The Mechanic (1972)

This is a great film. Charles Bronson plays an aging hit-man who takes on an apprentice(Jan Michael Vincent)to teach him the ticks of the trade. Good realistic movie, with Bronson very believable as the lead. It's a shame they don't make them like this anymore. What movie in Hollywood today would have a 52 year old lead? Good cinematography and some nice subtle touches in amongst the action scenes. This is old school action with a believable lead who looks the part.

This was released in 1972 and still feels fresh today. A story of trust or lack thereof and the fleetingness of life.

This movie is recommended viewing.

Fmovies: 15. THE MECHANIC (action, 1972) Arthur Bishop (Charles Bronson) is the mechanic, a hit man hired by the Organization as an assassin. Bishop's contact to the Organization is Harry, a long time confidant of his late father. Bishop is meticulous in his work. He is without feelings or remorse, the consummate professional. Bishop's next target is Harry. He carries the job through without hesitation. Harry's son Steve (Jan-Michael Vincent) lives the life of a dilettante playboy. He suspects Bishop's involvement in his father's death, and tries to find out what his ties to the Organization truly are.

Critique: As far as spy and espionage films go 'The Mechanic' is one of the best. Not only for those Charles Bronson aficionados (like myself), but for lovers of well-made action films. Michael Winner's clever direction adds a sparkle to the genre. He sets up interesting insights into an assassin's mode of work.

A cut above Death Wish (1974- Bronson's best known film), in both content and script, Bronson's performance is the epitome of cool. He's perfect at playing a character that has been totally detached from the outside world, and a man trapped in a world he can only have created. In the same way that Steve McQueen used his laconic presence to great effect, Winner makes full use of Bronson's craggy features.

QUOTE: Bishop: "Murder is killing without a license. Everybody kills."

Classic Charles Bronson. I've only recently really started getting more into his older films; I'm fluent with the Death Wish series. The Mechanic is one of his best, if not one of THE best action/thriller films I've seen. Very cleverly done, particularly his methods of killing. I also like the term used to describe assassins; that's new to me. The movie had me intrigued throughout, with Bronson playing the part very well; very few people could look as wrong as Bronson. But it's the ending that makes the movie that much better, because it's totally unexpected. I want to 'spoil' it so bad but I won't....although other user reviews here may have already. I'll just say that you'll be completely amped afterwards, your jaw will drop to the floor at how cool and unexpected it is. One of the true classic action films; the rating on here should be higher.

***1/2 out of **** stars.

The Mechanic fmovies. The forty-two year old hit-man Arthur Bishop (Charles Bronson) is frequently hired to kill without a trace and he carefully studies the profiles of his victims to find the perfect and clean way to execute them.

When he is hired to kill "Big" Harry McKenna (Keenan Wynn), who was a former friend of his father, Arthur meets his son Steve McKenna (Jan- Michael Vincent) asking money to Harry at home. Later in Harry's funeral, Steve asks for a ride to Arthur and they become very close. Arthur finds potential in the twenty-four year old Steve to become a professional killer and he invites the youngster to form a partnership with him. However his attitude displeases the Powers that Be and Arthur is sent to Naples to kill a mobster. Arthur finds a file about him in a drawer at Steve's house but he invites Steve to travel with him to Italy. Sooner they learn that someone wants them to see Naples and die.

"The Mechanic" is an engaging film by Michael Winner with another great performance of Charles Bronson in the role of a "mechanic", meaning a hired hit-man that kills his victims without leaving a trace. One of the best lines in this film is when he tells to Steve that murder is only killing without a license. Jan-Michael Vincent has one of his best performances in the role of a youngster that believe that he has learned how to lure an experienced man. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Assassino a Preço Fixo" ("Killer at a Fixed Price")

The early 70ies were the years, when CHARLES BRONSON as leading man could do nothing wrong. Every single movie he made in those years from 1970's CITTA VIOLENTA to 1975's BREAKHEART PASS was a commercial winner all the way and most of them were artistically successful as well. He worked with the best of western- and action-directors then (Michael Winner, Don Siegel, Terence Young, Tom Gries, Richard Fleischer, John Sturges, Sergio Sollima) and they usually turned out their best efforts with THE MAN starring in the leading role. The movies THE MAN turned out then one after another are now considered among the best of its kind ever made.

THE MECHANIC is clearly no exception to this rule. On the contrary, among his superb movies of these (sadly long gone) days, THE MECHANIC shines as one of the best. Some even consider THE MECHANIC to be the best movie Mr. BRONSON ever made! Personally I would no go that far, but it is definitely one of the best five he ever made, the others being HARD TIMES aka THE STREETFIGHTER (please also check my comment there), CHATO'S LAND (again, please check my comment there), of course DEATH WISH I and MR. MAJESTYK.

Actually THE MECHANIC is more than just a mere action-flick, it is a socio-economical study of the lives and times of a top-level professional hit-man at the peak of his power and his connections and ultimately fateful troubles with the mafia and mafia-structures. It is a so matter-of-fact-made movie that one can not deny its "documentary-style".

BRONSON looks GREAT as the "mechanic", the top-hit-man, the "killer of killers"! He's superbly clothed, always apt to the needs of the scene, wears suits and tie here and there, casual clothes in other occasions and an awesome leather-jacket in other memorable scenes. And the hair-cut is awesome as well (when have you seen a professional hit-man with that long hair?). BRONSON hardly ever looked better. When he left us in 2003, newspapers over here often chose pictures of him in his prime from the early 70ies, some taken from THE MECHANIC, him holding the ultimately fateful glass of wine in his huge hands. Memorable, ain't it? :-)

Back to the picture itself:

Right from the beginning THE MECHANIC is filled with awesome frames. Just take the first one: one sees just blue sky. Suddenly - seemingly from the nowhere - Bronsons stony face fills the screen (one has to see this on a BIG screen!). Jerry Fieldings superbly fitting music (now on on CD by Intrada) starts right the same second. We see THE MAN entering a building. A short greeting follows (which is the only word spoken in the first app. 15 minutes). Then the professional does his first job, knocks off his first victim, whose murder is disguised as a gas explosion, without emotion, just a job to be done. Then the murder of Harry McKenna follows, where Bishop shows no outward regret for his actions, putting the brutal demands of his job over his friendship to Harry.

ARTHUR BISHOP is certainly no average hit-man. He lives in a swell mansion up at Mulholland drive, the paintings on this wall are reproductions of Hironimus Boschs' work, when he plans the best way to do his jobs = killings, he listens to classical music, the furniture is well chosen, he loves a glass of wine after a well-done job. A man with manners and good taste. Not a dumb-ass, a clever hit-man, one with brains. His Dad already worked for the mafia (as a judge, in fact). A man with roots.

Emotionless, tough and quiet (but whe

The early seventies was a great period for Bronson. Having already reached fifty and a string of classics under his belt as a support player in the sixties, the seventies was his decade. His ice cool tough guy image and immaculate physique made up for his rugged leading man looks and put him more in line ahead of the Redfords and the Newman's for gritty urban thrillers. In Basic terms Bronson could play a ruthless good guy, he had played his fair share of Indians and Mexican Bandits, but never was he better cast than when he portrayed Arthur Bishop, professional hitman for the Mob, The Mechanic.

With great locations, exciting outbursts of action and a surprise twist, this is seventies action entertainment at it's best and it was the period where Director Michael Winner's collaboration with Bronson proved to be his best work to date. They went on to make another great urban crime thriller THE STONE KILLER and then DEATH WISH, Bronson's most famous movie.

It's a shame that both Bronson and Winner's films and reputations went down hill in the eighties but perhaps age went against the seventies icon, as for Winner he returned to Britain and went back to making dire comedies.

But the seventies saw Bronson in many roles that would categorise him as typecast but perhaps he knew his limitations and knew he was never gonna be a romantic lead. Although his late wife, Jill Ireland may have disagreed, she appeared alongside him several times over the space of twenties years, check out a movie entitled FROM NOON TIL THREE, a romantic western that people didn't want to see.

Audiences want to see Bronson as tough, cool, calculated and deadly that's why THE MECHANIC is the perfect vehicle for the screen legend.