After watching Late Phases, and thinking about how cool Nick Damici is in the film, I figured I’d put together a fistful of Lone Wolves; folks who strike out on their own to take care of business. There are a lot of really good ones, to be sure. But these are five of my favorites.
5. Foxy Brown (Foxy Brown): Foxy is tired of drugs, tired of corruption. Nobody is going to keep her down, or locked in a shed. A nasty, nasty movie, it puts the titular character through the wringer, but she comes through it. And most of that blood she’s covered in isn’t hers.
4. Zatoichi (the Zatoichi film series): A blind masseuse, Zatoichi just wants to be left to his own devices, enjoying a nice drink and some gambling. But someone’s always gotta start something, and Ichi is there to finish it with a flick of his sword cane.
3. Dan Evans (3:10 to Yuma): He can’t stand by and watch injustice. Pushed too far, he stands against the mob to bring a bad man to proper justice. He’s scared and nervous, but he’s going to get the job done.
2. John Matrix (Commando): There’s an island full of bad men, and Matrix is gonna kill the hell out of every last one of them until he finds his kidnapped daughter. Commando revels in violence in a way few films ever have, while being pretty darned funny along the way. Let off some steam, kill Sully last, and have a Green Beret for breakfast.
1. Walker (Point Blank): We’ve talked about Walker at great length on this blog, and I won’t go into much more. He just wants his money. And NOTHING is going to stop him from getting it.
-Matthew J. Constantine
