Hard Target

Director: John Woo

Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme

1993 / 97min / DCP

The first American studio film to be directed by a Chinese director, Hard Target pairs Woo—the grandmaster of the bullet ballet—with Brusselian high-kicker Jean-Claude Van Damme, the man who worked for more Hong Kong filmmakers than any Western star. The result was a floridly stylized The Most Dangerous Game in the Louisiana swamps, with Van Damme’s ragin’ Cajun squaring off against rich bloodsports enthusiast Lance Henriksen. At one point in the movie Wilford Brimley, carrying a bow and arrow, rides a horse in slow motion away from a massive fireball. Also, Van Damme punches a snake in the face. The very definition of poetic cinema.