Filmmaker Stuart Baird was once Ken Russell’s film editor of choice before breaking into directing. As a director Baird is known for his action films (which he often edits). Baird shoots with the editing in mind, making his death defying spectacles tightly woven complexes of rapid fire images. Few directors cut an action movie the way Baird does, and the same goes for his direction.
Executive Decision (1996) should not work. It kills off its secondary lead at the end of act one and follows a dozen narrative threads. Yet, nothing about Executive Decision feels out of place, cluttered or overly long. Baird easily juggles numerous plot threads while never losing the momentum of escalating suspense. Executive Decision works because of Baird. With anyone else at the helm Executive Decision would have crashed and burned.
At the center of each narrative thread is an excellent performance. Even characters with minimal screen time are played by outstanding performers. Kurt Russell and David Suchet are the leads but its the supporting players who really carry the film. The most notable of the dozen or more supporting actors in Executive Decision are John Leguizamo, Halle Berry, Oliver Platt, Joe Morton, B.D. Wong, J.T. Walsh, and most infamously Steven Seagal.
Executive Decision is a tighter, tauter version of the Irwin Allen films of the seventies. It is as if Walter Hill directed a film like The Towering Inferno (1974). Executive Decision is one of the great American action films of the nineties and deserves a critical reassessment.
