If I could travel back in time and award one film the Academy Award for Best Action or Thriller of 2006, the winner would be Déjà Vu.
In this pseudo-sci-fi thriller, Tony Scott directs Denzel Washington as an ATF field agent investigating a bomb explosion that killed 543 people on a New Orleans ferry. While that premise would be enough to carry most action films, writers Bill Marsilii and Terry Rossio weave in a love story, a critique of post-9/11 surveillance, and a pair of augmented reality glasses that allow government agents to see four days into the past through of a wormhole.
Can Denzel Washington use time travel to save a woman he first met as a corpse in the morgue? You can watch the film now on the Criterion Channel to find out!
Scott’s film, filmed in New Orleans the year after Hurricane Katrina and released worldwide five years after September 11, reflects on half a decade of American trauma and diminishing sense of control. It’s spiced with the wary sex and violence of his brother Jerry Bruckheimer films, but is more reflective – as if the creators were desperate to find some meaning in their gaming chaos after witnessing so much real carnage in the news.
The conscious (and unconscious) fears of action movie makers inspire the villains they select, the places they destroy, and the fears they provide catharsis for. So what comes across as saccharine or bitter upon release can age like a fine wine. The scares blossom as we gain some distance from the film and the events that inspired it.
Which brings me back to the Oscars. Of course, the Academy Awards didn’t have a category for Best Action or Thriller Film (and still doesn’t). That will probably never happen. For many critics and audiences, action films and thrillers lack the gravitas of biopics and period dramas. But these films often contain that same creative magic; It’s just hidden beneath the exploding boats, oily body bags and time-bending gadgets – patiently waiting for the public to see it.
Déjà Vu is part of the Criterion Channel Surveillance Cinema Collectionwhich debuted this month and features a number of similarly enticing thrillers, including The Truman Show, Minority report, GattacaAnd Body double.
Déjà Vu is streaming on Criterion Channel and can also be streamed via VOD on Amazon Video and Apple TV.