The Hit (Frears, 1984): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 6.20pm
This film, screening as part of the Terence Stamp season at BFI Southbank, is also on at the cinema on May 16. Details here.
Chicago Reader review:
Stephen Frears's philosophical comedy takes the form of a
gangster film about an underworld informer (Terence Stamp) who has spent
his ten years in hiding in a Spanish village, preparing himself
spiritually for the inevitable day when the partners he betrayed find
him and take their revenge. Retribution eventually arrives in the figure
of a coldly professional killer (John Hurt) and his punkish apprentice
(Tim Roth), but as they conduct Stamp back to their bosses in Paris,
they begin to break down under the pressure of their victim's smiling
equanimity. Frears gradually transfers our sympathy from Stamp to Hurt,
reversing the roles of tormentor and tormented and finding in Hurt's
fluster and panic the signs of the poignant humanity that Stamp has so
coolly repressed. The staging is a little too studied for my taste, but
this remains an accomplished, provocative effort.
Dave Kehr
Here is the trailer.
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