Each element is pushed to the limit, steeped in sentiment, swathed in dreamy hyperbolic (Gates 106). Gates argues for a subversively pro-woman, even feminist agenda in The Killer. Mulhall, Stephen. "The Impersonation of Personality: Film as Philosophy in Mission:

Impossible. "The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 64.1 (2006): 97. Platinum Periodicals, ProQuest. Web. 15 Nov. 2009.

Given that director John Woo is often credited with being the inspiration for the fragmented, postmodern style of American filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, Woo is often characterized as postmodern filmmaker himself. In other words, he is assumed to "deploy cinematic techniques with great skill, but in ways that are essentially unrelated to cinema's artistic, moral, and human ends, as established by the great cinematic works of the past" (Mulhall 99). However, Stephen Mulhall argues that Woo's portrait of a degraded Hong Kong environment and also his American-made Mission Impossible II is fundamentally modernist: a portrait of an impersonal world that seems cold not because morality is a social construction, but because real meaning has become fragmented and bankrupt. The movie mourns a loss of morality in a way that is modern rather than postmodern.

Suid, Lawrence H. "Windtalkers sends wrong message." Naval History,

16.5 (2002): 36. Research Library, ProQuest. Web....

15 Nov. 2009.
Lawrence H. Suid critiques the portrayal of Navajo code talkers in Woo's Windtalkers, arguing that Woo's film makes use of stereotypical representations of Native Americans typical of American cinema. The dramatic focus of Woo's film is on the white bodyguard of the Native American 'code talker' not the Navajo soldier, and the film implicitly defends the commanders's orders to kill the Native American "to keep the Japanese from capturing him and obtaining the code." Suid states that "Woo simply used the Pacific war as a stage on which to create generic scenes of violence that have become his trademark," and tries to avoid complex moral dilemmas.

Williams, Tony. "Face/Off: Cultural and institutional violence within the American dream." Quarterly Review of Film and Video 18.1 (2001): 31. Platinum

Periodicals, ProQuest. Web. 15 Nov. 2009.

This article views Woo through an American cinematic lens. Specifically, Face/Off's dualism recalls a Hitchcock-like fascination with the divide between self and other, instability of identity, and 'doubles,' as in the case of movies like Vertigo and Psycho. The film uses classic themes from American literature, like the Ahab-like quest of protagonist Sean Archer to kill terrorist Casper Troy. The 'Biblical' level of justified bloodshed critiques American cultural fascination with violence yet revels in…