The Mechanic

Infobox_Film
name =The Mechanic


imdb_id =0068931
writer =Lewis John Carlino
starring =Charles Bronson
Jan-Michael Vincent
director =Michael Winner
producer = Robert Chartoff
Irwin Winkler
distributor = United Artists
released =November 17, 1972
runtime = 100 min
language =English
budget =|

"The Mechanic" is a 1972 action thriller film, directed by Michael Winner. It stars Charles Bronson and Jan-Michael Vincent.

The film is noted for its opening. There is no dialogue for the first 16 minutes of the film, as Arthur prepares for killing his current mark.

Plot summary

Arthur Bishop (played by Bronson) is a "mechanic" — a hit man who performs his jobs cleanly, without leaving a trace of his work. When he is assigned by his organization to kill one of the heads, "Big Harry" McKenna (Keenan Wynn), he does so with his usual sense of efficiency, imagination and detachment, shooting at Big Harry, while making Harry think that the shots are being fired by a hidden sniper who is trying to kill them both, until Harry suffers a heart attack and dies.

Some time later, Big Harry's son, Steve (played by Vincent), approaches Bishop and says he wants to become a "mechanic". Bishop agrees to teach him and makes Steve his protege (teaching him, for instance, how to read lips from a distance, and how to strengthen his fingers to allow for maximum use from them).

Ultimately, his apprenticeship complete, Steve shares a celebratory bottle of wine with Bishop, and poisons the latter by serving him wine in a glass treated with brucine. He leaves Bishop to die of what will appear to be a heart attack, unaware that Bishop has anticipated the betrayal. Back home, Steve assumes that he is now the top "mechanic" in the business, but when he gets in his car he finds a note from Bishop saying that if he is reading it, Bishop is dead and that the car contains a bomb that is now going to explode. The bomb explodes, killing Steve. "Game over."

Existentialism

The film can be described as existentialist, [cite web|url=http://www.genordell.com/stores/maison/existFF.htm|title=Existentialist Film Festival] featuring characters who have chosen to ignore common rules and beliefs to live life on their own terms, often coming into absurd situations in part through their detachment. Upon being called by a female friend of Steve's who has cut her wrists and is bleeding to death, the main characters stand by and watch dispassionately, giving a girl estimates of the symptoms and time until death, and eventually throwing her the keys to a vehicle and telling her where she can drive to get help. ("If you don't care about your life, why should I?", Steve says.) But paradoxically, even the killers need their own sense of social license, whether a paid contract from a shadowy organization or a traditional motivation for revenge. The development of the plot in the second half of the story also suggests that Bishop is either world-weary and no longer interested in life (and, perhaps knowingly drinks the poisoned wine, since he is aware that Steve is planning to kill him), or that he under-estimates Steve's resourcefulness in finding a way to kill him that he cannot anticipate.

Main cast

* Charles Bronson .... Arthur Bishop
* Jan-Michael Vincent .... Steve McKenna
* Keenan Wynn .... Harry McKenna ["Big Harry"]
* Jill Ireland .... The Girl
* Linda Ridgeway .... Louise

Remake

There is currently in production a remake of this movie. However, the story is vastly different from the original, set in a post 9/11 world. Fact|date=March 2007

ee also

*1972 in film

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0068931|title=The Mechanic