Robert De Niro isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. This year alone, he has the crime thriller The Alto Knights where he plays a dueling pair of gangsters, and the Netflix thriller series Zero Day — not to mention signing onto another major Netflix project, The Whisper Man, which will be produced by Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo. Weirdly, there’s one film that doesn’t come up too often when discussing De Niro’s body of work: Ronin. It’s a shame, because Ronin is an action-packed thriller that features a career-best performance from De Niro, and it marks the final film from John Frankenheimer. Suffice it to say, Frankenheimer went out with a bang.
What Is ‘Ronin’ About?

At first glance, one would assume that Ronin is a story about feudal Japan, or the masterless samurai the film is named after. Instead, it focuses on a group of mercenaries hired to steal a mysterious briefcase. In the process, one of the mercenaries, former CIA agent Sam (De Niro) has to contend with a surprise betrayal from another mercenary, Gregor (Stellan Skarsgård), and his budding attraction to another team member, Deirdre (Natascha McElhonne). He even forms a close bond with French mercenary Vincent (Jean Reno), as the two grow to trust each other. Considering the line of work they’re in, trust is in short supply, especially as the mercenaries are dealing with the fallout of the Cold War.
Much of this character work can be attributed to Ronin’s script, which Frankenheimer said was the biggest draw for him to sign on as director. “It’s a very good script…it’s a character-driven action picture,” he told Variety when Ronin was first announced. But the script went through some heavy reworking; while the initial draft came courtesy of J.D. Zeik, who came up with the title after reading Shōgun by James Clavell, it was David Mamet who expanded upon the material, introducing Sam and Deirdre’s romance, among other elements. Mamet chose to use the pseudonym “Richard Weisz” for the final product, but Frankenheimer would claim “We didn’t shoot a line of Zeik’s script.” This triggered some major controversy, and Frankenheimer would later retract his statement.
‘Ronin’ Features One of Robert De Niro’s Best Performances

The biggest draw of Ronin, other than its car chases and shootouts, is De Niro’s performance as Sam. Slowly but surely, he peels back the layers of his mercenary to reveal some hidden depths. For starters, Sam turns out to be very observant; he intentionally lets one of his coffee mugs drop around Gregor, who quickly catches it, which immediately clues him in to the fact that the team’s “tech expert” is more than he appears. De Niro and Reno have some of the best scenes in the film, as Sam and Vincent bond after things go south; Vincent even takes Sam to get patched up after a firefight.

Related

Robert De Niro Hated This ‘Raging Bull’ Scene So Much, It Was Cut

One particularly disturbing moment cut from the Martin Scorsese classic sparked tension between De Niro and screenwriter Paul Schrader.

The true emotional core of the film lies in Sam and Deirdre’s relationship. In the scenes that De Niro and McElhone share, there’s a surprising tenderness, and the sense that both Sam and Deirdre want to open up to each other but can’t (or in Deidre’s case, won’t). It leads to a bittersweet ending where Sam waits at a cafe, hoping Deirdre will arrive. As the time passes, his face slowly shifts from hopeful to pensive, and then finally to resignation once Vincent says, “She’s not coming.” De Niro says so much without uttering a single word, which is a testament to his talent.
‘Ronin’ Is Full of Intense Shootouts, Car Chases, and Plot Twists

Since Ronin is a spy movie, it only makes sense that there are plenty of action scenes, and Frankenheimer keeps viewers on the edge of their seats with just how tense those scenes are. Stunt coordinator Jean-Claude Lagniez broke down the level of work that went into the car chases in a featurette; not only was a small army of stunt drivers hired but the actors themselves were actually in the cars! Combined with Frankenheimer’s penchant for realism, this obviously led to some stress on set. “We were afraid we were gonna get thrown out of France,” Frankenheimer confessed on Ronin’s Blu-ray commentary. But what’s really impressive are the plot twists sprinkled throughout the film. One of these twists involves Sam confronting team member Spence (Sean Bean), asking pointed questions that reveal Spence as a fake. The attention to detail makes Ronin an engaging thriller, and fans of De Niro’s work should definitely add it to their watchlists.

Ronin

Release Date

September 25, 1998

Runtime

121 Minutes

Director

John Frankenheimer

Writers

J.D. Zeik, David Mamet