involves a potential international conflict and some blatantly treasonous behavior from a secret villain. At its core, though, this story is about revenge, as clichéd as it can come, and action, which gradually becomes more chaotic and illogical as the plot progresses. It's a shame, really, because Jordan makes for a solid hero/anti-hero, depending on one's perspective, and the character raises so many thorny issues of violence as a personal or political reaction.

The plot proper begins with John's return from a mission in Aleppo, Syria, where he and his Navy SEALs team discover a Russian arms depot in the city. With the discovery covered up by CIA operative Robert Ritter (Jamie Bell), John rejoins civilian life, looking to retire from the military with his wife Pam (Lauren London) and the baby that will be born in a month.

Other members of John's team are killed, and he's the target when some Russians invade his home. He barely survives, but John's pregnant wife is murdered. It's a discomforting storytelling convention, obviously, and it sends John, with the direct help of his former commanding officer Karen Greer (Jodie Turner-Smith) and some accidental information from a Cabinet secretary named Clay (Guy Pearce), on a hunt for the people who murdered his wife and prevented him from becoming a father.

The shock is just how ruthless John is in his search for vengeance. He sets a car containing a Russian diplomat on fire outside an airport, walks through the flames, and tortures the soon-to-be dead man. In prison, he battles a pair of guards—readying himself for a squad of them—by flooding the floor for an advantage in balance. Thinking Robert might be a traitor, John holds him at gunpoint, fires a round over his head, and nearly strangles him. His methods are vicious, but there's no denying he knows exactly what he's doing.

That makes the character equal parts fascinating and frustrating, but the movie's overly generic premise and eventual reliance on constant action (The screenplay dismisses most of its spy-game intrigue in favor of an extended, multi-part action sequence) prevent it from digging into this character and the consequences/implications of his methods. Again, Without Remorse promises a sequel, so here's hoping the character gets a deeper, more thoughtful, and at least slightly critical assessment then.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products

Buy the Book

Buy the Book (Kindle Edition)