The Old Man begins with a static scene shot in the home of the night’s protagonist, retired CIA agent Dan Chase. As a professional mercenary in the past and now a crying old man, he is forced to rush to the bathroom several times a night and struggle with progressive memory loss. But the sound sleep of the Bridges hero is deprived not only by a weak bladder, but also by a murderer who has entered the house. Remembering his youth, Chase neutralizes an unexpected guest and flees.
Living in the wilderness for the past 30 years, the hero finds himself in the limelight of several influential structures at once: he is wanted by the FBI in the person of agent Harold Harper (John Lithgow) in the name of the law, and on the other hand, the influential man who held Chase when his worst enemy took his wife away from him. Afghan militant Faraz Hamzad. And if the latter wants to avenge a mortal insult, Harper (who was Chace’s mentor in the past) cannot forgive him for a betrayal of a different nature: during the war in Afghanistan, Bridges’ hero sided with the Mujahideen, playing a double game with both his homeland and his enemy.
Now the old robber must save himself, his daughter, and stop running away from someone for the rest of his life. But this can only be done by dealing with the ghosts of the past.
Withdrawn from the TV series “Old Man” (2022)
Fox 21 Television Studios
To understand the phenomenon of The Old Man’s success, it is useful to understand the period in which the series was aired. In other words, at a time when militants are having a hard time. Spring “ER” by Michael Bay, the genre’s most successful artist, failed at the box office. Conceived as a dynamic action movie worth $40 million, the film didn’t hit the screens very quickly as it barely made it to the box office – it grossed a little less than $9 million in its first weekend. an ambitious picture in general – and a legendary director in particular.
Fresh “Gray Man” Despite its release on streaming (the most expensive Netflix project), it could not boast of an outstanding result – it was hit with devastating reviews, if not a dollar. It turns out that the repetitiveness and mediocrity of the plot upset even the most inexperienced viewers.
The list of similar “losers” can go on for a long time, especially since it only grows every year. Modern action movies, which were also the most popular genre of the ’90s, turned out to be completely uncompetitive these days. There are occasional successes like “John Wick”, but it seems to run out of power in the fourth movie.
And if the Russo brothers fail, their Marvel superhero colleagues Jon Watts (who directed all three films in the rebooted Spider-Man franchise with Tom Holland) have risen to new heights, proving that selectivity and new optics will keep the genre afloat. It seems that everyone has seen it and there is nothing to surprise you? But what about the old FBI agent who rates the young (convincingly fighting his opponents for his age) and reflects on his life (recognizing that life has reached its end, looking no less convincingly into the abyss of his past)? So the folks at FX decided that this off-the-beaten-track combination might interest the audience. And they were not mistaken.
Withdrawn from the TV series “Old Man” (2022)
Fox 21 Television Studios
Armed human heroes are an essential part of the Old Man’s success. Bridges and Lithgow are amazing. The protagonists, the FBI and the CIA, not only share a common past, but also the sufferings of the present: the former became the main guardian of an orphaned grandson, having lost his beloved son and wife; The second is trying to cope with the death of his wife, who has a brain disease. Meanwhile, there’s a kind of diabolical irony in the fact that Dan and his wife, Abby (the charming Lim Lubani), who have been trying to erase their past for decades, are suffering from an illness – memory loss.
Other important women in Chase’s life also played strong roles: his daughter Angela (Alia Shawkat from The Wild Ones) and his unexpected travel companion Zoe (Amy Brenneman). Secondly, she finds herself in the same situation as her hero in the movie “Fight”: she is looking for intimacy with a man who can only turn people away from her. In Michael Mann’s crime thriller, De Niro’s character insisted that he built his life on the principle of “have nothing you can’t let go of in 30 seconds.” The hero of the bridges (probably with an indulgence for his honorable age) parted from the worthy not too quickly, but also ruthlessly.
Paying attention to the era of bridges, the unsuccessful tempo of the series, which is sometimes confused with its testimony and long plot moves, is also fictionalized. The meditativeness of what’s happening on the screen at first, catchy at first, starts to tire mid-season. These special agents wanted so badly to deceive everyone around them that they themselves were deceived in their expectations: life does not forgive such arrogance, and the cannibal system does not forgive weaknesses.
Withdrawn from the TV series “Old Man” (2022)
Fox 21 Television Studios
The video sequence, in which the chief operator of the project, Sean Porter, is responsible, is also interestingly created. His camera is usually static and watches the characters from the doors, as if spying on them, not daring to be an immediate visible witness to what is going on. Being in the twilight is also comfortable for the protagonist of Köprüler, whose past life sheds light and forces him to relive these painful memories.
If you delete “Old Man” for long flashbacks, you can enjoy a powerful action movie in the best traditions of spy stories. Yes, there are predictable plots and sometimes tedious dialogue, but Jeff Bridges, who generally had lymphoma during the show and filming, proves that the genre is definitely not time to die.
Source: Gazeta
Barbara Dickson is a seasoned writer for “Social Bites”. She keeps readers informed on the latest news and trends, providing in-depth coverage and analysis on a variety of topics.