Travis Daves

As evidenced by the decidedly Kantian underpinnings of this masterwork, Hard Target affects profundity to what most view as, in terms of cultural opprobrium, a “vulgar moral opacity”. Still, Woo’s impeccably crafted thesis on violence in the milieu of an industrial yet antiquated American South borders on virtuosity. Van Damme’s emotional depth and candor remains an effective expression and consequent subversion of Seneca’s Stoic hero—though virtue as such would be ultimately courageous, not cowardly. The gunplay is awesome.