Taken

Release Date: February 27, 2008

Watch Date: November 28, 2023

“When his estranged daughter is kidnapped in Paris, a former spy (Liam Neeson) sets out to find her at any cost. Relying on his special skills, he tracks down the ruthless gang that abducted her and launches a one-man war to bring them to justice and rescue his daughter.”

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    Let’s be very clear here, because I think this is a pretty blatant lie to be sticking into a movie excerpt. Bryan does not want to, nor does he, ‘bring anyone to justice’. He does not inform authorities where gangs are located, he does not…well okay just once does he, collect evidence. He tortures, and he kills. Efficiently. Quickly. But he does not bring people to justice, unless you count vigilante justice, which my husband might, but I don’t. So there you go.

    Bryan does launch a one-man war to rescue his daughter. That part is true. And it’s a surprisingly entertaining watch. Bob started watching this film long before he was a parent, and so I wonder if it’s taken on a different tone for him than before. Because I never watched this movie, one of Bob’s favorites, until I was a parent, and I spend the entire time constantly terrified and wanting my children to never be out of my line of sight. Bob, the father of a daughter now, might have shifted from watching this as a fun action movie to a cautionary tale. I’ll have to ask him.

    The action is paced well, normally I don’t like when I can’t follow fight scenes, but this one is shot in very tight quarters, and the action is very fluid and quick. These are not showy super hero battles. These are efficient ways to protect oneself, and dispatch an enemy while causing the maximum amount of damage. I’m okay not following it.

    I enjoy the quick bursts of energy and fight scenes that aren’t too drawn out with the more espionage, detective aspect of it interspersed throughout. It makes it feel like you’re running a marathon, not a sprint, and you don’t get too worn out by the often incredibly dark visuals in front of you.

    Because this movie is dark. This movie, for all it’s action-packed moments, and it’s famous line about having a special set of skills, it’s dark. Sexual slavery happens. It happens a lot. Sex trafficking happens. I don’t know if it’s to this scale, and I’d rather not find out. But it happens, it’s a real problem. Women being addicted to drugs and forced to sell their bodies, that happens – though I don’t know if a gang is usually the one getting them addicted except for indirectly. Women get hurt. Women are used. And Bryan does not try to be a hero. Bryan does not try to save them all. Bryan does not care about anything except his daughter.

    And I like that? I do. He’s flawed. He’s not perfect. He will break many, many laws if it means he gets his daughter back. He shot a completely innocent woman to get what he wanted, and he walks out of France having seen no jail time. Now I don’t know if that’s because his government official friend doesn’t want anyone finding out he’s taking money from gangs, or if it’s because they forgot that usually people would report that kind of thing, but it happened. And it makes sense, for him. He gave up his whole world for his daughter, and he has a history of killing and torturing – albeit government sanctioned. Why would he stop now? He’s not a good guy, he’s just a guy who loves his kid. And on some level, I think most parents could relate to that.

    Now this is not a movie you can just pop on, and like a lot of Bob’s movies unfortunately, we had to wait for a night where the kids were away. But while it’s not something I could just casually throw on, like so many Disney movies are, once a year or so…yea. I could watch this. If you haven’t, like I didn’t for so many years, I would recommend it, at least so you can say you finally understand that one line that people used to reference all the time many years ago.