Summary
- Renny Harlin is a Finnish director who has achieved international success, particularly in the action genre.
- Harlin's career includes hits like Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger, as well as flops such as Driven and Cutthroat Island.
- Recent projects like The Bricklayer show Harlin's resurgence in American cinema after a shift to Chinese cinema.
Not many Finnish directors have become American household names, but Renny Harlin is one of them. That is, in terms of directors not named Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese, or Steven Spielberg's ability to become household names. If anything, it's a group of one, as Harlin is arguably the most internationally successful Finnish filmmaker, at least when it comes to box office reliability.
Even if you don't know his name, if you have any affinity for the action genre at all, you've surely seen at least one of his many films over the course of a nearly 40-year career. That's an impressive duration, and it's a career that's produced a number of winners, such as The Bricklayer, the action film starring Aaron Eckhart, which is now trending on Netflix (you can stream it here). But we'll get to that later. For now, let's start at the beginning.
Like Many Successful Auteurs, Renny Harlin Started in Horror
Harlin's first film, which he also co-wrote, was a little Finnish actioner called Born American. Originally intended to be a Chuck Norris vehicle, he backed out and was replaced by his son, Mike. It wasn't a worldwide hit, but it opened a very important door for Harlin...the door to American cinema.
The first American project under his belt wasn't a major one, but it was interesting. Produced by Charles Band for Empire Pictures (before Band started Full Moon Productions), Prison is a unique slasher. Led by none other than Viggo Mortensen, it's a revenge tale where an undead man, executed for a murder he didn't commit, seeks to exact vengeance on the warden who oversaw his demise.
Prison was released in March 1988, at least in the United States, but it didn't make much of a splash at the box office. Come August of the same year, however, Harlin helmed the financially successful slasher film A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, which reached $50 million at the box office on a $13 million budget.
After the success of The Dream Master, Harlin's talent became a bit of a hot commodity. And, to that point, he was the director slated to helm Alien³ before creative differences led to him being replaced by David Fincher in his directorial debut. That said, the latter had a notoriously difficult time getting the final result in line with his vision and probably wouldn't have minded too much if Harlin had remained at the helm. But, all's well that ends well; Fincher has had a legendary career, and, on Harlin's end, he was swiftly snatched up by 20th Century Fox.
Renny Harlin Had to Survive a Box Office Flop
On paper, crafting a project around the divisive stylings of Andrew Dice Clay was a fine idea. After all, Eddie Murphy's comedy had proved controversial from time to time, yet Beverly Hills Cop was the highest grossing film of 1984. The often-insufferable (even for those who liked his comedy) The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, however, faced a different fate than Axel Foley's first adventure. That means critically as much as it means commercially. It could have substantially derailed Harlin's career, but thankfully, it was being edited at the same time as his next film (literally just one week): Die Hard 2.
While Die Hard 2 isn't quite as successful a narrative as the first film, it's not too far behind. Harlin's proclivity for tight pacing is an asset to the film, just like the shift to an airport locale. McClane seems a little more rough around the edges, but that's not a fatal flaw (if anything, it's logical considering what he'd been through at Nakatomi Plaza), even if it can make the film seem like there's not a pleasant character in sight.