Other Titles • The Art of War • L'Art de la guerre (2000)
Synopses for The Art of War (2000)
1.
The Art of War is the first action movie with a hero who works for the United Nations--the U.N. Covert Operations Unit, to be specific. Who knew there was such a thing? Wesley Snipes plays Shaw, their top operative, who's unafraid of dropping several stories from one ledge of a skyscraper to another. When the Chinese ambassador is assassinated, it threatens the stability of an impending trade agreement that the secretary-general (played by Donald Sutherland) has worked so hard to achieve. Shaw gets arrested for the assassination, but who's really responsible? Is it the wily Chinese capitalist? A seemingly affable FBI agent? Only a lovely U.N. interpreter (Marie Matiko) believes he's innocent, especially when someone tries to knock her off and Shaw is the only person she can turn to... well, you get the idea. The script is neither original nor comprehensible, but that's not why you'd want to watch a movie like The Art of War--it's the action. And the action is pretty good, particularly earlier on when the confusions of the plot don't matter as much. Michael Biehn (The Terminator, The Rock) does a serviceable job as one of Shaw's associates, Anne Archer (Fatal Attraction, Clear and Present Danger) tries to seem complicated as the head of the Covert Operations Unit, and Maury Chaykin (The Mask of Zorro, Devil in a Blue Dress) is dependable as ever as the FBI guy. --Bret Fetzer
2.
A group of murdered Chinese refugees is found in a container in the New York harbor, setting off a bizarre and mysterious chain of events leading to the murder of the Chinese U.N. Ambassador. When Shaw is accused of the crime, he must go underground -- in effect, vanish from his own life, to solve the mystery and clear his name. He can trust no one except a beautiful U.N. translator (Marie Matiko) who may hold the key to a global conspiracy of cataclysmic proportions.
Wesley Snipes stars in The Art of War, an international thriller set against the high-stakes corridors of the United Nations. The film also stars Anne Archer (Clear And Present Danger, Short Cuts) as Shaw’s supervisor, Hooks, an ambitious FBI agent; Maury Chaykin (Entrapment) as Capella; Marie Matiko (The Corruptor) as Julia Fang, the U.N. translator who is Shaw’s only ally; and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Chan, the ruthless businessman Shaw suspects of being the mastermind behind the plot; with Michael Biehn (Aliens, the upcoming Cherry Falls) as Shaw’s American agent partner, Bly; and Donald Sutherland (Instinct, A Time To Kill) as U.N. Secretary General Thomas. Also featured in the cast are James Hong (Red Corner), as Ambassador Wu, and Liliana Komorowska (The Assignment) as Novak.
Directed by Christian Duguay (TV’s Joan of Arc, The Assignment) from a screenplay by Wayne Beach and Simon Davis Barry and story by Wayne Beach, the film is produced by Nicolas Clermont (This Is My Father, Monument Avenue) for Franchise Pictures. Elie Samaha, Dan Halsted and Wesley Snipes are the executive producers. Morgan Creek Productions, Inc. and Franchise Pictures and Amen Ra Films present a Filmline International Production of a film by Christian Duguay, Wesley Snipes stars in The Art of War. The film is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.
3.
He is both agent and weapon, a critical line of defense for the Secretary General of the United Nations. He does not even officially exist.
WESLEY SNIPES is Neil Shaw, an American agent who must uncover an international plot to bring down the United Nations on the eve of an historic summit with China.
A group of murdered Chinese refugees is found in a container in the New York harbor, setting off a bizarre and mysterious chain of events leading to the murder of the Chinese U.N. Ambassador. When Shaw is accused of the crime, he must go underground — in effect, vanish from his own life, to solve the mystery and clear his name. He can trust no one except a beautiful U.N. translator (MARIE MATIKO) who may hold the key to a global conspiracy of cataclysmic proportions.
4.
Do you know who your enemy is?
Officially, coolly efficient operative Neil Shaw doesn't exist. Try telling that to anyone standing in Shaw's way. Wesley Snipes plays Shaw, one of an elite team of United Nations agents, in this stylish thriller directed by Christian Duguay (Joan of Arc) and co-starring Anne Archer, Michael Biehn and Donald Sutherland.
High-tech gadgetry. High-powered armaments. They're all weapons of choice as Shaw unravels a scheme to destroy a historic summit with China. Other weapons come into play: manipulation, cunning, control -- all tactics from the Sun Tsu handbook about victory without combat. The Art of War draws more than its title from that ancient work. It plunges us into a world that puts those tactics into bitter, suspenseful action.
5.
Poorly received on its theatrical release, The Art of War is a film which deserves a second look. Plot-wise it's a routinely complicated thriller full of double-crosses and sudden shifts of perspective, as Wesley Snipes, secret fixer for the UN, tries to find out who killed the Chinese Ambassador to stop a trade pact and what it is that interpreter Marie Matiko knows that means people are trying to kill her. There are good performances here--Donald Sutherland as a Secretary General who takes good care not to know what is done in the name of peace, Anne Archer as Snipes' power-dressed controller, and Maury Chaykin as a world-weary FBI man who finds himself dragged around New York in Snipes' high-speed wake--but what is memorable is the look of the film. Presenting a New York of building sites and mirrored apartment buildings and rain on glass in twilight, contemporary techno-noir has never been quite so coherently imagined and set.
On the DVD: This is a film which comes into its own in widescreen and on DVD simply because its visual aspect is most of the point. This disc is not generous with features, simply providing scene access and the theatrical trailer, which makes rather more reference to Sun Tzu's classic of military strategy than the film ever bothers to. However, its combination of Dolby Sound and 2.35:1 widescreen ratio plays to the movie's strengths. --Roz Kaveney
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