John Woo on making the dialogue-free, ultraviolent Christmas movie ‘Silent Night’ — and why Tom Cruise is ‘crazy…but in a good way’

John Woo hasn’t directed an American film in 20 years, since the 2003 film starring Ben Affleck Paycheck – which is surprising considering the string of successes in the United States that the legendary Hong Kong director has enjoyed with such favorite action films as 1997’s. Face/Off and the 2000s Mission: Impossible II.

After this long hiatus, Woo finally returned to Hollywood with Silent night. The title not only celebrates the film’s holiday setting, but is also quite literal.

The thriller, starring Joel Kinnaman as a grieving father who plots the demise (read: extremely violent deaths) of the entire Los Angeles gang responsible for the Christmas Eve drive-by shooting that cost the life of his young son, is told entirely without dialogue. .

“I was excited about it because since (the characters) don’t have dialogue, it means (it would highlight) the director’s work more,” says Woo, 77, who has established his bona fides with classes as powerful as A better tomorrow (1986), The killer (1989), Bullet in the head (1990) and Hard boiled (1992). “I never liked long dialogues. I liked Steve McQueen’s films.

“But it could allow me to use the visual (narration) more. It’s a tragic story, (this) innocent kid who was killed by a gangster. I think this can happen to any family, to anyone, so it shouldn’t be too sophisticated and over-the-top action. So (I wanted) the audience to feel it. It’s a real thing. …And allow the audience to meet the actors much more closely, to feel with them and to appreciate the superb performances.

It begins with Kinnaman, the Suicide squad And The slaughter actor whose character, Brian Godluck, is left speechless at the beginning of the film, after being shot in the throat. Its visceral performance includes a complete body transformation. At first, Godluck sports a slim physique before gradually adding more and more muscle as he spends a year meticulously planning his revenge for the following holiday season.

“When I met him, honestly, I had only seen one of his films,” Woo says. “But when I met him in person, I thought he seemed so real. He’s a real man, and he’s not some kind of superhero. He’s not that type. …(The character) is an ordinary man, and then something happened, something tragic happened to his family, so he suffered so much. …So he had to train, learn how to fight and use weapons. But I think (Joel) is a real actor and he’s so smart.

That’s high praise from Woo, who has worked with a long list of major action stars, both in Hong Kong and Hollywood.

When asked if he has a favorite, the filmmaker does not hesitate before naming his two stars of The killerChow Yun-Fat and Danny Lee, and Tom Cruise, who has gained a reputation for attempting increasingly dangerous stunts as he gets older, particularly in the Impossible mission movies.

“He’s crazy,” Woo laughs about his Impossible mission II star. “But in the right way.

“He always tries to take risks, (he) always likes to take on challenges. But he always worried me when I worked with him. I said, “This is so dangerous. » I always ask him, “Why don’t you use a liner?” The public won’t know. There are a lot of shots where we can use the double. He said, “No, no.” He wanted to do everything. He said the audience could tell which shot was himself, which shot was a double, even (when) it was filmed behind him, because they would have different body movement. The audience has become accustomed to the movements of his body. So I had a great time working with him.

Silent night is now in theaters.