Owen Stars in Lee's Inside Man
Action Filmmaker Explores Nuances of Color in Crime
Set in New York City, a Detective, (Hungry for a promotion), Goes After a Bank Robbery in Progress. Co-Stars Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, and Christoper Plummer.
An Explosive Situation
Director Spike Lee takes his audience on another roller coaster action thriller ride in the movie, The Inside Man. An ambitious police detective, Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) is dispatched to a bank robbery in progress. The leader, Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) holds over twenty hostages in the bank, negotiating his way to pulling off the perfect robbery. Meanwhile, a slick negotiator (Jodie Foster) appears on the crime scene to protect one man’s dark secret in his security deposit box that he insists remains hidden.
A Triangle of Deceit
Denzel Washington portrays Frazier as a good cop; a hard hitting detective, but hungry enough to cut a deal with the mayor for an overdue promotion. In this film, his nemesis Dalton pulls off a terrorizing bank robbery with relatively calculated ease. The robbery is not out of need, but simply to show that he can break into a large bank. However, underneath his mask is an ulterior motive.
Both Washington and Owen play their roles well which draw the audience in. Foster, the suave negotiator is the third character who stirs things up. Between her connections and duplicitous ways, Foster creates a character worth watching throughout.
Among the three, a cop, a criminal, and a savvy negotiator—trust runs thin. While each actor develops his character at his own pace, it is Washington`s character which undergoes the fullest evolution. The character`s conflicting agendas spark change in Owen’s character. Foster remains the one least affected.
Now You See it, Now You Don’t
The Manhattan Trust Bank contains a huge vault. Dalton and his accomplices hold over 20 hostages. They are forced to strip down to their underwear and wear uniforms so they would be unidentifiable to the police. They also had to wear masks. The thieves and hostages look no different from each other.
No hostages are killed. Rather, one is let out at a time. Finally, when the police are ready to storm the bank, the thieves let them in. Meanwhile, the thieves leave unnoticed and get away. The police interrogate the hostages and no one is the wiser because throughout the ordeal, everyone`s faces were covered.
The end result is that the robbery appears as though it had never taken place. The police didn’t want to pursue it. Frazier (Washington) is already being promoted because of the deal he made with the Mayor.
Spike Lee’s Philosophy: Life is filled with Gray?
This is an action packed drama without much room for philosophical discussion. Like in Zimbardo’s experiment of the prisoners and wardens, the thieves used the uniforms to their own purposes with one goal in mind. However, they did not forget who they are. The thieves orchestrate all motions and actions with great forethought. The leader, Dalton (Owen) leaves his audience on a tightrope. They are not quite sure if he is the evil gangster they should be really worried about. In this film, Lee has once again illustrated that the world’s uncertainties are not black and white, rather shades of gray.
