Those Who Wish Me Dead

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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I like a good survival story. One where the protagonist overcomes all odds to stay alive. I think this will to survive, to continue living, is built into our DNA. Maybe that’s true of some more than others.

We see this theme in many movies, sometimes as an underlying thread that we have to unravel to understand.

Disaster movies (“The Towering Inferno,” “The Poseidon Adventure,” et al.) have us rooting for the would-be victims.

War movies (“Saving Private Ryan,” “Black Hawk Down”) have us ducking and flinching in our seats.

Westerns (“The Revenant,” “3:10 to Yuma,” “She wore a Yellow Ribbon”) have us hoping for a fast draw or the cavalry to arrive.

Shoot-‘em-ups (“Die Hard,” “Desperado,” etc.) make our trigger finger twitch.

Personal survival movies (“Life of Pi,” “Cast Away,” “127 Hours”) keep us looking for a ship on the horizon or waiting for help to come.

But I like the movies that pit one’s survival skills against dangerous human foes (“The Most Dangerous Game,” “Rambo: First Blood,” “The Naked Prey”).

A new movie that fits that mold is “Those Who Wish Me Dead,” a neo-Western survival action thriller starring Angelia Jolie and aptly-named Finn Little.

This is the story about a 12-year-old murder witness who is being pursued by killers in the Montana wilderness. The only person who can help him is Hannah (Jolie), a smoke jumper – one of those specially trained firefighters who parachute into blazing infernos. She is standing watch at a lonely fire tower when she spots Connor (Little), a traumatized kid being stalked by two ruthless assassins (Nicholas Hoult and Aiden Gillen).

Isolated in the wild, Hannah and Connor are trapped between these dangerous men and Mother Nature. Fortunately, she is adept at survival skills.

That comes in handy when the boy’s pursuers set the forest on fire to flush him out.

The film has been described as “a maelstrom of testosterone-soaked violence.”

“Those Who Wish Me Dead” marks Jolie’s long-awaited return as an action hero. After such stunt-heavy thrillers as “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” “Wanted,” and “Salt,” the Oscar-winner has spent the past few years starring in or directing dramas.

“I love directing, but I had a change in my family situation that’s not made it possible for me to direct for a few years,” Jolie says, referring to her divorce from Brad Pitt. Hence, a return to action films.

According to the 45-year-old actress, the hardest part wasn’t “the scene where she holds her breath underwater as a wildfire rages overhead, or when she has to outmaneuver two approaching murderers as squibs explode around her … It wasn’t even the sequence where she races through a tinderbox of a forest, desperately trying to outrun the flames.”

She says her problem was being too nice to her young co-star.

The script called for her to be “brusque” and “no-nonsense,” an emotionally scarred woman decimated by a failed mission in which three people died in a fire.

But Jolie’s natural instincts as a real-life mom (she’s the mother of six) kept getting in the way. “It took me a little bit to treat Finn badly, but I got there,” she says ruefully. After all, she’s a good actress.

“I am drawn to people who have been through something, and are broken, and then find their way forward and overcome it,” says Jolie about her character. “Hannah is … a very broken person who carries a great deal of guilt.”

“Those Who Wish Me Dead” debuts simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max. At the Tropic Cinema, it will be screening on May 14 and May 20.

Based on the book by Michael Koryta, “Those Who Wish Me Dead” is directed by Taylor Sheridan, Hollywood’s go-to purveyor of world-weary neo-Westerns. A sometimes actor, sometimes director, you’ll remember Sheridan as the writer behind “Sicario,” “Wild River,” and the brilliant “Hell or High Water.”

Moviegoers have had mixed feelings about “Those Who Wish Me Dead” – ranging from “outstanding thriller” to “a waste of talent and money” to “a thin narrative” to “a must watch for 2021!”

Sure, the pacing is a bit slow in the first half, but in the second half things really begin to heat up (pun intended). Nonetheless, fans will be pleased to see Angelina Jolie’s back to her old form, kicking butt and taking names.

As the Tropic reopens with caution, please familiarize yourself with the protective house rules and procedures. Got questions? Email info@tropiccinema.com.

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com