Tonight on TV: why this very brutal thriller is the “spiritual” sequel to Man of Fire

The invincible Denzel Washington

Crowned the best actor of the 21st century by the New York Times in 2020, Denzel Washington has brilliantly distinguished himself in all film genres – with the notable exception of comedy – since his debut in Coriolanus in 1979. Whether his performances are fueled by political material or belong to the purest entertainment, his talent has made him one of the most sought-after and emblematic actors of American cinema.

At the forefront of his muscular and violent performances in crime and action films, we obviously remember that of Training daywhich earned him theOscar for best actor in 2003, the one in The man on fire (2004) by Tony Scott – of which he was the favorite actor in the 2000s -, or in the trilogy Equalizer by Antoine Fuqua, after their first glorious collaboration for Training day.

Equalizer 3a bit of “déjà vu”… (do you understand?)

In 2023, at the age of 68, he resumes for Equalizer 3 his role as Robert McCall, ex-marine and ex-military intelligence, vigilante and defender of the oppressed, expert in the art of brutalizing and eliminating bad guys. In this third film, he stars alongside actress Dakota Fanning, 40 years his junior.

Since giving up his life as a government assassin, Robert McCall has struggled to bury the demons of his past and finds strange comfort in standing up for the oppressed. Just when he thinks he has found a safe haven in Southern Italy, he discovers that his friends are under the control of the local mafia. When the As events take a deadly turn, McCall knows exactly what he must do: protect his friends by taking on the underworld directly.

If the wink of the meeting between Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning may have escaped part of the public, fans of The man on fire we were happy to find it the duo from Tony Scott’s film, in which Denzel Washington played a former CIA agent turned bodyguard to the very young Lupita played by Dakota Fanning, then 10 years old. And this reference was very conscious for Antoine Fuqua.

“This is The man on firebut years later”

In an interview with ComicBook.com upon release ofEqualizer 3Antoine Fuqua was asked the question whether his film could be considered as a “spiritual” sequel to The man on fire, with the return of the Washington – Fanning duo. The director replied:

We never all talked about it together, but I thought about it this way. When Dakota said she was interested in the project, I thought, “Oh yeah! It’s ‘Man on Fire,’ but years later”—and that’s what Denzel is doing, you see. But I never talked about it with them because, in those moments together, they were in their “Equalizer 3” characters. But when we saw them together – when I saw them on set – I thought: “Yes…” (laughs).

In Equalizer 3almost twenty years later The man on fire, Dakota Fanning is no longer a child and plays the CIA agent stationed in this region of Italy. But she in a sense remains under the “protection” of Denzel Washington, since Robert McCall protects and at one point saves her character, Emma Collins, from an attempted murder.

If of course Equalizer 3 AND The man on fire they have virtually nothing to do with each other, yet they share the extreme brutality of their actionas well as this meeting of a cinematic duo that has become iconic over time.

Source: Cine Serie

Ray

Ray Ortiz is a journalist at Gossipify, known for his coverage of trending news and current events. He is committed to providing readers with accurate and unbiased reporting, and is respected for his ability to keep readers informed on the latest news and issues.