10 Things You Didn’t Know About Silent Night

It seems like each year there is a new film released trying to be that big holiday crowd pleaser. Last year was Violent Night and this year we got the American return of John Woo in the director’s chair for Silent Night. It’s a film that feels like it fits in with the current landscape of action hits. The John Wick’s and the Nobody’s of the world. They all have a similar visceral tone to them and they all work in their own ways. If you’re reading this site then you’re probably a big lover of action cinema so you were most likely as excited about the of John Woo as the rest of us. Well, here are 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Silent Night.

1. Silent Night marks John Woo’s first American film since 2003’s Paycheck.

2. The fictional police precinct is called “Las Palomas” which means “The Doves” in Spanish. Woo is known for his slow motion use of doves in his films.

3. The bird outside of Brian’s hospital room is a Blue Masked Lovebird. They are monogamous and mate for life. The fact that the birds are not native to that part of the U.S. means that it was most likely a pet at some point.

4. Joel Kinnaman’s friends thought he would have more time to pal around since he didn’t have a bunch of lines to memorize but he felt his job was made more difficult since he couldn’t use his voice. He had to constantly bring the intensity to every scene through his eyes and facial expressions and he realized that staying in that mode for the duration of the film would be extra demanding.

5. Since there wasn’t any dialogue, the actors and even the camera operators had the ability to make changes and go with new ideas during the shots. They weren’t beholden to the script like in most movies.

6. As a producer on the film, Kinnaman had brought a stunt team and very specific style of action that he wanted to bring in the fight sequences. Joel’s character wasn’t someone with special fighting skills or anything so they didn’t feel the need for him to be a fighter using lots of technical moves. This led to the fights feeling much more chaotic in nature.

7. Kinnaman’s comfort with the stunt team gave them a confidence to try more improvisation during the fight sequences. While the anchor points during the fights or the big moves were all choreographed, they had moments that were in between many of the moves which gave the fights a less clean and ugly feel to it. They were very cognizant of not making the scenes feel too choreographed.

8. Kinnaman did a majority of his stunts. He says that he did most of the “dirty” ones. The ones that you would normally zoom out and have a stuntman do, were instead done by Joel. While not filming, Joel trains 4 times or more a week to maintain his physicality, so preparing for the film meant he would ramp up his training regimen of BJJ, boxing, and Thai boxing.

9. Joel Kinnaman planned to not talk during the entirety of the shoot. He was going to be a method actor for the first time in his career. After talking to his wife and his relationship guru, they decided to go for it. He then went to set in Mexico City and called his wife. He decided that he would only be silent on set. Then, after that also didn’t feel right, he just decided to talk like a normal person.

10. The garage fight scene was done using minimal camera set-ups and very few cuts. This meant that the actors on screen would be forced to do most of the stunts. You couldn’t just cut away and throw a stunt man in.