- For the 2005 film starring Dolph Lundgren, see The Mechanik. For the Transformers comics character, see Mechanic (Transformers).
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.
At Big Harry's funeral, Bishop meets Harry's son Steve (played by Vincent). Steve is intrigued by Bishop and seeks to find out more about him. Bishop, also intrigued, plays along. Finally he makes Steve his protege, demonstrating his "tools of the trade", such as piloting, lipreading, and powerfully developed fingers. But Bishop fails to get his superiors' consent for the arrangement. Following a messy contract assassination conducted by Bishop and Steve, the organization Bishop works with decides to have him killed, ultimately hiring Steve to do the job.
His apprenticeship apparently complete, Steve shares a celebratory bottle of wine with Bishop, having coated the latter's glass with brucine. Contemptuously leaving Bishop to die of what will appear to be a heart attack, Steve (and the viewer) is unaware that Bishop has anticipated the betrayal. Assuming he can now take over Bishop's life and career, Steve gets into his car where he finds a note affixed to the steering wheel. It is from Bishop, saying that if Steve is reading the note, Bishop must be dead, and that the car door set off a timer connected to a bomb that is now going to explode. It does.
Existentialism
The film can be described as existentialist,[1] 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 the 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
Remake
On May 7 2009, it was announced that director Simon West will be helming a remake of the movie with Jason Statham taking the lead role.[2]
See also
References
External links
