The car park embodies one of the film's more subtle themes, which is the destruction of an old cityscape and its rebuilding in line with modern Brutalism. If there’s a worthy remake to take in (as it seems there must be in today’s market), I’d recommend the almost scene-for-scene black-exploitation flick, Hit Man (with Bernie Casey and Pam Grier).

by Burton Lane and Ralph Freed, [4] a song more associated with glamorous Hollywood films than the backrooms of Newcastle pubs. The resulting 1972 movie, Hit Man, involved a man who travels to Southern California for the funeral of his brother and becomes obsessed with tracking down the individuals responsible for his death. In Sight and Sound, Tom Milne said the film was well-constructed and had good characterisation, but lacked the mystery and charisma of the earlier American crime films it attempted to emulate. A resurgence of critical and public interest in the film in the 1990s led to the British Film Institute (BFI) releasing a new print of the film in 1999. Most purchases from business sellers are protected by the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013 which give you the right to cancel the purchase within 14 days after the day you receive the item.

He spent two years aboard minesweepers, regularly docking at gritty port towns in the North, where he witnessed a side of life he didn’t know existed. We don't get to see much of the course but we do see the finish of one race in front of the paddock and the start of another race. Can you think of a movie that’s really captured the type of person that uses very little dialogue and mostly action? American critics were generally more enthusiastic, but the film languished on the drive-in circuit, while MGM focused its resources on producing Hit Man, a blaxploitation-themed remake of the film. As well, here the ‘establishment’ (the underworld) the audience sees is as corrupt and mean as it gets.

He mastered the ‘unlikable’ attraction quality and garnered movie viewers over time with this character. It’s one of those scenes when he knows words can take care of quite a lot so why bother with the action (at first anyway).Hodges had also previously worked on current affairs programme World in Action, the arts programme Tempo and a 1968 children's television serial, The Tyrant King, and all these past experiences informed his approach to his film debut.

In financial trouble and shutting down its British operations, MGM was in the process of closing its British studios at Borehamwood [30] and was looking to make smaller-budget films to turn a profit. When director Mike Hodges‘ first feature film debuted 40 years ago this month, I don’t believe it made much significance on the movie-going public at the time. It is available from the Warner Archive Collection as a Made on Demand (MOD) DVD-R or a download, with the same extras as the 2000 release, although with only two trailers and this time in 16:9 ratio. Jack's presence in the town causes unease among the local crime families, who fear that his snooping will interfere with their underworld operations.But the closer he gets to the people who run the town’s illegal activities, the people who can tell him what happened, the more contact he has with its upper classes. London, and travels back to the unnamed working-class industrial town in northern England he grew up in to investigate the death of his estranged brother, Frank.

It was a sore point for the actor, but it produced a tension between he (Hendry moved over to portray Eric Paice) and Michael Caine that made their scenes together crackle.it was very influenced by Mike Hodges who has a very good eye for setups and he of course conferred with his operator and myself, but he influenced all of us, and much of the good look is due to him, I confess. Having avenged Frank and Doreen, Jack walks along the shoreline – where he is shot dead from a distance by Kinnear's associate. In 2011 Time Out London placed the film at 32 in its 100 Best British Films list, which was selected by a panel of 150 film industry experts. On its general release in the North of England, Chibnall notes it had a "very strong first week", before an unseasonal heatwave damaged cinema attendance. The film's music also enjoyed its own resurgence in popularity, for it tapped into a 1990s interest in vintage film soundtracks.