In many ways, Danny the Dog (known as Unleashed in English-speaking territories, presumably so to avoid people thinking it was about a family pet) is a typical Luc Besson product. Since 1999, when he directed his last film to date, he has made a name for himself as a writer and producer of action movies that tend to combine Hollywood and European storytelling aesthetics, some with more success than others. It would not be too much of a stretch to say that Danny the Dog is by far the best of these projects, and also the most unusual, combining chopsocky thrills with genuine intelligence and character development. You see, despite being a Jet Li vehicle, and despite the prominently marketed choreography of Yuen Wo Ping (best known to Western audiences for his work on The Matrix and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon), at its heart this is not really a martial arts flick or even an action movie.

The scenario is a ludicrous but potent affair. Danny (Jet Li) has been raised as an animal from a very young age by Glasgow gangster Bart (Bob Hoskins), who keeps him in a cage and feeds him on scraps. Danny is kept in check by a metal collar, and as long as he is wearing it, he is docile and subservient. When it is removed, however, Danny turns into a ferocious killing machine, breaking the limbs of Bart's enemies with abandon. So far, so good, until one of Bart's adversaries decides to fight back, ambushing his car and pumping it with machine gun fire. In the ensuing chaos Danny, believing Bart to be dead, escapes, and is found bleeding and on the verge of collapse by Sam (Morgan Freeman), a blind piano-tuner. Kindly fellow that he is, Sam takes Danny into his home and nurses him back to health, with the assistance of his step-daughter Victoria (Kerry Condon). With their help, Danny gradually adjusts to his new life and begins to lose his killer instinct, leaving his past as Bart's slave behind. Bart, however, is in fact very much alive and will stop at nothing to reclaim him.


Danny the Dog is different from your usual action fare in that, instead of being centred around a series of violent set-pieces, it is constructed around a solid central idea and an intriguing character. It has its share of fight sequences, undoubtedly, but they always play second fiddle to the plot. This is not exactly unusual in a Besson script; indeed, he made a name for himself in the first half of the 90s with films like Nikita and Léon, two of the most substantial action movies produced. From the latter, especially, Danny the Dog borrows a great deal, once again telling the story of an unconventional family in a world of pain and hardship. Like Léon, Danny is essentially a monster: his role in life is to kill, and the fact that the blood of many is on his hands is difficult to ignore. What separates the two is free will. With Léon, his job as a "cleaner" was clearly his chosen profession; Danny, however, has been forced into this life by Bart. As the film progresses, it becomes an intriguing study on the nature of a monster, asking us who is the real animal.

The answer to that question is never in any real doubt, and it is in this respect that it all starts to fall apart if you attempt to over-analyse it. Besson's writing is shamelessly manipulative, constructing a world of black and white where the good guys are faultless and the bad guys are without a shred of human decency. Barring Danny, all the characters are essentially ciphers, including Sam and Victoria, whose one-dimensional personalities only work because of the skill of their respective performers (more on this later). The audience is offered no real opportunity to draw their own conclusions, and this will undoubtedly infuriate some viewers.


Another failing in the script is in the use of Danny's collar. It is undoubtedly a strong image, and the entire movie (including its international marketing campaign) rests on it, but it is applied inconsistently. A lot is made, especially in the first act, of the fact that Danny transforms from harmless passivity into a killing machine when it is removed, but then when Victoria finally takes it off him, nothing happens. The point, I suppose, is that Danny has been "domesticated" and his killer instinct has left him, but this matter is not adequately dealt with and feels like a loose end. The reason for this, I suspect, is that the collar actually functions as a means for Besson to sidestep any of the issues he raises. Danny, after all, is essentially a mass murderer, and in that regard the lack of consequence for his actions is bizarre, as is the fact that Sam and Victoria seem all to quick to accept him even when they learn the true nature of his past. By employing the collar as the central symbol, Besson is able to declare Danny's actions when unleashed to be those of a different person entirely. But the thing is, it becomes blatantly obvious that this isn't true: his thoughts are clearly the same whether he is collared or not. (Still, however, there are some nice little touches in the use of this imagery. For example, it took until my third viewing of the film to notice that, during the climax, when Bart finally decides to weigh into the fight himself, he removes his own "collar" - the neck brace he has worn since he was injured in the shoot-out.)

Ultimately, though, none of this harms the finished piece unduly, and it is a testament to Besson's writing that the central concept is able to withstand these deficiencies in the script. The cornerstone of the movie is the character of Danny and his relationship with his adoptive family. In the black and white world in which the film takes place, Danny is the only character to have anything approaching shades of grey, and the scenes in which he interacts with Sam and Victoria are a real delight to watch. Li's performance is nuanced and subtle, and it is entirely possible to believe that he has been raised as a dog, thanks to various little details like his posture and timid reactions. As in Million Dollar Baby, the role Freeman plays should really be listed in the end credits as "Plot Device", but he plays the part with such quiet conviction that you can forget that his only function is as a tool for the story. Hoskins, meanwhile, does what he does best and chews the scenery with glee. Bart is a comic book villain, and it would be impossible to pull off playing him with even an ounce of subtlety, but Hoskins manages to create a believable character almost entirely out of frothy-mouthed screaming, bulging eyes and liberal usage of "fuck". That said, the most diverting performance comes from Kerry Condon, largely because she is so atypical. Had this been a Hollywood movie, I am in no doubt that the part of Victoria would have been written as a love interest for Danny and that she would have been played by Jessica Simpson or a similar "eye candy" star. Victoria, however, is, as one review so eloquently put it, "a brace-faced spazzy geek", and Condon's performance is so refreshingly different that she makes her paper-thin character not only believable but hopelessly endearing. She and Li also have a real rapport together and manage to create a relationship in which she serves as something of a surrogate older sister, making you forget that he is actually 20 years older than her.


It is essentially the quality of the interaction between the four stars that makes the film so successful, and indeed explains why some one like me, who has absolutely no interest in martial arts films, could end up being so overwhelmingly positive about a Jet Li vehicle choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping. There are essentially four fight scenes in the movie, only two of which go on for an extended period of time, and only one of which seems remotely gratuitous. The action portrayed here is a world away from that of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, dropping the gliding elegance of that film in favour of the gritty, chaotic and violent ruthlessness that characterises Danny's anarchic style of combat. All of this is competently lensed by Louis Leterrier, Besson's latest protégé who also helmed 2002's The Transporter and its 2005 sequel. The dual nature of Danny's character extends to the visual style, contrasting the grainy, monochromatic world inhabited by Bart and his fellow gangsters, replete with choppy editing, with the warm reds and browns of Sam and Victoria's home, with its smooth, languid pacing. The decision to shoot the film in Glasgow, of all places, was an interesting one, and I found it quite fun spotting numerous locations that I have personally been to. That said, the fact that all the inhabitants speak with cockney accents that would be more at home in a Guy Ritchie movie struck me as more than a little bizarre. I can only imagine that Besson and co decided that these would be more palatable to the average viewer than a native Glaswegian twang.

Ultimately, Danny the Dog has its shortcomings, most of them stemming from the script, which seems to alternate between complex and overly simplistic. That said, for some reason this unusual combination of gaudy martial arts and heartfelt drama just seems to work. Much of this comes down to the excellent performances of Li, Freeman, Hoskins and Condon, but a lot too stems from the filmmakers' conviction, playing a fairly ludicrous story with blunt sincerity. The result is Luc Besson's best project in years and Jet Li's finest performance to date.


The Ultimate Edition

This 2-disc French Ultimate Edition, released by EuropaCorp, replaces the previous single-disc French release and provides a new THX-certified transfer as well as a host of new extras. Please note that, while the film itself is English friendly, the extras are not, so those without a grasp of French who want some comprehensible extras may want to go for another release, although this version seems to have the best transfer of the lot, so that might tip the balance in its favour. It also comes packaged in a very stylish metal case, which might be of interest to collectors.

Note that the French release also features a slightly different cut of the film than the one released in the likes of the UK, US and Germany. This slightly longer version features additional character development scenes between Danny and Sam, as well as, naturally, a different title card. The final scene is also different, closing on a shot of Danny's face rather than a piano. All in all, the differences, while not groundbreaking by any means, make this "European cut" more character-based than its brisker American variant.


DVD Presentation

Presented anamorphically in its original 2.39:1 aspect ratio, the film looks consistently excellent and, especially in its numerous extreme close-ups, shows a razor-sharp level of detail. Little facets like the pockmarks on Jet Li's face and Morgan Freeman's freckles, which would be rendered difficult to see or even invisible on a lesser transfer, are rendered clearly here. In comparison with the UK release (reviewed here by D.J. Nock, this transfer seems to be slightly more yellow-tinted (the UK disc looks significantly more blue) and also minutely tighter in terms of framing (although the fact that it was shot in the Super35-like format Technovision means that there were always going to be some differences in composition between masters), but there is a definite increase in detail. I very rarely give out perfect marks for transfers, mainly because I don't believe that there is such a think as a perfect transfer, but this comes extremely close, with only some edge enhancement preventing it from getting a 10/10 score.

The audio comes in Dolby Digital 5.1 (for the original English audio and the French dub) and DTS 5.1 (English only) flavours, and the latter is one of the best I've heard in recent months, handling both the quieter character moments and the frenetic action scenes with equal competence. The bass is punchy and the dialogue comes across with crystal clarity, and I noticed nothing in the way of distortion. The only subtitles available are French, but luckily, unlike a number of French DVDs, they are not forced when English audio is selected.


Extras

The various releases of Danny the Dog have been granted a vast array of different extras. Most releases, barring the North American versions, come with a 36-minute behind the scenes documentary, and virtually every release has a brief special effects featurette, a music video, deleted scenes and extended versions of the action sequences. Some versions, including the UK, German and original French releases, also have a gag reel. This new French Deluxe Edition is the most extravagant of the lot, spreading its contents across two discs.

Disc 1:

The first disc houses an audio commentary by director Louis Leterrier and an isolated music and effects track in Dolby Digital 5.1. The commentary is a solid if mostly technical affair, in which Leterrier talks in rapid-fire, dishing out trivia left, right and centre. He discusses the actors as well, as well as occasionally making reference to plot elements, but because he is primarily a metteur en scène the track focuses mainly on the shooting of the film and the various stylistic choices he made, including some shout-outs to various influences, such as David Fincher and Gaspar Noé. All in all, this is a strong technical commentary, although while I understood more of it than I expected to, those with a weak grasp of French will probably struggle to get anything from it.

The music and effects track, meanwhile, is a nice idea, and as a bonus feature it is well worth sampling, but I tend to be of the opinion that including music and foley on the one track more or less defeats the purpose of including either. I would personally have preferred an isolated score without the inclusion of sound effects; likewise, an effects-only track would have been more useful for those who want to study the audio design.


Disc 2:

The second disc begins with the French theatrical trailer, which is the same as the version screened in British cinemas, only dubbed into French. It's an effective enough trailer, but a little misleading attempting to imply a romance between Danny and Victoria as well as, unsurprisingly, making the action quotient out to be more significant than it actually is.

The 36-minunte "making of" documentary that can be found on numerous other releases follows. As behind the scenes affairs go, this is a good one, featuring a solid mixture of interview material and behind the scenes footage. All four main stars are featured, but Leterrier chalks up the most screen time. This version of the documentary ends with a a slightly shortened version of the outtakes reel that is included separately on other DVD releases of the film.

Uncut fight scenes are provided for the film's four key combat scenes, chalking up around 10 minutes' running time in total. They don't really differ significantly from what made it into the final version, the only differences being a handful of throwaway shots and the presence of a timecode.

A 3-minute feature covers the making of the special effects. This is essentially a montage of shots in various different forms, showing scenes with and without CGI elements. Bizarrely enough, it ends with (and heavily emphasises) material not even featured in the European cut - a complex CGI shot of the inside of a piano.

Two deleted scenes follow. The first of these, a scene in which Danny confesses to Sam that he has "hurt people", is in my opinion an important piece that should have been left it, since it partially addresses one of my main criticisms of the film: that not enough is shown of the consequences of Danny's actions. The second is an incomplete version of another fight scene, taking place in an indoor car park.

Finally a section entitled US uncut scenes shows the material not included in the European cut of the film. Essentially, this is a montage featuring Bart bringing Danny to various locations to do his dirty work during the first act (including Prince's Square, which helps establish a location for the jewellery heist that goes awry), and the piano crawl that ends the film in the American cut. This is a very worthwhile inclusion, as it allows viewers to get an idea of how this alternate cut plays without having to seek out a copy of it.

A music video for the song "Baby Boy" is also included.


Overall

EuropaCorp have come up trumps with this Deluxe Edition of Danny the Dog. With a superb DTS mix and a transfer that falls just shy of perfection, as well as an excellent line-up of bonus materials, this is very much the version to get if you are a fan of this particular film, even for viewers without a solid grasp of French.

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