Parting Shots | |
---|---|
Directed by | Michael Winner |
Written by | Michael Winner (story, screenplay) Nick Mead (screenplay) |
Produced by | Michael Winner John Blezard (assistant producer) Timothy Pitt Miller (assistant producer) Ron Purdie (associate producer) |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Ousama Rawi |
Edited by | Michael Winner (credited as “Arnold Crust”) |
Music by | Les Reed Chris Rea |
Production companies | Scimitar Films Michael Winner Ltd. |
Distributed by | United International Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 99 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Parting Shots is a 1999 British dark comedy film starring Chris Rea, Felicity Kendal, Oliver Reed, Bob Hoskins, Diana Rigg, Ben Kingsley, John Cleese and Joanna Lumley. It was the final film directed by Michael Winner.
Upon release in the UK, the film gained controversy over its plot, and was widely criticised in the national press. [1] It has since been evaluated as one of the worst films ever made.
Photographer Harry Sterndale (Chris Rea) is diagnosed with stomach cancer and told he has just six weeks to live. Once a successful photographer, Harry was bankrupted by an investment scam pushed on him by his shallow ex-wife Lisa (Diana Rigg), who promptly left him for another man. After brooding for a few days, the usually mild-mannered Harry becomes set on revenge. With nothing to lose, he obtains a gun from the black market and embarks on a mission to kill all those who have wronged him, starting with Lisa. After the shooting, the police question him, but do not believe he is a killer.
Harry next targets Gerd Layton (Bob Hoskins), the corrupt financier behind the investment scam. Posing as a repair man, he sneaks into Layton's home and drowns him in his own pool. His secretary, Jill (Felicity Kendal), is aware of the murder but covers for Harry since her own parents were a victim of Layton's scam.
Brought together by the crime, Harry and Jill begin a relationship. They visit an upscale restaurant together but are abused and thrown out by the snobbish chef (Ben Kingsley). Later that night, Harry returns to the restaurant and shoots the chef in the car park. The next day Harry decides to hire a hitman, Jamie (Oliver Reed), to kill him so he can give Jill the resulting life insurance payout. Meanwhile, the police determine the gun used in the killing of the chef was the same one used to kill Lisa. The police raid Harry's house, but with no physical evidence they reluctantly let him go. He borrows from the bank as much money as he can and spends it on lavish hotels and a new car. The last two victims of his killing spree are a bully from his school days and a back-stabbing former boss. Upon returning to London, he passes the gun to Jamie since he no longer needs it.
Harry is subsequently hospitalised by his cancer, but after operating they discover he has been misdiagnosed and his stomach pains were due to a simple ulcer. After the good news, Harry and Jill decide to marry. As they are leaving their hotel, Jamie takes a shot at Harry, however he misses and accidentally kills a foreign head-of-state staying in the same hotel. Jamie is apprehended and since he was using Harry's gun and has no chance of release, he takes responsibility for all of Harry's murders in a last act of charity.
Winner came up with the basic storyline after a relationship of his had ended. Speaking to Tim Sebastian of the BBC in June 1999, Winner revealed: "We all have people we'd like to kill. Sometimes we want to kill them for a long time and sometimes it just lasts the few seconds that they're cutting you up, or being a nuisance. A girlfriend parted very nastily, and I thought 'I really wouldn't mind killing you' and five or six years later I thought, 'I still wouldn't mind.'" [1]
The majority of the cast was chosen personally by Winner, and included friends, those he had worked with professionally before, or other actors/actresses he wished to work with. Early discussions for the lead role suggested Neil Morrissey or Martin Clunes; however, when Winner met Chris Rea on a beach at Sandy Lane, Barbados, he was chosen instead. [2]
After filming had come to an end, Winner had told his personal assistant, Dinah May, that Parting Shots was likely to be his last film. Regardless, he had said working with Rea was "a real pleasure" and that he had enjoyed making the film more than any of his past ones. [2]
According to Peter Davison, John Alderton was offered the role of John Fraser. Alderton turned it down because of the violence, and the part went to Davison instead.
Parting Shots was not well received by critics, with Total Film describes Winner's work as "offensive", "incompetent" and "bad in every possible way". [3] Andrew Collins gave a strongly negative review of the film: "Parting Shots... is going to set the course of British film-making back 20 years. It is not only the worst British film produced in this country since Carry On Emmannuelle (quite a feat in itself), it is a thoroughbred contender for the crown of Worst Film Ever Made". [4] In a hostile overview of Winner's films, Christopher Tookey claimed "Parting Shots is not only the most horrible torture for audiences that Winner has ever devised. It is also profoundly offensive, even by Winner's standards". [5]
Charlotte O'Sullivan, The Independent's film editor, claimed Parting Shots was "the worst film I've ever seen". O'Sullivan also took issue with the film for glorifying vigilantism: "It's Michael Winner and you know, he doesn't have any sense of irony. He seems to be saying it is okay to go and kill people". [6] The journalist Miles Kington later claimed that despite the film's "glittering cast", it "was possibly the worst film ever made". [7] In its entry on Michael Winner, the book Contemporary British and Irish Film Directors claimed Parting Shots "makes a bold challenge for the hotly contested mantle of worst British film ever made." [8] British film historian I.Q. Hunter, discussing the question "What is the worst British film ever made?", listed Parting Shots as one of the candidates for that title. [9]
Brazil is a 1985 dystopian science-fiction black comedy film directed by Terry Gilliam and written by Gilliam, Charles McKeown, and Tom Stoppard. The film stars Jonathan Pryce and features Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Michael Palin, Katherine Helmond, Bob Hoskins, and Ian Holm.
The Good Life is a British sitcom, produced by BBC television. It ran from 4 April 1975 to 10 June 1978 on BBC 1 and was written by Bob Larbey and John Esmonde. Opening with the midlife crisis of Tom Good, a 40-year-old plastics designer, it relates the joys and setbacks he and his wife Barbara experience when they attempt to escape a modern "rat race" lifestyle by "becoming totally self-sufficient" in their suburban house in Surbiton. In 2004, it came 9th in Britain's Best Sitcom. The lead roles are taken by Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal.
Felicity Ann Kendal is an English actress, working principally in television and theatre. She has appeared in numerous stage and screen roles over a more than 70-year career, including as Barbara Good in the television series The Good Life from 1975 to 1977. Kendal was born in Olton, England, but moved to India with her family from the age of seven. Her father was an English actor-manager who led his own repertory company on tours of India, and Kendal appeared in roles for the company both before and after leaving England. She appeared in the film Shakespeare Wallah (1965) which was inspired by her family.
Robert William Hoskins was an English actor and film director. Known for his intense but sensitive portrayals of "tough guy" characters, he began his career on stage before making his screen breakthrough playing Arthur Parker on the 1978 BBC Television serial Pennies from Heaven. He subsequently played acclaimed lead roles in the films The Long Good Friday (1980), Mona Lisa (1986), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), and Mermaids (1990).
Sir William Sterndale Bennett was an English composer, pianist, conductor and music educator. At the age of ten Bennett was admitted to the London Royal Academy of Music (RAM), where he remained for ten years. By the age of twenty, he had begun to make a reputation as a concert pianist, and his compositions received high praise. Among those impressed by Bennett was the German composer Felix Mendelssohn, who invited him to Leipzig. There Bennett became friendly with Robert Schumann, who shared Mendelssohn's admiration for his compositions. Bennett spent three winters composing and performing in Leipzig.
Love Actually is a 2003 Christmas romantic comedy film written and directed by Richard Curtis. The Christmas film features an ensemble cast, composed predominantly of British actors, many of whom had worked with Curtis in previous projects. An international co-production of the United Kingdom, United States, and France, it was mostly filmed on-location in London. The film delves into different aspects of love as shown through 10 separate stories involving a variety of individuals, many of whom are interlinked as the plot progresses. The story begins five weeks before Christmas and is played out in a weekly countdown until the holiday, followed by an epilogue that takes place in the New Year.
Shakespeare Wallah is a 1965 Merchant Ivory Productions film. The story and screenplay are by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, about a travelling family theatre troupe of English actors in India, who perform Shakespeare plays in towns across India, amidst a dwindling demand for their work and the rise of Hindi film industry. Madhur Jaffrey won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 15th Berlin International Film Festival for her performance. The music was composed by Satyajit Ray.
Son of the Mask is a 2005 superhero comedy film directed by Lawrence Guterman. A standalone sequel to The Mask (1994), it is the second and final installment in The Mask franchise, an adaptation of the comic book series of the same name by Dark Horse Comics. The film stars Jamie Kennedy as Tim Avery, an aspiring animator whose child is born with the powers of the Mask. It co-stars Alan Cumming as Loki, whom Odin has ordered to find the Mask, alongside Traylor Howard, Kal Penn, Steven Wright, Bob Hoskins as Odin, and Ryan and Liam Falconer as Tim's baby Alvey. Ben Stein cameos as Doctor Arthur Neuman from the original film. The film was a critical and financial failure upon release, grossing $59.9 million against its $84–100 million budget.
James Edward Fleet is an English actor of theatre, radio and screen. He is most famous for his roles as the bumbling and well-meaning Tom in the 1994 British romantic comedy film Four Weddings and a Funeral and the dim-witted but kind hearted Hugo Horton in the BBC sitcom television series The Vicar of Dibley.
Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, or simply, Aag (transl. Fire) is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language action drama film produced and directed by Ram Gopal Varma. The film features Mohanlal, Amitabh Bacchan, Ajay Devgn, Prashant Raj Sachdev, Sushmita Sen, J. D. Chakravarthy, and Suchitra Krishnamoorthi in principal roles. The film is an adaptation of the 1975 Hindi film Sholay, upon release, it was negatively received by the critics. It is considered one of the worst films made.
Desperate Hours is a 1990 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by Michael Cimino. It is a remake of the 1955 film of the same name and an adaptation the 1954 novel by Joseph Hayes, who also co-wrote the script with Cimino based on a treatment by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal. Cimino was not credited as writer on the finished product. The film stars Mickey Rourke, Anthony Hopkins, Mimi Rogers, Kelly Lynch, Lindsay Crouse, Elias Koteas and David Morse. It marks Cimino's third collaboration with Rourke, having previously worked with him on the films Heaven's Gate and Year of the Dragon.
Bryan Elsley is a Scottish television writer, best known for the co-creation of E4 teen drama Skins with his son, Jamie Brittain. Other television dramas include Rose and Maloney, The Young Person's Guide to Becoming a Rock Star, The Crow Road, Dates, and Kiss Me First.
The Cool Mikado is a British musical film released in 1963, directed by Michael Winner starring Frankie Howerd, Lionel Blair and Stubby Kaye. It was produced by Harold Baim, with music arranged by Martin Slavin and John Barry. The script was written by Michael Winner from an adaptation by Maurice Browning.
Saw IV is a 2007 horror film directed by Darren Lynn Bousman from a screenplay by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, and a story by Melton, Dunstan, and Thomas Fenton. It is the fourth installment in the Saw film series and a sequel to 2006's Saw III. The film stars Tobin Bell, Scott Patterson, Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell, and Lyriq Bent.
The Mistress is a British sitcom that first aired on BBC2 from 1985 to 1987. Starring Felicity Kendal and Jane Asher, it was written by Carla Lane.
Honey for Tea is a British sitcom that aired on BBC1 in 1994. Starring Felicity Kendal, it was written by Michael Aitkens. The series was poorly received at the time, receiving a particularly scathing review from Victor Lewis-Smith in the London Evening Standard. He later described Felicity Kendal's attempt at an American accent as 'Britain's revenge' for Dick Van Dyke's cockney accent in Mary Poppins.
Christopher Tookey is an English film critic. He has written for both The Sunday Telegraph and the Daily Mail. He has presented the Radio 4 programmes The Film Programme and Back Row. In 2013, he won the award as "Arts Reviewer of the Year" from the London Press Club.
Michael Collins is a 1996 biographical historical drama film about Michael Collins, a leading figure in the early-20th-century Irish struggle for independence against Britain. It is written and directed by Neil Jordan and stars Liam Neeson in the title role, along with Aidan Quinn, Stephen Rea, Alan Rickman, and Julia Roberts. The film was distributed by Warner Bros.
Charley Henley is a visual effects supervisor. He was nominated at the 85th Academy Awards for his work on the film Prometheus, in the category of Best Visual Effects. He shared his nomination with Martin Hill, Richard Stammers and Trevor Wood. He was also nominated at the 96th Academy Awards for his work on the film Napoleon, in the category of Best Visual Effects. He shared his nomination with Luc-Ewen Martin-Fenouillet, Simone Coco, and Neil Corbould. He is the son of the actor Drewe Henley and actress Felicity Kendal.