When the Bullet Hits the Bone
When the Bullet Hits the Bone | |
---|---|
Directed by | Cinépix Film Properties (Canada) (U.S.)New Horizon Home Video |
Release dates | April 9, 1996 (Canada) March 17, 1998 (U.S.) |
Running time | 93 minutes (original cut) 82 minutes (U.S. home video) |
Country | Canada |
Language | English |
When the Bullet Hits the Bone is a 1996 Canadian thriller film written, produced and directed by Damian Lee, starring Jeff Wincott, Michelle Johnson, Douglas O'Keeffe and Torri Higginson. It concerns a doctor who turns vigilante after nearly dying in a gang-related shooting, only to discover a vast conspiracy linking the government to the importation of narcotics. In the U.S., it was broadcast as part of the Showtime anthology Roger Corman Presents.
Plot
Mentally affected by the aftermath of drug-induced violence he had been witnessing at his hospital, emergency doctor Jack Davies errs in the streets of New York in a drunken stupor. He happens upon a quarrel between a man, a woman and a group of mob henchmen who seem to chaperone her. The unknown man gets shot dead. Davies, who is deemed an undesirable witness, gets shot as well when he fails to answer a history question asked by Daemon, the lead henchman and a sadist who likes to torment his victims with increasingly difficult trivia before he kills them. However, he miraculously survives. As he lay in the street bleeding, Davies has an epiphany and decides to drop his identification cards into a nearby manhole, so as to become anonymous and signify the end of his previous life.
Meanwhile, the woman is taken back by her chaperons to drug baron Nick Turner, who keeps her in check by threatening her young daughter. Later, Turner informs Daemon that Davies has survived and sends his men to the hospital to terminate him for good. It is revealed that Turner is a drug baron so powerful that he deals directly with senators. He wants them to pass a law that will de-penalize drugs and increase his business, and he does not hesitate to use violence against one of them when he refuses to support the initiative. Turner's men arrive at the hospital, but Davies manages to escape the hospital under a hail of bullets with the help of a cooperative nurse named Allison.
Allison nurses Davies back to health, falling in love with him in the process. But the latter remains haunted by questions surrounding the altercation that nearly left him dead, and the woman who was at the center of it. However, the mobsters still haven't given up on eliminating Davies, and Allison gets killed in a drive-by shooting intended for him. Now hell bent for vengeance, the mild mannered doctor gets into vigilante mode to get to the men responsible for his predicament.
Cast
- Jeff Wincott as Jack Davies
- Michelle Johnson as Lisa
- Douglas O'Keeffe as Nick Turner
- Richard Fitzpatrick as Senator Striker
- Torri Higginson as Allison Doherty
- Phillip Jarrett as Trevor
- Roy Lewis as Daemon
- Howard Jerome as Senator Rollins
- Jennifer Pisana as Marie
- Jack Jessop as Jack Davies Sr.
- Eileen Sword as Mrs. Davies
- Jason Barbeck as Lucas
- Matthew Bennett as Trask
- Malcolm Xerxes as Clarence
Production
When the Bullet Hits the Bone was filmed during parts of June and July 1995 in
Release
The film's international sales were handled by Moonstone Entertainment.[6] The original version of the film clocks in at slightly less than 93 minutes.[7][8] The U.S. home video version was cut down to 82 minutes.[3]
Home media
In Canada, some sources announced a
In the U.S., the film was announced for August 20, 1996, on Roger Corman's New Horizon Home Video, and was screened to critics in the run-up to that date.[12] However, other sources indicate that it was actually released on March 17, 1998,[13][14] which is more consistent with the VHS' copyright date of 1997.[3] The date change may be related to the decision to retrofit the film into an anthology of films made by Corman around the same time, and set to premiere on Showtime (see below). In the U.K., the film was released on May 13, 1996, by
Television
Although there is no indication that he was involved in the actual making of it, the film was broadcast as part of the
Reception
When the Bullet Hits the Bone was negatively received. Writing for the Knight Ridder family of publications, Randy Myers panned the film as "a really bad doctor flick", "sloppily made and boring", and negatively compared it to another Canadian-shot medical thriller released the same week in the U.S., The Surgeon. He gave it zero stars.[19] The BBC's Radio Times deemed it "violent but unerringly predictable", adding that "scripting [was] lazy" and finding Wincott's character "implausible".[20] Canadian media watchdog Médiafilm, historically close to the catholic church, criticized the film's "gratuitous violence" and "unrefined direction".[21] TV Guide lambasted the film, saying: "a simplistic script, an almost non-existent budget and laughable execution [...] make When the Bullet Hits the Bone a shambles of a straight-to-video action flick."[4][22]
A discordant voice came from syndicated columnist Joe Bob Briggs, a reviewer with an affinity for so-called "drive-in" films, who extolled the film's virtues in an article entitled Violence, sex, sleaze: action flick has it all. Briggs argued that "[u]nlike most Bronson-type movies, this one moves. It twists, it turns, and doesn't even sag in the middle", while commending the film for its high tally of "[t]wenty dead bodies. Two pistol whippings. Three gun battles".[23]
Soundtrack
As with the predecessor No Exit, the film's score was composed and produced by former
References
- ^ Shot in Ontario Master Spreadsheet (Up to 2021) (Report). Ontario Film Commission. August 9, 2022. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
- ^ "Projects: Films". hdsound.fr. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
- ^ a b c d "When the Bullet Hits the Bone NH00637 – New Horizons Home Video". vhscollector.com. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
- ^ ISBN 0933997000.
- ^ Bromwich, Michael R. (December 1997). "I. Introduction". The CIA–Contra–Crack Cocaine Controversy: A Review of the Justice Department's Investigations and Prosecutions (Report). U.S. Department of Justice – Office of the Inspector General. p. 1.
- ^ Une Balle dans la peau (VHS) (in French). France: Amritraj Entertainment; Moonstone Entertainment; Fravidis. 1996.
93 minutes
- ^ "Une Balle dans la peau v.o.: When the Bullet Hits the Bone". Province of Quebec – Ministry of Culture and Communications (in French). Retrieved April 2, 2023.
- ^ "Thursday Evening". The Leader-Post TV. Regina. July 19–25, 1997. p. 37 – via newspapers.com (subscription required) .
- ^ "Sorties de vidéos en avril". Le Régional (in French). Hull. April 3, 1996. p. 12.
- ^ "New releases on video". Nanaimo Daily News. April 8, 1996. p. 5B – via newspapers.com (subscription required) .
- ^ a b "Une balle dans la peau – When the Bullet Hits the Bone". doublage.qc.ca (in French). Retrieved April 2, 2023.
- ^ a b "When the Bullet Hits the Bone: Notes". tcm.com. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
- ^ "Super Video advertisement". The Morris News. Vol. 90, no. 11. March 12, 1998. p. 7 – via newspapers.com (subscription required) .
- ^ "What to Rent Tonight". The Record. Hackensack. Chicago Tribune Services. March 21, 1998. p. YT-3 – via newspapers.com (subscription required) .
- ^ "Video Choice". Retford, Gainsborough and Worksop Times. May 16, 1993. p. 10 – via newspapers.com (subscription required) .
- ^ "Roger Corman Presents". Showtime Entertainment Guide. Showtime Networks. October 1996. pp. 6E.
- ^ "Movies". The Jackson Hole Guide. October 9, 1996. p. D14 – via newspapers.com (subscription required) .
- ^ "Monday, December 16". The Kingston Whig-Standard/TV Times. December 14, 1996. p. 32 – via newspapers.com (subscription required) .
- ^ Myers, Randy (August 23, 1996). "Stereotype flicks and you could miss a good one". Messenger-Inquirer. Owensboro. Knight Ridder. p. 7C – via newspapers.com (subscription required) .
- ISBN 0563487542.
- ^ "When the Bullet Hits the Bone". mediafilm.ca. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
- ^ "Review: When the Bullet Hits the bone". TV Guide. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
- ^ Briggs, Joe Bob (August 2, 1996). "Violence, sex, sleaze: action flick has it all". Orlando Sentinel. New York Times Special Features. p. Calendar 16 – via newspapers.com (subscription required) .
- ^ "When the Bullet Hits the Bone Soundtrack (1996) OST". ringostrack.com. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
- ^ Vernon, Jaimie. "Gowan, Lawrence". The Canadian Pop Encyclopedia. Retrieved May 29, 2023.