The Hit

A box-office failure upon its initial release in 1984, The Hit was embraced by astute critics from the start, and now belongs in that small but elite group of British gangster films—including Get Carter, The Long Good Friday, and Mona Lisa—that revitalized the genre by defying convention. Like Sam Peckinpah's Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, director Stephen Frears' (whose later films include Dangerous Liaisons and The Queen) early classic offers plenty of external incidents, but the plot unfolds within the psyches of characters whose motivations and actions are often shrouded in tantalizing ambiguity. While The Hit does boast enough tension, suspense, and threats of violence to hold the attention of most thriller fans, its real pleasures run deeper, and the film has since been recognized as a strong influence on later entries such as Sexy Beast and In Bruges. Loosely inspired by the real-life case of British criminal “Bertie” Smalls, the story revolves around Willie (Terence Stamp, never cooler), a gangster's henchman-turned-informer who went into hiding in a sunny village in southwest Spain. Ten years later, Willie's idyllic life is shattered when two hit-men—the ruthless, sexually repressed Braddock (John Hurt) and his volatile rookie partner Myron (Tim Roth, making his memorable film debut)—track him down, with the assignment to return Willie to London (via Paris) for execution. A Spanish beauty (Laura del Sol) is unexpectedly added to the road trip, and these four characters play off each other in a cat-and-mouse game of life and death as The Hit evolves into a brilliant, character-driven study of twisted fate and desire. Criterion's DVD treatment is characteristically excellent, boasting a sparkling transfer, and fine extras that include an entertaining full-length commentary (featuring Frears, Hurt, Roth, screenwriter Peter Prince and editor Mick Audsley), a 1988 British TV interview with Stamp, and an accompanying booklet with an essay by film critic Graham Fuller. Highly recommended. (J. Shannon)