Cast (in credits order) verified as complete
 | Ryan Phillippe | Mr. Parker | |
 | Benicio Del Toro | Harold Longbaugh | |
 | Juliette Lewis | Robin | |
 | Taye Diggs | Jeffers | |
 | Nicky Katt | Obecks | |
 | Geoffrey Lewis | Abner Mercer | |
 | Dylan Kussman | Dr. Allen Painter | |
 | Scott Wilson | Hale Chidduck | |
 | Kristin Lehman | Francesca Chidduck | |
 | James Caan | Joe Sarno | |
 | Henry Griffin | P. Whipped | |
 | Armando Guerrero | Federale #1 (as Mando Guerrero) | |
 | Andres Orozco | Federale #2 | |
| Jan Hanks | Receptionist (as Jan Jensen) | |
 | José Pérez | ? (as Jose Perez) | |
| Neil Pollock | Interviewer | |
 | Irene Santiago | Sloppy Prostitute | |
 | Sarah Silverman | Raving Bitch | |
| Rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
 | Mark Ebner | Sperm Donor (uncredited) | |
| Paul Angel Flores | Bar Patron (uncredited) | |
 | Heidi Van Lier | Shop Clerk (uncredited) | |
The Way of the Gun Movie Trailer
The Way Of The Gun | Theatrical Trailer | 2000
The Way of the Gun Full Movie Description
In The Way of the Gun Movie I fail to understand why if "The Usual Suspects" was so incredibly popular (because it was so good), "The Way of the Gun Film" steps in at the box office both upon its initial release, and in the second half of the year. Various, sarcastic IMDb user comments.
The Way of the Gun Movie is just not good. It's intense. It's dark. There isn't a single character in the film who is likable, and some viewers attack this as if it's a bad thing.
The story line is complex, the relationships between the many characters subtle and nuanced; And yet, some viewers attack this as a bad thing.
Just because an audience doesn't understand something doesn't make the film bad. It's a difference of opinion, sure, but that doesn't make "The Way of the Gun Film" a bad movie.
Au contraire, it's a very smart movie... and when a filmmaker is making a smart movie about immoral, gun-toting outlaws, people who go to see that kind of movie are going to feel confused and angry.
Because they wanted it to be simple. They wanted easy answers, a clear good guy and bad guy, and a happy ending. The way movies have gone since the departure of film noir decades ago.
But The Way of the Gun Film is not that simple and neither are the characters nor the plot. Chris McQuarrie refuses to write something so cut-and-dry, so black-and-white. It's tight, it's tight, it rides the bad vibes from the opening sequence all the way to the final line.
The Way of the Gun Movie is so gritty it makes me feel dirty after watching it... McQuarrie may have been a victim of his own success, as it was released after "The Usual Suspects", but if it garnered an underground following Like "The Killer," it's next to John Woo, Guy Ritchie, and any other art film your parents wouldn't approve of.
Each character has their own motive, their own backstory, and not all of them are necessarily told for you.
The dialogue is so tight, it's jarring: "Fifteen million dollars ain't money. It's a purpose, with a universal adaptor."
I own The Way of the Gun Full Film, and on a dark, rainy afternoon, I'll pour it on an unsuspecting guest... "It's from the author of 'The Usual Suspects'" I tell them. And from the opening scene, they're into it.
It is not for everyone. But don't you dare call it a bad film. This is where your favorite filmmaker steals all his ideas.
Look, I love 'The Usual Suspects' as much as the next guy, and I think it's one of the few movies from the 1990s that can truly be considered a classic. But I think comparing that film to The Way of the Gun Movie (Christopher McQuarrie both wrote and directed it in an impressive debut) is unproductive and misguided.
Both films feature criminal anti-heroes and intriguing plot twists, but in different ways, and are very different in approach and theme. McQuarrie isn't repeating himself here, this is something new.
Something that has more in common with Sam Peckinpah than the plethora of Tarantino upheavals Hollywood has inflicted on us in recent years.
The basic premise is fairly straightforward - two losers "Parker" (the surprisingly effective Ryan Phillippe in easily his best role to date) and "Longbaugh" (the always excellent Benicio del Toro), a surrogate mother half-baked to kidnap her. (Juliet Lewis - 'Cape Feare', 'California') and hold her for ransom.
What they don't realize is that she is carrying a child for Chidak, a mob money launderer (veteran character actor Scott Wilson - 'In Cold Blood', 'The Ninth Configuration') who has some bad associates, and is reluctant to pay.
The men soon find themselves embroiled in a Chinese puzzle of relationships, involving ruthless bodyguards Jeffers (Taye Diggs - 'Go') and Obex (Nicky Katt - 'Suburbia', 'The Limey'), and Chiduck's bagman and Troubleshooters, complex Sarno included.
the great James Caan - 'The Godfather', 'The Thief'), and Sarno's associate Abner (frequent Clint Eastwood sidekick, and Juliet's real-life father, Geoffrey Lewis).
To reveal what happens would be to ruin this wonderful film. 'The Way of the Gun Movie' is not a silly popcorn action movie.
It requires thought and attention to fully appreciate, and that fact, along with the lack of heroes, and indeed talk of violence, has put many people off. But in my opinion it's just those factors that will make it, like 'The Usual Suspects', a film that will stand the test of time.
Along with 'Helicopter', the film that has impressed the most in this decade so far. Don't miss any one!
The Usual Suspects is a much simpler story than the award-winning Suspects, written by the same friend who wrote The Way of the Gun Movie.
It tells the story of two small-time crooks, played by Ryan Phillippe and Benicio del Toro, who become embroiled in a game of crook versus crook when they try to pull off a kidnapping.
Dreaming of big things in life, but without regard for the method used to achieve their dreams of wealth, they overhear a conversation at a sperm bank clinic (one of the most telling dialogues in the film takes place there). happens) some rich family about giving birth to a surrogate mother's child. They decide to kidnap the woman, played by Juliette Lewis, and take the mother and child hostage.
However, they find themselves embroiled in a vast web of intrigue, as each character, from the mother, the husband and wife who employed her, to the doctor, the bodyguard, the "bagman", all have their own agenda, and so on.
Their relationship with each other has to be one of the most complex written for the screen in recent times. There is more to everything than meets the eye, and betrayal and double crossings are the agenda of the day.
The pacing is well measured, and the film has moments of excellent suspense at points. I love the opening hostage-taking scene, where the sudden shift in focus and introduction of complexity completely catches our two anti-heroes, Longbaugh (Del Toro) and Parker (Phillips).
The car chase and chase is also one of the more innovative and bizarre scenes in the film, which del Toro actually suggested, and made it to the screen. You have to see it to believe it.
The finale gives Western shoot-em-up fans a kick, as Longbaugh and Parker go face-to-face with everyone in a Mexican brothel, using modern weapons of shotguns and handguns.
Thrown into the mix is veteran James Caan, as a bag-man extraordinaire, having stayed in the business for so long because of his experience with survival.
Del Toro and Phillippe strike an excellent bond between their characters - they trust no one but themselves, while I thought Juliette Lewis was terrific in her role as the very pregnant caught between the two sides.
Mother, and yet brings strength when she fights for her children and her own existence, taking her interests into her own hands.
It's a good mix of action and a workout for your brain as you explore the relationships between the characters as the story progresses. Perfect for those mundane afternoons you want to get out of.
Does one normally go into an action movie starring Ryan Phillippe expecting to think, expect to be challenged. I didn't, in this case. And so, as I found myself confronted with this exceptionally cool contemporary crime/western, I was hooked. It has all the qualities of a normal film.
The philosophical/immoral central team could have been... Pulp Fiction redux. wise old criminal sharing his wisdom with those below him... If I were to really go into all the elements in The Way of the Gun Full Movie that could have been handled as shameless rip-offs of other movies, that list That alone would take me over 1,000 words.
The beauty of The Way of the Gun Film is that McQuarrie took familiar elements, tired clichés and breathed new, inventive life into them, effectively directing his own screenplay for the first time. It's a neat hat trick, and not an easy one.
Goddard did it with his first film, Breathless. Tarantino did it with Pulp Fiction. And McQuarrie does it here. Note that the above example is the only place you'll hear the Tarantino parallels mentioned in this review.
Those who would criticize Way Off the Gun as being derivative of Taranton's film are missing the point and haven't really seen the film.
The Way of the Gun Film is fully familiar with the traditions of CINEMA. One of those things that goes into a great movie.
Knowing those things well, like Goddard, allows McQuarrie to be free enough to work with them, transform them, and make them something knowable. That's quite an achievement, and it's a pretty cool movie.