Proof of Life (2000)

Director:

Taylor Hackford

Writers (WGA):

Tony Gilroy (written by)
William Prochnau (article) (inspiration)

Release Date:

8 December 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Romance | Thriller

Plot:

Alice hires a professional negotiator to obtain the release of her engineer husband, who has been kidnapped by anti-government guerrillas in South America.

Plot Keywords:

Negotiator | Ransom | South America | Money | Box Office Flop

Awards:

5 nominations

Cast

Meg Ryan	...	Alice Bowman
Russell Crowe	...	Terry Thorne
David Morse	...	Peter Bowman
Pamela Reed	...	Janis Goodman
David Caruso	...	Dino
Anthony Heald	...	Ted Fellner
Stanley Anderson	...	Jerry
Gottfried John	...	Eric Kessler
Alun Armstrong	...	Wyatt
Michael Kitchen	...	Ian Havery
Margo Martindale	...	Ivy
Mario Ernesto Sánchez	...	Arturo Fernandez (as Mario Ernesto Sanchez)
Pietro Sibille	...	Juaco
Vicky Hernández	...	Maria (as Vicky Hernandez)
Norma Martínez	...	Norma (as Norma Martinez)

Also Known As:

Prueba de vida (Argentina) (Spain) [es]
Доказательство жизни (Russia) [ru]
Apodeixi zois (Greece) [el]
Dokaz zivljenja (Slovenia) [sl]
L'échange (France) [fr]
Lebenszeichen (Germany) (short title) [de]
Lebenszeichen - Proof of Life (Germany) [de]
Livstecken (Finland: Swedish title) [sv]
Livstegn (Denmark) [da]
Preuve de vie (Canada: French title) [fr]
Prova de Vida (Brazil) [pt]
Rapimento e riscatto (Italy) [it]
Todistettavasti elossa (Finland) [fi]
Yasam kaniti (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Znak zivljenja (Slovenia) [sl]

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, language and some drug material.

Runtime:

135 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish | Russian | Italian | French

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Malaysia:18PL | Iceland:14 | Iceland:16 (video rating) | Philippines:PG-13 | Argentina:Atp | Australia:M | Chile:TE | Denmark:15 | Finland:K-15 | France:U | Germany:12 (w) | Hong Kong:IIB | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:M | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | South Korea:12 | Spain:7 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Ecuador

Company:

Castle Rock Entertainment

Trivia:

One of the names of the hostages on the white board in the London Office is "Idziak" - the director of photography for this film is Slawomir Idziak.

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The grenade Dino throws into the hut is a noise/flash distraction device, commonly called a "flashbang." Flashbang grenades do not detonate and fragment like antipersonnel grenades, so it would be normal to see the spent grenade body lying on the floor.

Quotes:

Alice Bowman: Things don't happen for a reason. They just happen.

Movie Connections:

References Soldier of Fortune (1955)

Soundtrack:

I'll Be You Lover, Too

Maybe A Little Old Fashioned To Be Truly Effective

Maureen O'Hara stars in a movie where her husband gets kidnapped those damn commies in South East Asia so she hires tough and dashing soldier of fortune Clark Gable to save the day

That's not the cast or the location of PROOF OF LIFE but it does have a very similar plot . Did someone mention this was a 1940s matinée blockbuster ? Just curious because while I was watching the movie I was struck by how old fashioned everything felt . Russell Crowe plays an Aussie who served in the SAS and saves a Frenchman from the Chechens in the opening sequence , but you could have had Gable playing an American paratrooper saving someone from the Red Army on the River Elbe in May 1945 . Different actor , different period of history , different enemy but still the same basic story with the action switching from Europe to say South East Asia in 1950

That's not to say PROOF OF LIFE is a bad film . It's not and I found it mainly entertaining though perhaps a little too long . It's just that it is so old fashioned that you can see where the predictable story threads are going to begin and end . You can't deny that both the cast and action scenes are good , it's just that you also can't stop thinking it would have been better if it'd been filmed in monochrome and directed by Michael Curtiz with no bad language or sexual references