By DANNY STEWART (Bear Manor Media; 2024)
Author Danny Stewart is known for celebrating underrated B-movies from the 1980s and 90s. His previous books include SOLDIER: FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN, about SOLDIER (1998), and SALUTING THE BLOOD OF HEROES, about THE BLOOD OF HEROES/THE SALUTE OF THE JUGGER (1989). In SILENT TRIGGER: SHOOTING THE FILM, Stewart provides a passionate celebration of SILENT TRIGGER, a straight to video thriller that’s received very little attention (I admittedly wasn’t aware of its existence prior to reading this book).
SILENT TRIGGER (1996) Trailer
The book is highly episodic in structure, comprised of largely self-contained essays, each of which makes sure to re-remind us that SILENT TRIGGER was directed by Russell Mulcahey, headlined by Dolph Lundgren and released in 1996. Lundgren, for the record, plays a professional sniper in the film, a spare and stylish affair that’s “not just a simple action movie; instead, it goes deeper into looking at mental struggles and being trapped inside one’s thoughts as well as within a towering building.”
Lundgren and Mulcahey’s respective filmographies are given plenty of attention, as are SILENT TRIGGER’s various components (cinematography, music, production and sound design, etc.). As is his custom, Stewart makes sure to cover every conceivable aspect of his chosen film, with profiles of its co-stars Gina Bellman, Conrad Dunn and Christopher Heyerdahl, chapters on other sniper-themed films (AMERICAN SNIPER, ENEMY AT THE GATES, etc.) and conspiracy thrillers (JFK, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, etc.), and elaborations on the film’s thematic content (“The Moral Dilemma of a Government Assassin,” “The Psychological Battles and Confinement in Mind and Structure,” etc.).
There are interviews, of course, with Mulcahey, cinematographer David Franco, composer Stefano Mainetti, visual effects supervisor Francois Aubry and stuntman Jason Cavalier. Those hoping for juicy detail will be disappointed, as the shoot was evidently a smooth one, with Cavalier admitting he “didn’t have much to do” and Aubry’s major recollection involving “the producers dropping a very highly valuable Single Malt Scotch Whisky to our lab to thank the crew.”
Rounding things out are passionate dissertations by Eoin Friel (“Looking Back at SILENT TRIGGER”) and Joseph Gibson (“No Names, Just Jobs: Russell Mulcahey’s SILENT TRIGGER”). You may not share their views, but nobody can deny the infectious enthusiasm with which they’re presented.