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Tuesday, April 17, 2012
The Mechanic (1972)
Category: Reviews
This action/crime-thriller is notable for pairing a young Jan Michael Vincent (Stringfellow Hawke of Airwolf) with Hollywood’s action guru Charles Bronson. Vincent plays Steve McKenna, a young man with ambition but no heart, who becomes the apprentice of hitman Arthur Bishop(Bronson), not knowing that Bishop is the one who killed his father – once Bishop’s mentor. Both find themselves on a dangerous mission in Italy where their lives and trust are at high risk. The sequence of events mirror the pattern in the characters’ lives – the protégés replacing the mentors – which constitutes the major element of interest for the audience.
The Mechanic skillfully depicts the rivalry and social competition of a fatherly figure against his son/follower—the insecurity and sense of imminence that pervades the human spirit, even in the cold-blooded world of crime and killings. The silent race for power and control between the lead characters is prominent in this somewhat mysterious production.
The action scenes are up to the mark and the story presented tightly without fumbling at forced tension between characters and lengthy dialogues. The ending makes the point a fortiori to come true to the film’s title. Four decades old, this film still has what that action/thrillers lovers want to see.
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What do I think? Big glasses. I had glasses like that once. They were cool!