Enigmatic or purely pretentious? Regardless of opinion one thing is undeniable, Steven Seagal is one of the most curious figures in contemporary cinema; the Chuck Barris of action cinema.
One of few legitimate overnight stars, Seagal’s big-screen debut was the lead in Above The Law in 1988. Since then he has gone onto numerous successes and more recently failures. While at the height of his career Seagal hesitantly stepped into one familiar role after another, the tall one currently churns out two or three forgettable DVD releases a year. Films of varying quality, featuring little imagination or effort on the part of the now bloated hero.
What separated this Aikido master from other action stars, in particular his principle genre rival Jean-Claude Van Damme, was how during his years as box office champion he attempted to infuse conscience into a notoriously brainless genre. While his recent films each still feature some unique Seagal-isms, it’s unlikely we’ll ever see a film like On Deadly Ground or Fire Down Below ever again.
Born in Michigan on April 10th 1951, Steven Seagal’s drive for respect and fame transformed him from a frail and asthmatic child to an imposing (6ft, 4ins) martial artist. Striving for independence and a chance to make a name for himself, at the age of 22 Seagal followed girlfriend Miyako Fujitani to Japan. Within a few years they were married and he running the family dojo; taking the name Take Shigemichi.
As the only westerner to do so, Seagal built something of a unique reputation in Japan, a country noted for its suspicion of individuality within its own conformist culture, and especially foreigner’s who attempt to be like them. Having earned such a position within Japanese society, he then sought to exploit this to move into film.
Being struck by the Hollywood bug after choreographing fight scenes for The Challenge in 1981, Seagal left his wife and two children to return to America. But with the exception of breaking Sean Connery’s wrist during training for Never Say Never Again (1983), Seagal’s effect on Hollywood would primarily be felt off set.
Acting roles were not coming, but Seagal’s reputation was good enough to open and successfully operate Stateside Aikido schools. This led to encounters with many Hollywood stars and agents, resulting in super-agent Michael Ovitz financing a screen test which led to his debut feature.
During this time Seagal returned to his Japanese family, but only to request a divorce, and committed bigamy by marrying a soap star. With his divorce finalised and his second marriage soon annulled, Seagal married model/actress Kelly LeBrock, with whom he had become infatuated shortly after his second wedding.
Later she would join him onscreen in Hard to Kill (1989). But their marriage was over by 1996, when he began a new relationship with their one-time nanny, Arissa Wolf. In the many parallels between Seagal’s real and reel life, it is notable that none of the images we see allow emotional attachment to overshadow Seagal himself. With an observed fondness for women it is striking how ill at ease he is with his relatively few onscreen lovers. His encounter with a young Thai actress in Belly of the Beast in particular lacking intended emotion and instead coming across as a fairly detatched, uncomfortable and sordid liason.
Seagal’s onscreen juggling of hard-core violence and emotional attachment is somewhat tenuous and leads us to see further similarities between real and screen versions of Seagal. Seagal has often claimed to be a strong family man, but consider the brevity of his character’s time with his son in The Glimmer Man (1996). Seagal is a man who seems to have one opinion of himself while everybody else sees someone much different. Deluded? Or perhaps just arrogant?
While history would suggest his relationship to his Japanese children is somewhat distant, it is notable to catch a glimpse of daughter Ayako in The Patriot (1999), a film in which Seagal moves away from action into a dramatic role as a single father who must face a threat to his daughter’s life.
Moments like these are small exceptions. Seagal has never been identified as the family man, onscreen or in real life, but he has six children. The curious qualities he brought to cinema when he gained superstar status were elaborations of his own personal interests, none of which put much emphasis on family.
Seagal the celebrity. Seagal the environmentalist. Seagal the Buddhist. Seagal the musician. Seagal the ageing ass-kicker. These are images we are familiar with. Almost every film after Under Siege (1992) throws emphasis on one of these facets of Seagal’s true-life persona. Even before this, the mysterious qualities of Seagal were being exploited.
At the time of Above The Law’s release it was claimed that certain elements of the narrative were autobiographical, to whit the secretive past as a government employee. In the strongest western movie traditions, Above The Law established Seagal’s principle trademark, one which would be employed in many subsequent features. The man with no past.
Like the stars of the classical Hollywood system, Seagal’s persona was moulded by a major studio, Warner Brothers, that cast him in a string of unchallenging vehicles which played to his strengths. But Seagal is a man with ambition to spare, a desire to grow as a performer, artist and humanitarian.
In the wake of his blockbuster Under Siege, Seagal found himself with enough clout to demand not only a huge fee but also a certain level of creative control. This put great strain on his relationship with Warner Brothers.
After a string of unique, but only marginally profitable, features ending with Fire Down Below (1997), Seagal separated from Warner Brothers and attempted to use what star power he had left to send his career in a new direction. The result was The Patriot, a stylish feature influenced by the western genre. But its lack of fight sequences gave distributors little incentive to purchase the film.
After a high profile supporting role in the B movie Ticker (2001), Seagal decided to start over. Reuniting with Warner Brothers, his familiar characteristics stripped away to present a more simplistic hero. Exit Wounds (2001) saw the rebirth of Steven Seagal.
Just as in his debut, Seagal was cast, sans even ponytail, as your basic Dirty Harry-style cop. But in an effort to contemporise the concept, producer Joel Silver united Seagal with rap star DMX (arguably the reason the film was a hit) and wire-work teams to elaborate on his familiar martial arts moves. Two years later, Seagal made his debut as B movie lead in The Foreigner (2002).
Seagal managed to replicate the trajectory of his first run as a mainstream star, from 1988 to 1997, in less than two years. Each film featuring less action and more Seagalisms. Half Past Dead (2002) was an Under Siege retread capitalising on the hip-hop elements of Exit Wounds by uniting Seagal with rapper Ja Rule. Joined by an ensemble cast, Half Past Dead toned down the violence swaping sparks for blood aiming purely at a young teen audience, Seagal’s fight scenes were very few and his stunt double embarassingly recognisable - an unfortunate new Seagal movie trademark.
The Foreigner attempted to take our hero into a new environment in a manner akin to Fire Down Below. Unlike Fire Down Below, this film went straight-to-video both domestically and internationally. Shot in Poland, this was a confusing thriller with a cheap aesthetic which marked a career low. A long way from the lush cinematography of The Patriot and Fire Down Below and even further from any sense of quality.
The Foreigner attempted to further capitalise on Seagal’s long rumoured ties to the CIA. The film cast him, for the first time, as a spy. This was an interesting move. It echoed classic Cold War era thrillers, but that itself felt as old and tired as our hero looked. Produced by mainstream wannabe B studio Franchise Pictures, this venture was destined only for video shelves. It’s spawning a sequel three years later seemed a turn of events only a deluded fallen idol would deem a good idea. Black Dawn (2005) was slightly better, benefiting from a vaguely engaging plot, better locations and support actors. But it was still a long way from being a good movie.
After reuniting with Foreigner director Michael Oblowitz for Out for a Kill (2003), a film which made weak attempts to stretch a stylish feature from a meagre budget, was followed by Out of Reach (2004), shooting in Poland once again.
These wilderness years have not been entirely without interest for viewers. Seagal shot on location in his beloved Thailand in Belly of the Beast (2003) and in Japan in Into the Sun (2004). The former featured above average production values and some memorable fight action, while the latter (shot half in Japanese - so Seagal can show of his language skills no doubt) similarly benefited from the locations and demonstrated a huge exercise in self indulgence for the first time since Fire Down Below. He even peppered the soundtrack with his own music, but more on that later.
Another recent high point was Submerged (2005). Although featuring a shameful and distracting amount of voice-over work by someone who sounds nothing like Seagal (an even more unfortunate new trademark feature evident in films like Out of Reach), Submerged boasted a quality look, good action and memorable support from Vinnie Jones and British martial artist Gary Daniels. A definite highlight.
Unfortunately fans have recently been forced to endure his laziest film to date. Today You Die not only features an uneven and even more unengaging revenge narrative, it makes a further effort to exploit the once successful pairing with DMX by pairing Seagal with a minor league rap star with little screen presence and even poorer acting skills. As if the film needed any more flaws it is also pieced together using footage from earlier films in the catalogue of production studio Millenium Films and their sister studio Nu Image. Still unavailable in the UK, Seagal’s follow-up, the aforementioned Black Dawn, arrived a couple of months later. A slight improvement.
But this is not the whole story. While his own star vehicles may be half hearted it is interesting to note the numerous other projects that Seagal has been involved with. Turning up for an extended cameo as a competitor in a Korean martial arts drama Clementine (2003) - though once again his actions are actually those of a double. Acting as a producer on the high-profile Hong Kong action film Dragon Squad, featuring American character actor Michael Biehn and starring the legend that is Sammo Hung. Soon he will appear in the long-in-production spoof known only as the untitled Onion movie. And then there’s the jewel in the crown. An answer to where Seagal has directed his enthusiasm during the past few years. His long promised album.
Yes, album. The intriguing Songs from the Crystal Cave. Available on import from countries such as France and Thailand, this ambitious project includes many world music styles and personal statements from the guarded star. It demonstrates the ambition and arrogance he once displayed in ever feature film. Undoubtedly the best thing he’s done in years, it’s a pleasure to report that it’s actually pretty good. He even shot a music video for one song, “Girl it’s Alright”, which was a successful single in the French charts.
Back on DVD shelves, Seagal appears engaged in competition with fellow has-been Wesley Snipes (making films with the same studio) to get a film onto shelves at a rate of two or three a year these days, Seagal’s recent output has definite highlights but much of it appears to have been assembled with as little interest or passion as Seagal himself has in going through the motions to collect his next multi-million paycheck.
I only hope that his next release, Mercenary of Justice (2006) is better. Unfortunately it was made back-to-back with the lamented Today You Die. Seagal was sued for interfering with production and being a general pain-in-the-ass during the filming of both. Such news does not bode well.
After that he has Shadows of the Sun and Harvester, already both are in post production. Quantity not quality seems to be the tall one’s work ethic these days. Perhaps he’s doing his best to make as many films as possible to equal the much larger paychecks he used to receive. Who knows? All I know is that I’ll always be a faithful follower. Because I know how interesting and entertaining his films can be. And the next minor pleasure might be just around the corner.