Hear Me Out: ‘XXX’ is the ultimate forbidden love movie
Xander ‘XXX’ Cage is a thrill-seeking extreme sports enthusiast turned unlikely American spy, and Yelena, a Russian operative abandoned by her country. Their story is one of forbidden love, a modern-day Romeo and Juliet. Although XXX was initially criticised for its over-the-top action, clichéd dialogue, and Vin Diesel’s deadpan delivery, watching it 22 years later uncovers an unexpected layer beneath the absurd spy spectacle.
From the very beginning, the film relies on the age-old dichotomy of East and West. It opens with a tuxedo-clad American agent being pursued through the head-banging crowd of a Russian heavy-metal club, where he is ultimately shot and crowd-surfed over the heads of the barbaric partiers. Then we cut to suave-yet-scarred Samuel L Jackson confidently striding through the blindingly white office of the American National Security Agency. The simple juxtaposition of these scenes tells us all we need to know about the ideological standpoint of the film: America is good, and Russia is bad.
And if Jackson’s Agent Gibbons represents the clean-white collar of the American state, then Xander Cage represents the patriotic individualism of the American people. It doesn’t matter how many rules he breaks because he is constantly breaking them for his country – even if he’s peeping at women’s underwear with a state-sanctioned X-ray gun set to penetrator mode.
Even when testing the capability of Xander, the NSA manufactures a classic diner robbery – a la Pulp Fiction – to test his willingness to defend an American institution. Another test follows this in the heart of a Colombian narco operation, where Xander emerges an amalgamation of Apocalypse Now’s Captain Willard and ‘The Cooler King’ from the Great Escape. Except he does one better than Steve McQueen and even makes it over the wire.
But wait, this age-old dichotomy is threatened when Xander falls for the waifish yet ruthless girlfriend of Yorgi, the leader of the Russian gang Anarchy 99 he was sent to infiltrate. And, even better, it turns out she’s a forgotten member of the Russian Federal Security Service. Could it be possible? The epitome of American machismo falling in love, soppy old love, with an agent of the Russian state. XXX surely thinks so. And better yet, Xander might just save her from her own country.
Despite Yelena being the antithesis of the American damsel in distress, Xander disobeys Gibbons’ orders in an attempt to save her and finish the job. So, this forbidden love story is two-fold. Not only is he forbidden from carrying out the job, but she is also a forbidden object of desire – forgotten not only by the Americans but cast aside by her disorganised, forgetful, and heartless country.
This is more than the quintessential forbidden love story. These are not two rival houses of the same country, nor the bad boy going after the favourite daughter. XXX displays a triumph of love over ideology. This is the West falling in love with the East; this is the Berlin Wall falling and leaving the hot Russian women free to fall in love with the American dream. This is the fantasy of a teenage utopian.
Thus, XXX is the ultimate forbidden love story, as it eschews the damning realism of Romeo and Juliet, allowing our lovers to emerge renewed, changed and still very much alive. Not only does Xander save Yelena and Prague, but his love transforms her into the epitome of the perfect woman: an American.
