Shooter (2007 film)

Shooter is a 2007 American action thriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua[4] and written by Jonathan Lemkin, based on the 1993 novel Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter.[5] The film follows Force Recon veteran Bob Lee Swagger (Mark Wahlberg), who is framed for murder by a rogue unit of personnel operating for a private military firm. The film also stars Michael Peña, Danny Glover, Kate Mara, Levon Helm, and Ned Beatty.[4] It was produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura through Di Bonaventura Pictures, and released by Paramount Pictures in the United States on March 23, 2007.

Shooter
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAntoine Fuqua
Produced byLorenzo di Bonaventura
Screenplay byJonathan Lemkin[1]
Based onPoint of Impact
by Stephen Hunter
Starring
Music byMark Mancina
CinematographyPeter Menzies Jr.
Edited by
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • March 23, 2007 (2007-03-23) (United States)
Running time
126 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$61 million[3]
Box office$95.7 million[3]

Plot

U.S. Marine Corps Force Recon sniper, Gunnery Sergeant Bob Lee Swagger, is on a mission in Eritrea with his spotter and friend Donnie Fenn. They help an allied convoy evade the enemy, but Fenn is subsequently killed in the firefight against the enemy militia forces. Three years later, Swagger, now a disillusioned civilian, is living in self-imposed exile at a secluded log cabin. At the office of a unnamed private military company in Langley, Virginia, retired US Army colonel Isaac Johnson and his employees review Swagger's combat operation report and DD Form 214. Johnson visits Swagger and requests his expertise to prevent a pending assassination of the U.S. president. Johnson gives him a list of possible assassination sites, and Swagger concludes that Independence Hall in Philadelphia is most likely. As Swagger is working with Johnson's men to find the assassin, the Ethiopian archbishop is killed instead while standing next to the president. Swagger is betrayed when he himself is shot by a corrupt Philadelphia police officer, though he manages to escape. The conspirators frame Swagger as the assassin, and a manhunt ensues. Swagger subdues an inexperienced Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, Nick Memphis, and steals his car and his service pistol crashing it into the Delaware River. He then clings to the side of a boat to evade pursuing policemen.

After escaping, Swagger treats his injuries and takes refuge with Sarah, Donnie's widow. He later persuades her to help him contact Memphis with information about the conspiracy. Memphis is scapegoated for Swagger's escape and is awaiting punishment, but argues that given Swagger's training and expertise, it is suspicious that the president survived and the archbishop standing several feet away was killed. He suspects that Swagger may have been framed for the assassination and is further convinced when he learns that the policeman that shot Swagger was murdered shortly afterwards.

When the conspirators realize Memphis' unusually successful work was about to expose their operation, they send mercenaries to kidnap him and attempt to stage his suicide. However, Swagger arrives and kills the men who abducted Memphis. Swagger and Memphis collaborate by visiting a firearms expert who provides information on the FBI's ballistics report and a list of people capable of taking a shot akin to the assassination's. Learning this, they confront the real assassin, who kills himself after revealing that the archbishop was the intended target and was murdered to prevent him from revealing their involvement in the massacre of an Eritrean village, which was carried out on the order of a consortium of corporate oil interests led by corrupt U.S. Senator Charles Meachum. Swagger records the assassin's confession of his involvement in the massacre, but immediately after and with Memphis helping him, he engages and kills the approaching mercenary group (complemented with an armed gunship) that are the same men that he was covering at the start of the film in the subsequent firefight.

Meanwhile, other rogue mercenaries have captured Sarah to lure Swagger out of hiding. Swagger eliminates all three mercenary snipers and he and Memphis rescue Sarah when Johnson and Meachum arrange a meeting to release her in exchange for the evidence implicating them in the assassination, but Swagger destroys it instead due to its theoretical potential lethality. Meachum leaves before the helicopters they can hear approaching arrive, and Swagger and Memphis surrender to the FBI who they arranged to arrive during the meeting.

Afterwards, Swagger is brought before the U.S. attorney general and the FBI director in a private meeting with Colonel Johnson, Memphis, and Sarah also present. Swagger quickly clears his name by aiming his loaded rifle (present as evidence as it was supposedly used in the assassination) at Johnson, and pulling the trigger—which fails to fire. Swagger describes that every time he leaves his house, he renders his firearms inoperable until he returns. Although Swagger is exonerated, Johnson cannot be prosecuted as Africa is outside U.S. jurisdiction. Swagger is released; the charges are dropped.

As Johnson and Meachum sit in a secluded cabin plotting their next move, Swagger breaks in and kills both men and their conspirators, before arranging for the house to blow up as if by accident. He leaves with Sarah.

Cast
Mark Wahlberg at the London premiere for Shooter

Production

Development

The novel Point of Impact was in development first at Universal and later at Paramount for twelve years, with seven screenwriters attempting many adaptations. The author Stephen Hunter also tried to adapt the book but was put off by the experience and disconnected himself from the process.[1] Jonathan Lemkin read the book and some of the previous drafts and was able to avoid repeating some of the same mistakes. Lemkin updated the story away from the original post Vietnam setting, and restructured the story bringing the main event to the end of the first act, and to cut the multiple plot lines down to just the A story. His page 1 rewrite of the screenplay attracted Wahlberg and Fuqua, and on his second draft, the film got the green light to go into production. Unusually for a screenplay with such a long development process and multiple rewrites, Lemkin retained sole credit after Writers Guild of America arbitration.[1]

Locations

Most of the film was shot on location in New Westminster, Kamloops, Mission, Ashcroft and Cache Creek in British Columbia, Canada.[6] For example, Swagger's escape was filmed in New Westminster along the Fraser River, standing in for the Delaware River. The car chase that ends when it plunged into the river was filmed down 6th Street and off the Westminster Quay. The following scene of Swagger clinging to the side of a dredger was also filmed on the Fraser River near the Pattullo Bridge.

The assassination scenes were filmed in Independence National Historical Park in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. The sniper location was created from using the exteriors of the church steeple at the junction of New Street and North 4th Street and combining them with an elevated view from another building to create a fictional vista of the park. The final scene was in Mammoth Lakes, California, in the lakes basin.

The mountaintop confrontation was shot on the glaciers of Rainbow Mountain, near the resort town of Whistler, British Columbia.[7]

Weapons and tactics

Shooter depicts a number of sniper tactics, thanks to the guidance of former US Marine scout sniper Patrick Garrity, who trained Mark Wahlberg for the film. Garrity taught Wahlberg to shoot both left- and right-handed (the actor is left-handed), as he had to switch shooting posture throughout the movie, due to Swagger's sustained injuries. He was also trained to adjust a weapon's scope, judge effects of wind on a shot, do rapid bolt manipulation, and develop special breathing skills. His training included extreme distance shooting (up to 1,100 yards/1,006 m), and the use of camouflage ghillie suits. Fuqua appointed Garrity as the film's military-technical advisor.[8]

In the special features of the DVD, Garrity is interviewed pointing out that the shot fired in the assassination would not have hit the archbishop straight on, as in the film. When a round is fired it will fall from 30–40 feet (9.1–12.2 m) depending on the distance of the shot. To compensate, the round is fired at an arc calibrated by how far the round is going to fall, the distance of the shot, temperature, humidity, and wind. In his interview, Garrity said "At 1,800 yards (1,646 m), because of the hydrostatic shock that follows a large-caliber, high-velocity round such as the .408 Chey Tac (which is used in the shot), the target would literally be peeled apart and limbs would be flying 200 feet (61 m) away." The exit wound on the archbishop's head would have been too extreme to show in movie theaters. Instead, the movie depicts a much less graphic representation of the assassination.

Throughout the film, Swagger uses an array of sniper rifles, among which are the USMC M40A3,[9] the CheyTac Intervention,[10] and the Barrett M82.

Music

The score to the film was composed by Mark Mancina, who recorded the music at the Todd-AO Scoring Stage in Studio City, Los Angeles, using a 77-piece orchestra conducted by Don Harper.[11][12] A score soundtrack was released by Lakeshore Records on March 27, 2007. The song "Nasty Letter" by Otis Taylor plays over the end of the film and credits.

Reception

Box office

Shooter grossed $47 million in the US and Canada and $48.7 million in other territories, for a total gross of $95.7 million against its $61 million production budget.[3]

The film grossed $14.5 million in its opening weekend, finishing in 3rd at the box office behind TMNT ($24.3 million) and 300 ($19.9 million).

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 47% approval rating based on 147 reviews; the average rating is 5.6/10. The site's consensus reads, "With an implausible story and numerous plot holes, Shooter fails to distinguish itself from other mindless action-thrillers."[13] Metacritic assigns the film a weighted average score of 53 out of 100, based on reviews from 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[14]

Manohla Dargis of The New York Times calls the film "a thoroughly reprehensible, satisfyingly violent entertainment about men and guns and things that go boom." Dargis describes director Fuqua's technique as overshot and overedited, but says he has a knack for chaos and the result is "pretty enjoyable."[15] Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter gave a positive review but was critical of the weak characterization: "If the movie only lavished as much thought and care on its characters as it does on each intricate set piece, Shooter might have been a classic." Honeycutt says the problem is the screenplay by Jonathan Lemkin, and the source novel Point of Impact by film critic and author Stephen Hunter. He highlights Peña for his performance, and praise the technical aspects of the film, particularly the stunt work, and the camera work of Peter Menzies Jr.[16] Tony Horkins of Empire magazine praised the movie: "The sequel-ready Swagger challenges Bourne's supremacy with an impressive shoot-'em-up, work-it-out action drama".[17]

Some film critics saw the film as left-leaning in its politics, including arguing that the main villain (Senator Meachum) is an analogy for then Vice President Dick Cheney.[18][19][20]

Home media

The DVD was released on June 26, 2007, reaching the top of the US sales charts.[21] The film earned $57.6 million in DVD sales in the North America.[22]

Reboot TV show

In 2016, USA Network picked up a series of the same name based on the movie, with Wahlberg as a producer and Ryan Phillippe as Swagger.[23]

See also

References
  1. Fernandez, Jay A. (March 21, 2007). "A keen eye, and a dead-on aim". Los Angeles Times. p. 2. Archived from the original on 2015-09-27. Retrieved October 20, 2018.
  2. "SHOOTER | British Board of Film Classification". British Board of Film Classification.
  3. "Shooter (2007)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  4. "Shooter 2007". Turner Classic Movies. Atlanta: Turner Broadcasting System (Time Warner). Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  5. Hunter, Stephen (1993). Point of Impact (1st ed.). New York City: Bantam Books. ISBN 978-0553071399.
  6. "Stories and Legends about Kamloops, British Columbia". www.AdventureKamloops.ca. Archived from the original on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2018-10-20.
  7. http://madeinatlantis.com/movies_central/2007/shooter.htm
  8. "Shooter (2007) - Wahlberg Goes To Sniper School: About Training As A Shooter". VisualHollywood.com. Archived from the original on 2011-09-30. Retrieved 2011-11-25.
  9. Rogers, Troy. "Patrick Garrity, Shooter Interview". UGO.com. Archived from the original on 2008-10-22. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
  10. Winkelspecht, Dean (2007-07-31). "Blu-ray review of 'Shooter'". DVDTown.com. Archived from the original on 2009-04-01. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
  11. Goldwasser, Dan (2007-03-15). "Mark Mancina scores 'Shooter'". ScoringSessions.com. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
  12. "Scoring Session Photo Gallery". Retrieved 2011-11-25.
  13. "Shooter". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 2014-10-22.
  14. "Shooter". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2010-03-10.
  15. Dargis, Manohla (March 23, 2007). "Load Up. Remove Clothes. Then Try Not to Lose Head". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-10-20.
  16. Honeycutt, Kirk (March 23, 2007). "Shooter Bottom Line: Above-average action with thinly sketched characters". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on March 28, 2007. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
  17. Horkins, Tony. "Shooter Review". Empire. Retrieved 2012-09-18.
  18. Denby, David (2007-04-02). "Men Gone Wild: 'Shooter' and '300'". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2011-11-25.
  19. Zengotita, Thomas de (2007-04-09). "Must See Movie: 'Shooter'". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2011-11-25.
  20. Russell, Jamie (2007-04-13). "Shooter (2007)". BBC.co.uk.
  21. Telsch, Rafe (2007-07-05). "DVD Sales: Shooter Knocks Out Competition". CinemaBlend.com. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
  22. https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Shooter#tab=summary
  23. Prudom, Laura. "'Shooter' Gets Series Pickup at USA Network". Variety.com. Retrieved 10 February 2016.
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