Friday Film: The Negotiator
The story is not a unique one: Hero Cop is loved by all his friends, except for one surly suspicious fellow. Suddenly, Hero Cop is framed for a crime and loses all his friends and his honor. Hero Cop decides to take the law into his own hands to find “the truth.” However, powerhouses Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey prevent this classic story from becoming a predictable mess in The Negotiator.
| The Negotiator (1998) | |
| Directed by: | F. Gary Gray |
| Produced by: | David Hoberman Arnon Milchan |
| Starring: | Samuel L. Jackson Kevin Spacey David Morse Ron Rifkin John Spencer J.T. Walsh |
| Distributed by: | Warner Bros |
| All Movie Guide IMDb Amazon.com  | |
Released in 1998, The Negotiator follows Danny Roman (Samuel L. Jackson), a successful hostage negotiator for the Chicago police, who is often praised by his colleagues and the media. Danny’s partner, Nathan Roenick (Paul Guilfoyle), reveals to him that he has information on embezzlement within the police department. But Roenick is killed shortly afterward, and Roman is the main suspect. When the evidence against him piles up and Chief Al Travis (John Spencer) asks him to turn in his badge, Danny has decided he has had enough and confronts his accuser, the Internal Affairs Division Inspector, Terence Niebaum (J.T. Walsh). Things go from bad to worse though when Roman, in a heated rage, takes Niebaum and three others hostage, demanding the truth. And the only hostage negotiator he’ll speak with is Chris Sabian (Kevin Spacey), a near stranger from another precinct. Sabian and Roman battle for control, each a well-trained negotiator that knows the other’s strategies.
There are several scenes of Chicago’s downtown area, especially around the R.R. Donnelley Building (located at 77 W Wacker Drive). Later in the film, one of the officers makes mention of the “1300 block of Addison” (map, not far from Wrigley Field) and the intersection of “Addison and Iroquois.” There is no street by the name of Iroquois in the city of Chicago.
As one would expect in a film called The Negotiator, there is a lot of dialogue. However, I never found myself bored. There was just the right amount of action and talk, with just enough clues for the audience to figure out what is going on without treating them like they’re idiots. There is a lot of emotion packed into all that dialogue, and for me that makes this film a definite thriller.
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