War is messy, but as Basic proves, films about Special Forces trainees on a field exercise in the jungles of Panama during a hurricane can be even messier. When the training mission goes horribly awry, only two survive the incident, neither of them willing to talk to the military investigator assigned to the case, Capt. Julia Osborne (Connie Nielsen). This makes it necessary to call in Tom Hardy (John Travolta), an ex-Ranger turned DEA cop who is also an experienced interrogator.
One of the missing is Nathan West (Samuel L. Jackson), a sergeant feared and hated by everyone he trained. All on the exercise had their reasons for wanting him dead and several versions of events come out in the interrogations, none of them provable. As new kinks are added to the plot, what becomes most evident is each story is tainted by the storyteller’s biases and self-interests.
The film centres on the investigation and sexual tension between Osborne, who resents being told she cannot handle the situation by herself, and Hardy, who has little patience but a lot of attraction for the naïve young captain. The manufactured tension between them and the predictable love story that results is not enough to create any real chemistry. Not even a physical fight begetting sexual advances (a common trick for stirring up passion in the movies) can rescue their lukewarm connection.
But really, this coupling was never meant to be the film’s main draw. Basic was touted as the first film since Pulp Fiction to reunite Travolta and Jackson. The problem is, you don’t get to witness much on-screen interaction between them either, since Jackson’s character dies right at the beginning. Fortunately, it’s still entertaining to watch the competition between two powerful characters as they interact with the soldiers. Who has more control over the trainees? Who has deals with them better? Their paralleled characters also lead the audience to compare their acting skills. Who commands the screen the best? Travolta, with his sauntering coolness, or Jackson with his annihilating intensity?
Besides these two advertised stars, several other well-known actors make appearances, including Taye Diggs (The House on Haunted Hill), Giovanni Ribisi (SubUrbia, Saving Private Ryan) and Harry Connick Jr. (Copycat). They all play a part in what is perhaps meant to be some “Clue”-like mystery but doesn’t provide such a quick and tidy wrap-up (“Col. Mustard in the library with a pipe!”). Instead, we get bogged down in an overload of constantly shifting information, but by the end, there are enough red herrings to make the Panama Canal flow red with blood—but nothing appears any closer to a recognizable truth.
This movie does remind us that in times of war, the public will probably never know what really goes on. Even with the current CNN-saturated war, viewers are bombarded with so much information they lose interest. While one might argue this is a political strategy, it shouldn’t be the goal of filmmakers. Basic never emerges from the murky mess it creates for itself with any semblance of a well-thought out story line, or at least any story the public might actually buy.
