Way of the Gun, The: Steelbook (4K UHD Review)
- Review Date: Jul 25, 2025
- Format: 4K Ultra HD
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Director
Christopher McQuarrieRelease Date(s)
2000 (June 17, 2025)Studio(s)
Artisan Entertainment/Aqaba Productions (Lionsgate Limited)- Film/Program Grade: B+
- Video Grade: A-
- Audio Grade: A-
- Extras Grade: B+
Review
Christopher McQuarrie made a name for himself with his screenplay for Bryan Singer’s The Usual Suspects in 1995, although it was actually his second script for a Singer film. Yet The Usual Suspects is the one that turned him into an overnight sensation, taking home the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and securing his reputation. A few years later, he parlayed that success into making his directorial debut with The Way of the Gun, which wasn’t as well received and managed to keep him from stepping behind the camera again for more than a decade after that. Yet a funny thing happened during that span of time: he met Tom Cruise while working on Singer’s Valkyrie in 2008 and the two of them hit it off well enough that McQuarrie ended up directing Jack Reacher in 2012. That led to McQuarrie helming four straight Mission: Impossible films, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Yet as McQuarrie’s work on that franchise has progressed, something has gotten lost in the process. He’s far more confident and polished as a director, yet that polish has led to him overworking (and overthinking) things, leading to the hopelessly bloated and overwrought Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (otherwise known as Mission: Impossible – The Interminable Exposition to anyone who’s seen it). While McQuarrie himself would doubtless disagree with this sentiment, in many respects, The Way of the Gun is a far more interesting than anything he’s done for the world of franchise filmmaking. It may have some rough edges, yet flawed but fascinating films are often much more rewarding than polished but dull ones. It’s hard to imagine The Final Reckoning yielding much of anything beyond its superficial entertainment value no matter how many times that you watch it, but The Way of the Gun is an open text that offers new nuggets with each and every viewing. If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if you crossed Sam Peckinpah with Michael Mann, look no further than The Way of the Gun. It’s an even grungier version of The Getaway melded with the firearms proficiency of Heat.
McQuarrie wrote the screenplay for The Way of the Gun in a matter of days, but he did it during a period in which he still cared about narrative construction rather than just using story as a framework in order to string together a bunch of clever but otherwise disconnected set pieces. It’s messy and tight, all at the same time, and that’s part of the charm of The Way of the Gun. Parker (Ryan Phillippe) and Longbaugh (Benicio Del Toro) are two ne’er-do-wells who overhear that a woman named Robin (Juliette Lewis) is being paid a cool $1 million in order to be a surrogate mother for a wealthy childless couple, the Chidducks (Scott Wilson and Kristen Lehman). So, without putting much thought into it, they hatch a scheme to kidnap Robin and hold her for ransom. That puts them in the crossfire of Robin’s bodyguards Jeffers (Taye Diggs) and Obecks (Nicky Katt), but worse, it draws the attention of the Chidduck’s enforcer Joe Sarno (James Caan). Robin’s doctor Allen (Dylan Kussman) gets involved as well, as does Sarno’s old friend Abner (Geoffrey Lewis). There’s more going on with all of these people than meets the eye, but there’s also more to Parker and Longbaugh than may be obvious at first glance. Yet will it be enough?
As a few of those names prove, McQuarrie is sometimes a bit too clever for his own good, peppering The Way of the Gun with references to things like exploitation directors and even indirect nods to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Yet he was working in astonishingly direct mode as well, nowhere better than during the film’s opening, which establishes the give-no-fucks nature of Parker and Longbaugh as simply and efficiently as possible. They’re standing outside of a club, carelessly sitting on the hood of someone else’s car and completely ignoring the fact that they just set off the alarm. When they’re confronted by the owner and his foul-mouthed girlfriend (Sarah Silverman, credited as “Raving Bitch,”) they realize that they’re outnumbered by the crowd and are going to get their asses kicked anyway, so they punch out the girlfriend first since they know that means her boyfriend will bear the brunt of it when the two of them get home. The whole scene is set to a perfectly chosen piece of source music, Rip This Joint by the Rolling Stones:
“Rip this joint, gonna get down low
Then slip it right across into Buffalo
Gonna roll this joint, gonna get down low
’Round and ’round and ’round we’ll go
Wham, bam, Birmingham
Alabama don’t give a damn
Little Rock fit to drop
Ah, should just let it rock”
‘Round and ‘round and ‘round they’ll go indeed, and when they end up battered and bruised, lying alone on the hard pavement, that moment will be echoed in the final shot of the film. There are a lot of hard miles in between those two points, as Parker explains in his voiceover narration: “The longest distance between two points is a kidnapper and his money.” Yet while they’ve bitten off more than they can chew with their impulsive plan, they’re not without skills of their own. McQuarrie doesn’t offer any real background for Parker and Longbaugh other than defining their characters by what they do, but he didn’t take any chances in that regard, bringing in his brother Doug, a former Navy Seal, in order to train the actors and choreograph the action.
As a result, the weapon handling in The Way of the Gun is a cut above the usual action fare, rivaling that of Michael Mann films like Thief, Heat, and Collateral. Parker and Longbaugh keep their fingers off the triggers unless they intend to shoot, and they always move in calm, controlled fashion, in full cover formation when necessary. Even the bodyguards Jeffers and Obecks display professionalism with their weaponry. Parker and Longbaugh may not be professionals, but they’re skilled at what they do on the tactical level, even if their strategic planning leaves something to be desired. They clearly have experience with the way of the gun, but not enough experience in the ways of life—although they’re good at improvising, as the unusual car chase in The Way of the Gun demonstrates.
Still, there’s no substitute for the experience that’s represented by James Caan as Sarno. It’s his last great performance, working in full Thief mode—in fact, Sarno could be a jaded Frank twenty years down the road from his experiences in that film, right down to his no-contraction speech cadences: “And then I will have my druthers. And I can promise you a day of reckoning that you will not live long enough to never forget.” Parker and Longbaugh may not give a fuck, but Sarno has no fucks left to give, moving with ice in his veins at all times. Yet he still senses that they’re kindred spirits with him, albeit less experienced kindred spirits, and he forms an oddball relationship with pair (especially Longbaugh) even while he pursues them to the bitter end.
That ending involves a suitably over-the-top Peckinpah style shootout set at a seedy Mexican hotel. It’s the one moment where McQuarrie allows dramatic value to supersede technical accuracy (reloads are carefully timed throughout most of the film, but the guns seem to have endless ammunition during the finale). Wham, bam, Birmingham, Parker and Longbaugh don’t give a damn, but you can only go ‘round and ‘round for so long until you’re finally gonna get down low. The Way of the Gun concludes on a somewhat ambiguous note, but regardless of what happens to Parker and Longbaugh after this particular shootout, the way of the gun is going to catch up with them eventually. Yet they’ll probably just let it rock anyway.
Cinematographer Dick Pope shot The Way of the Gun on 35mm film using Moviecam SL and Compact cameras with Cooke S4 spherical lenses, framed at 1.85:1 for its theatrical release. This version is based on a 4K scan of the original camera negative, cleaned up and graded for High Dynamic Range in both Dolby Vision and HDR10. (All digital remastering work was handled by FotoKem.) Needless to say, it’s a huge upgrade compared to the previous Lionsgate Blu-ray, which was problematic even for 2009 and it hasn’t worn well ever since. All of the obvious digital tinkering has been stripped away, with the only remaining issue being some occasionally unnatural-looking grain that’s either baked into the new master or else a problem with the encode. It’s only noticeable if you go looking for it, however, and in all other respects this remaster looks excellent. Fine details like the freckles on Dylan Kussman’s face and the subtle imperfections in Juliette Lewis’ face are now much clearer than they were before, the contrast range is vastly improved (which also helps the perception of detail), and the warm earthen tones and cool blues, greens, and teals of Pope’s cinematography have been reproduced perfectly.
Audio is offered in English Dolby Atmos, with optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles. The Way of the Gun was released theatrically in 5.1, and that original mix hasn’t been included in this version. Fortunately, the new Atmos track (created at NBCUniversal StudioPost) is evolutionary, not revisionary, and it respects the nature of the original 5.1 mix without straying too far from it. The soundstage has been expanded subtly to take advantage of the additional channels, but without ever drawing too much attention to itself. The dynamics are impressive and the gunfire remains as bold as ever, sounding appropriately thunderous against the quiet background noises. Joel Kramer’s memorable score has also been given new life in Atmos. It’s not a hyperaggressive surround mix like the ones in most modern action films, but it’s well-suited to the material.
The Lionsgate Limited 4K Ultra HD Steelbook release of The Way of the Gun is UHD only—there’s no Blu-ray included in the package. It does offer a Digital Code on a paper insert tucked inside, however. The Steelbook itself features new artwork, and there’s also a lenticular slipcover (although it’s not 3D). The following extras are included:
- Audio Commentary by Christopher McQuarrie and Joe Kraemer
- Score Audio Commentary by Joe Kraemer
- Intention is Everything (HD – 20:50)
- Trigger Discipline (HD – 8:42)
- Cast Interviews:
- Ryan Phillipe (Upscaled SD – 1:34)
- Benicio Del Toro (Upscaled SD – :54)
- Juliette Lewis (Upscaled SD – 1:35)
- Taye Diggs (Upscaled SD – 1:27)
- Nicky Katt (Upscaled SD – :55)
- James Caan (Upscaled SD – 1:01)
- Theatrical Trailer (Upscaled SD – 2:17)
- TV Spot (Upscaled SD – :42)
Both commentaries were originally recorded for the 2001 DVD from Artisan. For the main track, McQuarrie is joined by Joel Kraemer, who acts as something of an unofficial moderator to keep things moving (a fact that McQuarrie teases him about at one point). McQuarrie starts by explaining how the opening scene was inspired (loosely) by something that had happened to him, and that he had the scene before he wrote anything else. As the story evolved, he wanted to use it as a fake trailer for another film to make a joke about how his characters didn’t really need backstories, but he eventually used it for real as a way of showing that they weren’t supposed to be sympathetic. He says that his big rule is to find what you’re trying to say and then not actually say it (a rule that he appears to have forgotten as his career has progressed). He tells plenty of stories about how he learned directing on the fly, taking suggestions where appropriate (the bullet wounds and other scars on Sarno were James Caan’s idea). He also talks about his influences (and apologizes to Sam Peckinpah along the way) and explains some technical details like how his brother Doug provided training for the actors on the way of the gun.
Kraemer goes solo for a second commentary about the film’s music, both his score and the various pieces of source music like the Rolling Stones song. It also functions as an isolated score track, letting selections from his work play out unaccompanied and then following it up with Kraemer’s thoughts. He breaks down why he made the choices that he did, and also explains how the score evolved (at one point, they were going to have a closing credits song but ultimately decided to opt for traditional closing title music instead).
Lionsgate has added two new interviews for this release. Intention is Everything is with art director Thomas Meyer and production designer Maia Javan, who explain how they became involved with the production and then describe their work on the film, including the various locations and sets. They loved the fact that The Way of the Gun embraced the environments in which it was shot, and they also enjoyed working with Christopher McQuarrie’s brother Doug, who was involved from the early pre-production stages. Trigger Discipline is with property master Ian Roylance, who was just as instrumental in staging the gun action as Doug was. Yet they weren’t the only ones, either; Christopher McQuarrie is a gun nut of his own and had already decided which guns that he wanted to use while he was writing the script. Roylance went on to work on Taylor Sheridan’s series Yellowstone, and says that he was pleased to discover that Sheridan was a fan of The Way of the Gun.
The rest of the extras consist of a variety of different Cast Interviews that were recorded on set. They’re typical EPK fare on not really worth the time, but it’s still nice to have them included for archival purposes. The only thing that’s missing is some equally limited behind-the-scenes footage that was included on some of the DVD release of The Way of the Gun, but it wasn’t carried forward onto Blu-ray, and it’s not included here either (although to be fair, some of it is reused in the new interviews). So, unless you’re really, really attached to the original 5.1 mix, there’s no reason to bother holding onto the old Blu-ray. Place it into an appropriate receptacle and don’t look back. Lionsgate’s new UHD for The Way of the Gun is the only way to rock.
- Stephen Bjork
(You can follow Stephen on social media at these links: Twitter, Facebook, BlueSky, and Letterboxd).