Ronin

John Frankenheimer explains nobody. The crew tests one another with small traps rather than conversation, and the case is never opened. One scene accounts for the title: Michael Lonsdale’s Jean-Pierre sets out miniature figures and tells the story of the forty seven ronin while the film stops dead. The writing credit was contested as hard as anything on screen. David Mamet rewrote J.D. Zeik’s script to enlarge Robert De Niro’s part but signed it Richard Weisz, putting his name only on scripts he wrote alone. Writers Guild arbitration gave Zeik the story and first position screenplay credit, which Frankenheimer accepted in an open letter in Variety. No computer work and no back projection went into the chases. Frankenheimer returned to the camera mounts from his own Grand Prix, and a right hand drive Peugeot got a dummy wheel on the left so De Niro would look like the driver. The production is British and American on paper, but the camera never left France: the Montmartre steps, the tunnel under the Pont Alexandre III, the boulevards around Les Invalides, the coast between Nice and Monaco, Le Zenith for the finale. A good fit if you like reading intent off small tests rather than dialogue. Not for anyone waiting to be told what the case holds.