I'll be the first to admit that this isn't the kind of film that I would normally watch. And the film seemed a non-starter to begin with, with none of the characters seeming particularly interesting to me. Of course, that all changed when Russell Crowe as Colin made his first appearance onscreen. I've seen him in several other films in much higher-profile roles (The Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Master and Commander) and I can't honestly say that he made more of an impression on me in those films than he did in this little film that most people have probably never even heard of.

This movie started out extremely slowly and gathered steam as it went along. I was uncertain at first whether I would be able to sit through the whole thing, but when it got to the part where getaway driver Colin bumps off the guy who is about to kill bank robbery hostage Midori (Yoki Kudo) even though she didn't do anything wrong (other than a lot of crying, moaning and whining), I knew I was going to stay tuned until the end. That's one of the things that distinguishes revenge tragedies; the hero does some act that sets in motion most of the other acts that eventually lead to his downfall. In this case, the man killed by Colin has a father and a brother who are not amused. I was reminded of Verdi's opera La forza del destino, where the hero Alvaro accidentally kills the father of the heroine Leonora in the course of an elopement, setting off the chain of events that ends with Alvaro also killing Leonora's hell-bent-on-revenge brother Carlo, who nonetheless manages to kill Leonora just before he dies. Getting back to Heaven's Burning, Midori also plays her part in her ultimate fate by running off and leaving her newlywed and rather boring husband Yukio (Kenji Isomura). Many folks have commented on the racist aspects of the plot; however, the fact that Midori and Yukio are both Japanese adds an additional layer to the story that would not be present otherwise, since Yukio's attempt at revenge is not only motivated by love but much more by the fact that he has been dishonored (he even tells his friend that he can't return to Japan from Australia, where he took Midori for their honeymoon). So both Colin and Midori have done things that lead to their ultimate downfalls, and just to make sure their fate is sealed, they have gotten the cops involved by robbing a bank.

One other point where I was not certain I would be able to sit through the movie was the graphic torture scene. I couldn't even take comfort in the fact that Colin had to live through it because they couldn't kill Russell Crowe off, because I wasn't certain he was a big enough star by this point that he would be considered indispensable to the rest of the plot (he was). And other reviewers have pointed out that there is an awful lot of violence in this movie, some of it gratuitous. Was it really necessary, for example, for Yukio to shoot the friend who managed to dig up for him a gun that could not be traced?

The plot continues to build in intensity as the movie progresses, with a very few scenes of relief: the sex scene with its initial hints of bondage (there's probably some sort of symbolism here) and the delightful comic relief of Colin Hay as Jonah, the wheelchair-bound accordionist who drives everyone crazy with his playing of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, another one who for no discernible reason gets killed. Surely his playing wasn't that bad...

And speaking of Wagner, what really grabbed my attention was the final six or so minutes of the movie, played to the accompaniment of the Liebestod (love-death) music from the composer's Tristan und Isolde. Crowe, having been shot by Yukio before Yukio in turn is killed by Midori, is really superb here. It's very moving to watch the dying Colin try to reassure Midori by talking to her about the healing qualities of the beach where she is taking him, while smoking a cigarette at the same time (and he even has his seat belt on!). I won't give away the final part of the plot, other than to say that Wagner fans will recognize G?tterd?mmerung in the ending. I didn't think it was possible to make a more effective use of the Liebestod than Jean Negulesco did when he used it to accompany Joan Crawford's walking off into the ocean at the end of Humoresque; however, I found myself watching the ending of this movie over and over again, and I'm sure it was mostly for the music.

Overall a fascinating film, which I've given four stars to instead of five because of some of the gratuitous violence. Four-and-a-half is really more like it. Anyway, it's a film that I'd be more than happy to watch again--and in fact I'm going to have to get the DVD just to turn on the subtitles and catch Crowe's final words, which are covered up by the swelling Liebestod. Nothing Russell Crowe does deserves to be missed.