Plot
The opening portrays a man being declared dead in an Italian hospital by a police chief. The man is an ex-CIA agent, John Creasy. Eleanor Ringel of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says that Creasy "introduces himself to us in a Sunset Boulevard–style opening."
In Italy, wealthy families often hire bodyguards to protect family members from the threat of kidnapping. A wealthy family that needs a bodyguard hires Creasy, a burned-out ex-CIA agent, to protect their daughter, Samantha "Sam" Balletto. Creasy has been broken down from all of the death and horror of combat he witnessed in the Vietnam War and in Beirut, Lebanon. Although Creasy is not interested in being a bodyguard, especially to a twelve year old youngster, he accepts the assignment because he has no better job offers.
Creasy barely tolerates the precocious child and her pestering questions about him and his life. But slowly, she chips away at his seemingly impenetrable exterior, his defenses drop, and he opens up to her. They become friends and he replaces her parents in their absences, giving her advice, guidance and help with track. Creasy's life is shattered when Sam is kidnapped. Despite being seriously wounded during the kidnapping, Creasy vows her safe return, and vows vengeance on the kidnappers.
Ringel said that the film "is actually two movies rather clumsily stitched together. The first - and better - half is a likable character study in which Sam and Creasy get to know and like each other and thereby get to know and like themselves. The second half, alas, is a routine vigilante flick, with Creasy surviving gunshots, explosions, car crashes and a most distracting production design (Chouraqui loves Ridley Scott warehouses and non-stop rain) in his quest to rescue Sam." Ringel added that "Man on Fire" is part artsy European, part shoot-'em-up American, and the parts are so self-consciously constructed that they refuse to have anything to do with one another." The Lexington Herald-Leader said that the film "veers erratically between existential meditation and conventional vengeance drama."
Read more about this topic: Man On Fire (1987 Film)
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—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
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““The plot thickens,” he said, as I entered.”
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)