The Mechanic
Encyclopedia
The Mechanic is a 1972 American 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 the hit man played by Bronson prepares to kill his current target.
) is a "mechanic" — a hit man who performs his jobs cleanly, without leaving a trace of his work. He works exclusively for an international secret organization, which has very strict rules: even those members who are becoming slightly unreliable are assassinated, long before they might jeopardize their organization. It is noted that Bishop is very sophisticated, as he regularly listens to classical music, has a remarkable art collection, and is a connoisseur of fine wines. He is evidently very wealthy, as demonstrated by his lifestyle and his exceptional house, thanks to his successful career as a hit man. However, due to the dangerous nature of his profession, Bishop is forced to live in isolation - he cannot show emotions or trust people. Bishop is under constant emotional pressure, so much so that he is prescribed medication for depression, and one day he is temporarily hospitalized when he loses consciousness as a result of the stress. In an effort to cope, Bishop pays a prostitute (Jill Ireland
) to write emotional and sophisticated love letters to him because he cannot risk making friends.
When Bishop 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 him think that the shots are being fired by a hidden sniper trying to kill them both. Harry, who Bishop knows has a weak heart, is forced to run up a steep incline to escape the shots, which brings on a heart attack. Bishop then finishes Harry off by smothering him with his gloved hand, thus making it appear that the cause of death was indeed the heart attack.
At Big Harry's funeral, Bishop meets Harry's narcissistic, ruthless and ambitious son Steve (Jan-Michael Vincent
). Steve is intrigued by Bishop and seeks to find out more about him. Bishop is also intrigued, as he realizes that Steve has a personality becoming of a hit man, and plays along. Finally he makes Steve his apprentice, demonstrating his "tools of the trade", such as piloting, shooting, lipreading, and powerfully developed fingers. As part of this training program, Bishop teaches Steve that "every person has a weakness, and that once this weakness is found, the target is easy to kill." But Bishop fails to get his superiors' consent for the arrangement. Following a messy contract assassination conducted by Bishop and Steve, the organization warns Bishop that his irresponsible choice to involve Steve is interpreted as selfish behavior, which cannot be tolerated "because the organization relies on 'democratic principles' that put the survival of the group above personal ambitions".
The organization then gives Bishop an urgent assassination 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 a lot of information about Bishop. This file is very similar to the files Bishop made concerning his assassination targets. Bishop realizes that his apprentice Steve is turning against him and starts his own private investigation into Steve's background. Nevertheless, Bishop allows Steve go to Italy with him to conduct the assassination.
In Italy, Bishop and Steve approach a boat where their intended victim is located, but it becomes apparent that this was a trap prepared by the organization and they are the real target. Bishop and Steve are ambushed by other assassins of the organization, but they manage to kill all their opponents, leaving no witnesses, and return to the hotel in Naples, preparing to go back to the United States.
His apprenticeship apparently complete, 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 and that he is becoming paralyzed, he asks Steve if it was because Bishop had killed Steve's father. Steve responds that he had not realized his father was murdered, instead believing that he had simply died of the heart attack. Steve is full of himself, and taunts Bishop, saying "you told me that everyone has a jelly spot--yours was that you couldn't cut it alone." Steve goes on to reveal that he wasn't acting on orders to kill Bishop, stating that he is going to continue picking his own targets, with the suggestion that killing Bishop was something akin to an artistic choice on Steve's part that establishes him (at least in his own mind) as superior and a more refined killer even than Bishop, who needed the "license" provided by the secret organization he worked for.
Contemptuously leaving Bishop to die of what will appear to be a heart attack, Steve returns to the US to take over Bishop's life and career, arriving at Bishop's home to pick up the red Mustang
he had left there before the overseas trip. After admiring the house and taking a souvenir, Steve goes out to the Mustang and gets in to leave. He finds a note affixed to the rear-view mirror. It is from Bishop, and reveals that he had anticipated that Steve might use the trip to Italy as an opportunity to kill Bishop. The note reads, "Steve, if you're reading 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, the car explodes in a seething fireball as the credits roll and the film draws to a close.
was originally scheduled to direct The Mechanic. He and screenwriter Lewis John Carlino
adapted Carlino's then-unpublished novel and worked on the script for several weeks before producers switched studios and hired Michael Winner to direct.
In Carlino's original script, the relationship between Arthur Bishop and Steve McKenna was explicitly gay. 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:
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.
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. Roger Ebert
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. 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".
, 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 underestimates Steve's resourcefulness in finding a way to kill him that he cannot anticipate.
would be helming a remake
with Jason Statham
taking the lead role. The remake opened in the United States on January 28, 2011, making $11,500,000 on its opening weekend.
Action film
Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...
-thriller film directed by Michael Winner
Michael Winner
Michael Robert Winner is a British film director and producer, active in both Europe and the United States, also known as a food critic for the Sunday Times.-Early life and early career :...
. It stars Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson , born Charles Dennis Buchinsky was an American actor, best-known for such films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the popular Death Wish series...
and Jan-Michael Vincent
Jan-Michael Vincent
Jan-Michael Vincent is an American actor best known for his role as helicopter pilot Stringfellow Hawke on the 1980s U.S. television series Airwolf .-Early life:...
.
The film is noted for its opening. There is no dialogue for the first 16 minutes of the film, as the hit man played by Bronson prepares to kill his current target.
Plot summary
Arthur Bishop (Charles BronsonCharles Bronson
Charles Bronson , born Charles Dennis Buchinsky was an American actor, best-known for such films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the popular Death Wish series...
) is a "mechanic" — a hit man who performs his jobs cleanly, without leaving a trace of his work. He works exclusively for an international secret organization, which has very strict rules: even those members who are becoming slightly unreliable are assassinated, long before they might jeopardize their organization. It is noted that Bishop is very sophisticated, as he regularly listens to classical music, has a remarkable art collection, and is a connoisseur of fine wines. He is evidently very wealthy, as demonstrated by his lifestyle and his exceptional house, thanks to his successful career as a hit man. However, due to the dangerous nature of his profession, Bishop is forced to live in isolation - he cannot show emotions or trust people. Bishop is under constant emotional pressure, so much so that he is prescribed medication for depression, and one day he is temporarily hospitalized when he loses consciousness as a result of the stress. In an effort to cope, Bishop pays a prostitute (Jill Ireland
Jill Ireland
Jill Dorothy Ireland was an English actress, best known for her many films with her second husband, Charles Bronson.-Life and career:Born in London, England, Ireland was the daughter of a wine importer...
) to write emotional and sophisticated love letters to him because he cannot risk making friends.
When Bishop is assigned by his organization to kill one of the heads, "Big Harry" McKenna (Keenan Wynn
Keenan Wynn
Keenan Wynn was an American character actor. His bristling mustache and expressive face were his stock in trade, and though he rarely had a lead role, he got prominent billing in most of his film and TV parts....
), he does so with his usual sense of efficiency, imagination and detachment, shooting at Big Harry, while making him think that the shots are being fired by a hidden sniper trying to kill them both. Harry, who Bishop knows has a weak heart, is forced to run up a steep incline to escape the shots, which brings on a heart attack. Bishop then finishes Harry off by smothering him with his gloved hand, thus making it appear that the cause of death was indeed the heart attack.
At Big Harry's funeral, Bishop meets Harry's narcissistic, ruthless and ambitious son Steve (Jan-Michael Vincent
Jan-Michael Vincent
Jan-Michael Vincent is an American actor best known for his role as helicopter pilot Stringfellow Hawke on the 1980s U.S. television series Airwolf .-Early life:...
). Steve is intrigued by Bishop and seeks to find out more about him. Bishop is also intrigued, as he realizes that Steve has a personality becoming of a hit man, and plays along. Finally he makes Steve his apprentice, demonstrating his "tools of the trade", such as piloting, shooting, lipreading, and powerfully developed fingers. As part of this training program, Bishop teaches Steve that "every person has a weakness, and that once this weakness is found, the target is easy to kill." But Bishop fails to get his superiors' consent for the arrangement. Following a messy contract assassination conducted by Bishop and Steve, the organization warns Bishop that his irresponsible choice to involve Steve is interpreted as selfish behavior, which cannot be tolerated "because the organization relies on 'democratic principles' that put the survival of the group above personal ambitions".
The organization then gives Bishop an urgent assassination 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 a lot of information about Bishop. This file is very similar to the files Bishop made concerning his assassination targets. Bishop realizes that his apprentice Steve is turning against him and starts his own private investigation into Steve's background. Nevertheless, Bishop allows Steve go to Italy with him to conduct the assassination.
In Italy, Bishop and Steve approach a boat where their intended victim is located, but it becomes apparent that this was a trap prepared by the organization and they are the real target. Bishop and Steve are ambushed by other assassins of the organization, but they manage to kill all their opponents, leaving no witnesses, and return to the hotel in Naples, preparing to go back to the United States.
His apprenticeship apparently complete, Steve shares a celebratory bottle of wine with Bishop, having coated the latter's glass with brucine
Brucine
Brucine is a bitter alkaloid closely related to strychnine. It occurs in several plant species, the most well known being the Strychnos nux-vomica tree, found in South-East Asia.While brucine is related to strychnine, it is not as poisonous...
, a colorless and deadly alkaloid
Alkaloid
Alkaloids are a group of naturally occurring chemical compounds that contain mostly basic nitrogen atoms. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Also some synthetic compounds of similar structure are attributed to alkaloids...
. When Bishop realizes that he has been poisoned and that he is becoming paralyzed, he asks Steve if it was because Bishop had killed Steve's father. Steve responds that he had not realized his father was murdered, instead believing that he had simply died of the heart attack. Steve is full of himself, and taunts Bishop, saying "you told me that everyone has a jelly spot--yours was that you couldn't cut it alone." Steve goes on to reveal that he wasn't acting on orders to kill Bishop, stating that he is going to continue picking his own targets, with the suggestion that killing Bishop was something akin to an artistic choice on Steve's part that establishes him (at least in his own mind) as superior and a more refined killer even than Bishop, who needed the "license" provided by the secret organization he worked for.
Contemptuously leaving Bishop to die of what will appear to be a heart attack, Steve returns to the US to take over Bishop's life and career, arriving at Bishop's home to pick up the red Mustang
Ford Mustang
The Ford Mustang is an automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. It was initially based on the second generation North American Ford Falcon, a compact car. Introduced early on April 17, 1964, as a "1964½" model, the 1965 Mustang was the automaker's most successful launch since the Model A...
he had left there before the overseas trip. After admiring the house and taking a souvenir, Steve goes out to the Mustang and gets in to leave. He finds a note affixed to the rear-view mirror. It is from Bishop, and reveals that he had anticipated that Steve might use the trip to Italy as an opportunity to kill Bishop. The note reads, "Steve, if you're reading 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, the car explodes in a seething fireball as the credits roll and the film draws to a close.
Cast
- Charles BronsonCharles BronsonCharles Bronson , born Charles Dennis Buchinsky was an American actor, best-known for such films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the popular Death Wish series...
as Arthur Bishop - Jan-Michael VincentJan-Michael VincentJan-Michael Vincent is an American actor best known for his role as helicopter pilot Stringfellow Hawke on the 1980s U.S. television series Airwolf .-Early life:...
as Steve McKenna - Keenan WynnKeenan WynnKeenan Wynn was an American character actor. His bristling mustache and expressive face were his stock in trade, and though he rarely had a lead role, he got prominent billing in most of his film and TV parts....
as Harry McKenna - Jill IrelandJill IrelandJill Dorothy Ireland was an English actress, best known for her many films with her second husband, Charles Bronson.-Life and career:Born in London, England, Ireland was the daughter of a wine importer...
as The Girl - Linda Ridgeway as Louise
- Frank DekovaFrank DekovaFrank Dekova was an Italian-American character actor.-Biography:Dekova was born in New York City and taught at a school in New York before joining a Shakespeare repertory group...
as The Man - James Davidson as Intern
- Lindsey Crosby as Policeman
- Steve VinovichSteve Vinovich-Biography:Vinovich was born in Peoria, Illinois, the son of Jennie J. , a secretary, and Stephen J. Vinovich, an insurance salesman.-Filmography:*Cold Case *8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter...
as Party Guest - Takayuki KubotaTakayuki Kubotais a Japanese master of karate. He founded the Gosoku-ryu style of karate, and is the founder and president of the International Karate Association. Kubota holds the title of Sōke for his development of the Gosoku-ryū style of karate...
as Yamoto
Production
Monte HellmanMonte Hellman
Monte Hellman is an American film director, producer, and film editor.Hellman is among a group of directing talent mentored by Roger Corman, who produced several of the director's early films...
was originally scheduled to direct The Mechanic. He and screenwriter Lewis John Carlino
Lewis John Carlino
Lewis John Carlino is best known as the director of The Great Santini starring Robert Duvall, Blythe Danner and Michael O'Keefe. He has worked as a director and screenwriter on a number of movies during a career which has spanned five decades and includes such works as The Fox, The Brotherhood,I...
adapted Carlino's then-unpublished novel and worked on the script for several weeks before producers switched studios and hired Michael Winner to direct.
In Carlino's original script, the relationship between Arthur Bishop and Steve McKenna was explicitly gay. Producers had difficulty securing financing and several actors, including George C. Scott
George C. Scott
George Campbell Scott was an American stage and film actor, director and producer. He was best known for his stage work, as well as his portrayal of General George S. Patton in the film Patton, and as General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick's Dr...
, 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.
The film's martial arts scenes were shot in one day at the dojo
Dojo
A is a Japanese term which literally means "place of the way". Initially, dōjōs were adjunct to temples. The term can refer to a formal training place for any of the Japanese do arts but typically it is considered the formal gathering place for students of any Japanese martial arts style to...
of Takayuki Kubota
Takayuki Kubota
is a Japanese master of karate. He founded the Gosoku-ryu style of karate, and is the founder and president of the International Karate Association. Kubota holds the title of Sōke for his development of the Gosoku-ryū style of karate...
, 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.
Reception
Vincent CanbyVincent Canby
Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
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. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
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. Judith Crist
Judith Crist
Judith Crist is an American film critic. She appeared regularly on the Today show from 1964-1973 and has appeared in one film, Woody Allen's Stardust Memories...
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".
Existentialism
The film can be described as existentialistExistentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
, 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 underestimates Steve's resourcefulness in finding a way to kill him that he cannot anticipate.
Remake
On May 7 2009, it was announced that director Simon WestSimon West
Simon West is an English-born film director. West started as a film editor with the BBC, then directed documentaries and commercials including many for Budweiser...
would be helming a remake
Remake
A remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
with Jason Statham
Jason Statham
Jason Statham born 12 September1967) is an English actor and former diver, known for his roles in the Guy Ritchie crime films Revolver, Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels...
taking the lead role. The remake opened in the United States on January 28, 2011, making $11,500,000 on its opening weekend.