My first thought for this article was to focus only on the film, Ronin, starring Robert De Niro, but I found, after meditating on its real appeal to me, that Ronin is just one element in a career that puts De Niro into the role of a warrior.

And seeing this fellows work as a whole teaches us more about the martial artist than looking at the individual pieces.

To be sure Ronin is great work, a tense and enjoyable action picture set in France. De Niro plays an ex-CIA operative who is out of work and looking for a gig. He signs on with a crew that is tasked, by whom we arent sure, to recover a case, which contains something super-valuable, but we dont know what.

There is one of the best car chase sequences ever put on the screen, and I recall reading that the film company crashed a few hundred vehicles in the process. Youll believe it, when you see it.

Jean Reno, currently featured in the film, DaVinci Code, is also in Ronin, playing a good natured sidekick to De Niro. They make a great team, and youll enjoy watching them as their respect for each others skills and styles grows.

It occurred to me that De Niro is substantially the same guy in a lot of films, but in his case, like that of John Wayne, Gary Cooper, and even perhaps, Tom Hanks, it wears well.

Basically, what I see in De Niro is the ethos of a battler, a warrior, and a martial artist.

Watch him, as I did last night in the film, Sleepers, where he plays a priest in Hells Kitchen, New York. Hes the same, thoughtful man of action that you see in a picture he directed, which I also commend to you, A Bronx Tale.

Hes someone who has a moral compass, a code by which hes steering his life. While he may be the young Vito Corleone, a criminal in Godfather II, hes a family man, and hes also a mans man, taking care of his pals.

De Niro is a guy that can keep a secret, wont rat on his friends, will come through in a jam, and can take a hit, and the pain that comes along with it.

Circumstances surrounding De Niros characters are always ambiguous. There is no black and white, morally, when he steps into the frame.

But he stays the same, amidst the flux.

In Ronin, were treated to an update of The Samurais Code, where honor and duty are uppermost. In a lot of other De Niro features, we see the Code of The Streets, specifically of the neighborhoods in which he grew up.

Are they the same thing?

Check out a few of De Niro DVDs and have your own private film festival, and then decide for yourself.

And either starting with or ending with Ronin is a good idea!