The Mechanic | |
---|---|
Directed by | Michael Winner |
Written by | Lewis John Carlino |
Produced by | Robert Chartoff Irwin Winkler |
Starring | Charles Bronson Jan-Michael Vincent |
Cinematography | Richard H. Kline Robert Paynter |
Edited by | Freddie Wilson (sup.) Arnold Crust Jr. |
Music by | Jerry Fielding |
Production company | Chartoff-Winkler Productions |
Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
|
Running time | 100 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $10 million |
The Mechanic is a 1972 American action thriller film directed by Michael Winner from a screenplay by Lewis John Carlino. It stars Charles Bronson, in his second collaboration with Winner, and Jan-Michael Vincent in the leading roles. The supporting cast features Keenan Wynn, Jill Ireland and Frank de Kova.
The story follows Arthur Bishop (Bronson), a top assassin who takes under his wing Steve McKenna (Vincent), the ruthless and ambitious son of Harry McKenna (Wynn), the former head of the secret organization for which Bishop works. It is noted for its opening, which features no dialogue for the first 16 minutes, as Bronson's character prepares to kill his current target. The title refers to a euphemism for hitmen.
Upon its release, the film received generally mixed reviews from critics but it was praised for its action scenes, acting and cinematography, although Winner's direction and the storytelling was criticized. A remake of the same name was released in 2011.
Arthur Bishop is a top contract killer, known as a "mechanic", who works exclusively for a secretive international criminal organization that has very strict rules. His occupation affords him a lavish lifestyle - he regularly listens to classical music, has an art collection, and is a connoisseur of fine wines. However, he is forced to live alone - he cannot show emotions or trust people. Bishop is under constant emotional pressure, so much so that he is prescribed anti-depressants. One day he is temporarily hospitalized after he loses consciousness due to the stress and anxiety. Bishop pays a call girl to have a simulated romantic social and sexual relationship, including her writing fake love letters to him.
When Bishop is assigned one of the organization's heads, "Big Harry" McKenna, he shoots at Big Harry while making him think that the shots are being fired by a hidden sniper. Harry, who Bishop knows has a weak heart, runs up a steep incline, which triggers a heart attack. Bishop then finishes Harry off by smothering him.
At Big Harry's funeral, Bishop runs into Harry's narcissistic, ruthless and ambitious son Steve. Steve is intrigued by Bishop and seeks to find out more about him. Bishop is also intrigued. He realizes that Steve has a personality suited for being a hit man, and plays along. Over the course of time, and after much pressing from Steve, Arthur finally discloses his profession. He offers to teach Steve everything he knows and make him an associate.
As part of his training, Bishop teaches Steve that "every person has a weakness, and that once this weakness is found, the target is easy to kill". However, Bishop failed to get his superiors' prior consent for the arrangement. Following a messy assassination conducted by Bishop and Steve, the organization warns Bishop that his irresponsible choice to involve Steve has been interpreted as selfish behavior.
The organization then gives Bishop an urgent mission, this time in Italy. Once again, Bishop involves Steve in the new plan, but just before they leave Bishop happens to find among Steve's belongings a file containing information about Bishop. This file is identical in format to the target files provided to Bishop. Nevertheless, Bishop allows Steve to go with him to Italy.
In Italy, Bishop and Steve approach a boat where their intended victim is supposed to be, but it is a trap and they are the real targets. Bishop and Steve are ambushed, but they manage to kill all their would-be assassins.
As they're packing their luggage in their hotel room, Steve shares a celebratory bottle of wine with Bishop, having coated the latter's glass with brucine, a colorless and deadly alkaloid. When Bishop realizes that he has been poisoned, Steve taunts Bishop, saying "You said every man has his jelly spot. Yours was you just couldn't cut it alone". When Bishop asks Steve if it was because Bishop had killed Steve's father, Steve responds that he had not realized his father was murdered. Steve goes on to reveal that he was not acting on orders to kill Bishop. Rather he says that he is an independent who will "Pick my own mark, hit when I want!"
Steve returns to Bishop's home to pick up the Ford Mustang he had left there. When he climbs into the car, ready to start it, he finds a note affixed to the rear-view mirror, which reads: "Steve, if you read this it means I didn't make it back. It also means you've broken a filament controlling a 13-second delay trigger. End of game. Bang! You're dead". As Steve frantically reaches for the door handle, he is killed when the car explodes.
The film was based on an original story by Lewis John Carlino. He said he came up with the idea while researching his script for The Brotherhood (1968). Producer Ted Dubin, a New York entrepreneur, put up some development money so that Carlino could write it. [2] Carlino called it "a sort of existential statement on the licence to kill and what is occurring in our society, how legalized murder is occurring through our institutions." [3]
Carlino formed a partnership with Dubin and producer Martin Poll. In February 1969, Carlino announced he had written two films that would be made by producer Martin Poll the following year: The Catalyst, about a wealthy man whose search for meaning leads him to start a revolution in Africa, and The Mechanic. He said The Mechanic was about "professionals who dispassionately murder people by contract" and was "a look at the nature of violence and counter-violence in our society." [4] In April 1969, it was announced that Cliff Robertson would star with Ted Dubin to produce alongside Poll for Universal. [5]
Filming was delayed. Eventually the film was sold to Chartoff-Winkler who had a deal with United Artists. Carlino was paid $100,000 plus one-third of 50% of the profits. [6]
Monte Hellman was scheduled to direct The Mechanic. He and screenwriter Lewis John Carlino worked on the script for several weeks before producers switched studios and hired Michael Winner to direct. [7]
In Carlino's original script, the relationship between Arthur Bishop and Steve McKenna was explicitly romantic. Producers had difficulty securing financing and several actors, including George C. Scott, flatly refused to consider the script until the homosexuality was removed. Carlino described The Mechanic as "one of the great disappointments of my life," continuing:
"I wanted a commentary on the use of human relationships and sexual manipulation in the lives of two hired killers. It was supposed to be a chess game between the older assassin and his young apprentice. The younger man sees that he can use his sexuality to find the Achilles heel that he needs to win. There was a fascinating edge to it, though, because toward the end the younger man began to fall in love, and this fought with his desire to beat the master and take his place as number one ... The picture was supposed to be a real investigation into this situation, and it turned into a pseudo James Bond film." [8]
At one point, Cliff Robertson and Jeff Bridges were considered for the lead roles. [9]
In November 1971, it was announced Charles Bronson would star under the direction of Michael Winner for producers Chartoff and Winkler. This was Winner's first film produced in the United States. He had previously worked with Bronson on Chato's Land, and would go on to direct him in four
Bronson conditioned that the producers cast his wife Jill Ireland in a supporting role. Filming was to begin December 6, 1971. [10] Richard Dreyfuss was originally cast as Steve, but was replaced in early December 1971, [11] apparently due to Bronson's dislike of him.
Filming took place in Los Angeles and Campania, Italy. The Mechanic was the first film Bronson starred in that was principally shot in the United States, since 1966's This Property Is Condemned. [9]
The film's martial arts scenes were shot in one day at the dojo of Takayuki Kubota who also appears in the film. The shooting required 65 camera setups. The scenes were cut short in the final edit, because, according to associate producer Henry Gellis, their inclusion made the film seem like an installment in the James Bond series. [12]
The opening assassination of the film featured the largest controlled explosion in Los Angeles, to that date. The explosion required five tanks of butane fuel and nine pounds of black powder.
"It's pretty violent", said Vincent. "Bronson is totally nonverbal. So I can't say that much about him". [13]
The score and source music, by Jerry Fielding, were recorded at CTS (Cine-Tele Sound) Studios in London, England, between August 7 and 11, 1972. The orchestrations were by Lennie Niehaus And Greg McRitchie. The Recording Engineer was Dick Lewzey.
The source music consists of pieces composed by Ludwig van Beethoven — String Quartet, Opus 18, No 6 and Grosse Fuge: Opus 133 — as well as Eduardo di Capua's famous Neapolitan song "'O sole mio".
The film opened in New York City on November 17, 1972, before expanding to a wide release on November 22.
Screen Archives Entertainment has released The Mechanic for the first time on Blu-ray on June 10, 2014. A remastered Blu-Ray was released in 2020 by Scorpion Releasing. [14]
The film received a mixed critical response.
Vincent Canby of The New York Times described The Mechanic as a "solemn, rather spurious action melodrama". Noting the "father son rivalry" between Arthur and Steve and picking up on the "latent homosexual bond" between the two, Canby concluded that the film was "non-stop, mostly irrelevant physical spectacle" and pondered what a different director might have done with the same material. [15] A review in Variety called it an "action-drenched gangster yarn which has all the makings of a heavy b.o. grosser, but simultaneously is burdened with an overly-contrived plot development". [16] Roger Ebert gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4 and praised Bronson's performance, noting that he appears to be truly listening to Vincent rather than simply waiting for him to stop for Bronson's next line. While finding the plot twists "neat", Ebert found that director Winner failed to squarely address the relationship between the leads in favor of too many boring action sequences. [17] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film only 1 star out of 4 and wrote, "The entirely unoriginal production moves at a numbing pace with Bronson mirroring the directorial lethargy with his silent, 'don't I have strong cheekbones' demeanor". [18] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times praised the film as "A hard-edged, brutal yet absorbing contemporary gangster movie" with "top-notch" performances. [19] Judith Crist dismissed the film as "a banal expedition into slaughter and sadism and stupid dialogue". Any hint of authenticity, she wrote, was obliterated by Winner's "bang-bang-bang approach". [20] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote, "It's a predictable, expendable piece of formula moviemaking, and the men responsible for it seem considerably more proficient at manufacturing thrills than generating and sustaining dramatic interest". [21]
According to the American Film Institute, "some modern critics have pointed to The Mechanic as a turning point in Bronson's career, solidifying his position as a major star in the U.S. as well as abroad." [9] Previously, Bronson was mainly a leading man in European films. [9]
On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, The Mechanic has a 45% positive review score based on 11 reviews. [22]
A novelization credited to screenwriter Lewis John Carlino was published by Signet Books to accompany the film's release. [23]
On May 7, 2009, it was announced that director Simon West would be helming a remake. [24] Jason Statham starred as Harry Bishop, with Ben Foster as Steve McKenna The remake opened in the United States on January 28, 2011, making $11,500,000 on its opening weekend.
A sequel, Mechanic: Resurrection, was released in August 2016.
Deliverance is a 1972 American thriller film directed and produced by John Boorman from a screenplay by James Dickey, who adapted it from his own 1970 novel. It follows four businessmen from Atlanta who venture into the remote northern Georgia wilderness to see the Cahulawassee River before it is dammed, only to find themselves in danger from the area's inhabitants and nature. It stars Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, and Ronny Cox, with the latter two making their feature film debuts.
Charles Bronson was an American actor. He was known for his roles in action films and his "granite features and brawny physique". Bronson was born into extreme poverty in Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania, a coal mining town in the Allegheny Mountains. Bronson's father, a miner, died when Bronson was young. Bronson himself worked in the mines as well until joining the United States Army Air Forces in 1943 to fight in World War II. After his service, he joined a theatrical troupe and studied acting. During the 1950s, he played various supporting roles in motion pictures and television, including anthology drama TV series in which he would appear as the main character. Near the end of the decade, he had his first cinematic leading role in Machine-Gun Kelly (1958).
Michael Robert Winner was an English filmmaker, writer, and media personality. He is known for directing numerous action, thriller, and black comedy films in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, including several collaborations with actors Oliver Reed and Charles Bronson.
Death Wish II is a 1982 American vigilante action-thriller film directed and co-edited by Michael Winner. It is the first of four sequels to the 1974 film Death Wish. It is the second installment in the Death Wish film series. In the story, architect Paul Kersey moves to Los Angeles with his daughter. After his daughter is murdered at the hands of several gang members, Kersey once again chooses to become a vigilante. Unlike the original, in which he hunts down every criminal he encounters, Kersey only pursues his family's attackers. The sequel makes a complete breakaway from the Brian Garfield novels Death Wish and Death Sentence, redefining the Paul Kersey character. It was succeeded by Death Wish 3.
William Froug was an American television writer and producer. His producing credits included the series The Twilight Zone, Gilligan's Island, and Bewitched. He was a writer for, among other shows, The Dick Powell Show, Charlie's Angels, and Adventures in Paradise. He authored numerous books on screenwriting, including Screenwriting Tricks of the Trade, Zen and the Art of Screenwriting I and II, The Screenwriter Looks at The Screenwriter, and How I Escaped from Gilligan's Island: Adventures of a Hollywood Writer-Producer, published in 2005 by the University of Wisconsin Press.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a 2005 American neo-noir black comedy crime film written and directed by Shane Black, and starring Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, and Corbin Bernsen. The script is partially based on the Brett Halliday novel Bodies Are Where You Find Them (1941), and interprets the classic hardboiled literary genre in a tongue-in-cheek fashion. The film was produced by Joel Silver, with Susan Levin and Steve Richards as executive producers.
Death Hunt is a 1981 Western action film directed by Peter Hunt. The film stars Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Carl Weathers, Maury Chaykin, Ed Lauter and Andrew Stevens. Death Hunt was a fictionalized account of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) pursuit of a man named Albert Johnson. Earlier films exploring the same topic were The Mad Trapper (1972), a British made-for-television production and Challenge to Be Free (1975).
Bite the Bullet is a 1975 American Western film written, produced, and directed by Richard Brooks and starring Gene Hackman, Candice Bergen, and James Coburn, with Ian Bannen, Jan-Michael Vincent, Ben Johnson, and Dabney Coleman in supporting roles.
The Big Wheel is a 1949 American drama sport film directed by Edward Ludwig starring Mickey Rooney, Thomas Mitchell, Mary Hatcher and Michael O'Shea. It includes the final screen appearance of Hattie McDaniel.
Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects is a 1989 American action thriller film starring Charles Bronson and directed by J. Lee Thompson. As Thompson's final film, it was the last project he and Bronson did together—a long and famed Hollywood collaboration. The word "kinjite" (禁じて) translates to English as "forbidden move", hinting at the subject matter.
The Valachi Papers is a 1972 neo noir crime film directed by Terence Young. It is an adaptation of the 1968 non-fiction book of the same name by Peter Maas, with a screenplay by Stephen Geller. It tells the story of Joseph Valachi, a Mafia informant in the early 1960s who was the first ever government witness coming from the American Mafia itself. The film stars Charles Bronson as Valachi and Lino Ventura as crime boss Vito Genovese, with Jill Ireland, Walter Chiari, Joseph Wiseman, Gerald S. O'Loughlin, Guido Leontini, Amedeo Nazzari, Fausto Tozzi, Pupella Maggio, and Angelo Infanti.
Lawman is a 1971 American revisionist Western film produced and directed by Michael Winner and starring Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Lee J. Cobb and Robert Duvall.
Death Wish is a 1974 American vigilante action film directed by Michael Winner. The film, loosely based on the 1972 novel of the same title by Brian Garfield and the first film in the Death Wish film series, stars Charles Bronson as Paul Kersey, alongside Hope Lange, Vincent Gardenia, William Redfield, Kathleen Tolan and Christopher Guest. In the film, Paul Kersey, an architect leading a peaceful life, resorts to vigilantism after his wife is murdered and daughter raped during a home invasion.
Death Wish 4: The Crackdown is a 1987 American vigilante action-thriller film, and the fourth installment in the Death Wish film series. The film was directed by J. Lee Thompson, and features Charles Bronson, who reprises his leading role as Paul Kersey. In the film, Kersey is once again forced to become a vigilante after his girlfriend's daughter dies of a drug overdose. He is recruited by a tabloid owner, Nathan White, to take down various crime figures of the Los Angeles drug trade.
Firepower is a 1979 British action-thriller film directed by Michael Winner and starring Sophia Loren, James Coburn, O. J. Simpson and Eli Wallach. It was the final film in the career of actor Victor Mature. The film was poorly reviewed by critics who objected to its convoluted plot, though the lead performances and filming locations were generally praised.
Assassination is a 1987 American action thriller film directed by Peter Hunt and starring Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland, Charles Howerton, Jan Gan Boyd, Stephen Elliott, and Chris Alcaide. The plot is about a bodyguard who is assigned to protect the First Lady of the United States against an assassination plot.
The Stone Killer is a 1973 American action neo noir thriller film produced and directed by Michael Winner and starring Charles Bronson. It came out in between The Mechanic (1972) and Death Wish (1974), all three of which teamed up actor/director Bronson and Winner. Norman Fell and John Ritter appear as cops in this film, not too long before the TV series Three's Company. Character actor Stuart Margolin plays a significant role; he also appeared in Death Wish. It was one of many Dirty Harry-type films featuring rogue cops who don't "play by the rules" that were released in the wake of that film's success.
Chato's Land is a 1972 Western Technicolor film directed by Michael Winner, starring Charles Bronson and Jack Palance.
The Mechanic is a 2011 American action thriller film directed by Simon West, starring Jason Statham, Ben Foster, Tony Goldwyn and Donald Sutherland. A remake of the 1972 film of the same name, it centers on Arthur Bishop (Staham), a professional assassin or 'mechanic', who specializes in making his hits look like accidents, suicides and petty criminals' acts.
Lewis John Carlino was an American screenwriter and director. His career spanned five decades and included such works as The Fox, The Brotherhood, The Mechanic, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, Resurrection, and The Great Santini. Carlino was nominated for many awards, including the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.