Media murders

>> John Herzfeld serves up more violence-in-the-news angst with cynical 15 Minutes

by MATTHEW HAYS

It's certainly territory that's been charted before. In films like Network and Natural Born Killers, filmmakers have delved into the complex relationship between the media and its audience, in particular TV's detrimental effect on the collective public good.

With 15 Minutes, writer-director John Herzfeld (Two Days in the Valley) also meditates on the media-and-murder question, pitting two vicious criminal minds (played by Eastern European newcomers Karel Rodin and Oleg Taktarov) against two New York City cops (Ed Burns and Robert De Niro), the four playing out a nasty game of cat and mouse.

Rodin and Taktarov, fresh off the boat from Europe and intoxicated by the sensational American media, are intent upon becoming famous through their carnage, carefully videotaping every one of their heinous crimes. Burns is an arson investigator, and after the two nasties leave a murder scene by torching the apartment, he knows he's onto something beyond a run-of-the-mill arson case. His investigation is bogged down by the fact that the celebrity of De Niro, playing a famous New York cop, eclipses Burns. Though not a bad guy, De Niro can easily call the shots, walking all over Burns because of his advanced years and reputation. Ultimately, the two learn to work together despite their differences, desperate to foil the nefarious plot of those two dreadful Eastern European types. As the press kit tells us, this film "brings the edge-of-your-seat thriller into the in-your-face Media Age."

Careful violence

Which begs a fairly obvious question: when a film like 15 Minutes attempts to ponder questions about media violence, doesn't the film--which features lots of lurid murders--risk glorifying that violence itself?

"I certainly thought a lot about that when I was making the film," says Herzfeld. "In general, the idea is to pose the question, Is the media simply reflecting the violence or feeding on the public's interest in it? I feel like we're headed down an uncharted path, whereby there are people trying to get famous through any means necessary. Journalists have a tough job today, in trying to report these crimes while not glorifying them.

"I shot the violence in a very careful way, so as to take the edge off it. That's why I have the violence depicted on video. I didn't want it to be gratuitous. If you look at the way it's depicted, the first couple of murders for example, you never see a knife touching skin. It's not exploitative. I have a conscience too. I wanted to make a point, but not belabour it."

It's somewhat difficult to take Herzfeld's words entirely seriously, seeing as 15 Minutes is a very, very violent film indeed, one that features stabbings, shootings, explosions and car chases (nothing wrong with any of that--but let's not be hypocritical about it in the meantime). In fact, it could be argued that 15 Minutes earns the dubious distinction of being the most cynical film ever made about cynicism. For all its earnest self-reflection about media violence, it doesn't seem terribly conscious of itself or the form it's ended up taking.

Manipulating democracy

Herzfeld admits that criticisms about violence in the film have been brought up, as well as the fact that his two criminal mastermind egomaniacs are foreigners. "I wanted two people who were relatively new to democracy, thus I made one Russian and the other Czech. Also, the fact that both had served time in prison made their attitude toward freedom different. I wanted them to have a fresher point of view on America. They would see our democracy as flawed and try to manipulate it."

Herzfeld says some have also seen 15 Minutes as an indictment of the media, something he also didn't intend. Kelsey Grammer plays a TV anchor whose hunger for a good story soon threatens the safety of the police team themselves, making him a target for their animosity.

"I can understand how journalists today have an incredible task laid out for them, trying to figure out how to report the news in a responsible manner. It's part of my intent with this film to explore those issues."

15 Minutes opens Friday, March 9