Country: United States
Genre: Drama/ Action/ Suspense/ Mainstream
Director: Michael Winner
Year: 1972
Rating: 
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
In some ways, The Mechanic is a perfect candidate for a remake. Some of the acting, most notably by Keenan Wynn and Linda Ridgeway, is terribly dated and the action is pretty sedate by modern standards. Yet, the script by Lewis John Carlino is cold blooded in a fashion that’s way ahead of it’s time.
Arthur Bishop (Charles Bronson) is a mechanic, a slang term for a hired assassin. His specialty is to kill in ways that appear to be accidents, so no one knows there has even been a murder. The strain of killing and the separation from humanity which that entails inspire Bishop to take on an apprentice, Steve McKenna (Jan-Michael Vincent), a young man who shows an enthusiasm for his work.
Although the script by Lewis John Carlino could do with a minor polish, it is also admirable in a number of ways. The script is very terse — the superb opening 15 minutes is all but wordless. Carlino packs a great deal of complexity into very few words. The Mechanic functions both as a character study and a thriller. The plot itself is a thing of beauty.
Director Michael Winner does a perfectly good job. The picture moves at a good clip and he keeps out of the way of the story.
I would have preferred if the score by Jerry Fielding hadn’t been so out front all of the time, but that’s really director Michael Winner’s fault. The music itself is superb.
Bronson’s performance as Bishop remains surprisingly effective, but Jan-Michael Vincent is a touch mannered in a way that wasn’t obvious 30 years ago.
But criticisms aside, The Mechanic is pretty darned good.
Anyone wanting to remake the film would be wise to retain Lewis John Carlino’s structure and characterizations, which would play beautifully today. Improved casting of secondary roles would be necessary. Of course the action would have to be pumped up quite a bit. And there would be opportunities to incorporate mixed martial arts thrown into the fight scenes — the martial arts in the original are frankly kind of embarrassing. And whatever they do, they shouldn’t change the ending.
As it turns out, The Mechanic is being remade, and will come out this year. Unfortunately, it seems like the filmmakers decided to change alot of things that were great about the original. Now, Arthur Bishop is well adjusted and kills to afford an early retirement. Wrong! He’s being played by Jason Statham — a more uninteresting choice would be hard to imagine. The Jan-Michael Vincent role is being filled by Ben Foster, a casting choice which lacks subtlety. A slick, smiling yuppie type would have been better.
It looks like that, instead of making a psychological thriller, the new, improved Mechanic will be just another dumdum action movie, with lots of loud explosions, no psychological complexity, with the hero winning in the end. Count me out.
The original Mechanic may be showing it’s age, but it’s still a worthy thriller.
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