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ACTOR
Oliver ReedJill St. JohnIan McShaneEdward Woodward
DIRECTOR
Douglas Hickox
SYNOPSICS
Sitting Target (1972) is a English movie. Douglas Hickox has directed this movie. Oliver Reed,Jill St. John,Ian McShane,Edward Woodward are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1972. Sitting Target (1972) is considered one of the best Action,Crime,Drama,Thriller movie in India and around the world.
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Sitting Target (1972) Reviews
Spare, tense, vicious, a must.
Under-appreciated British crime thriller with antisocial characters and an antisocial plot: a convict finds out his wife is pregnant by another man, so he busts out of prison to hunt her down with every intention of killing her. No time wasted on "redeeming" characters. No goofy humor or chase scenes through clubs playing bad, dated music. Just a spare, tense study of two vicious men (Oliver Reed, Ian McShane) hot on the trail of a treacherous moll (Jill St. John). A nemesis detective (Edward Woodward) tries to intervene, but never fouls the nihilistic tone. Solid performances and one of Reed's best as an uber-thug who does push-ups on the ceiling of his jail cell, is sitting on a volcano, and only lets on what he has to, even to his partner. The script does the same thing, imparting information on a need-to-know basis, doing so smoothly as it races toward Hell. All in the back-lots and stygian prisons of a cold, drab London, with a musical score by Stanley Myers that perfectly enhances the story and mood. A must for fans of seventies crime thrillers, British or otherwise, that take no prisoners.
Gritty and Tough
Excellent old revenge movie from a time when Britain still made movies that didn't involve period costumes or floppy haired smiles! Ian "Lovejoy" McShane and the Late Oliver Reed bust out of prison, with the sole purpose of killing Reeds Wife (Jill St John) who wants a divorce. The film is relentless in its portrayal of Reed as a cold blooded man with a single deadly purpose, yet still shows him simmering with a pent up violent rage that cant wait to explode into violence at any time. I have heard many call this movie a poor-mans version of "Get Carter", but that tag does it a serious injustice. Gritty, Dark, Bleak and Brutal (for its time) something about this movie keeps me watching it 30+ years after its release. Stylish, Original, and highly recommended, especially if you are sick of "Feel Good" cliches.
"Underrated"
Convicted murderer Harry Lomart (Oliver Reed) escapes from prison with cell mate Birdie Williams (Ian McShane) in order to kill his wife (Jill St John) who has been unfaithful and has got herself pregnant in the process. Lomart also uses the opportunity to settle old scores with figures from London's underworld who grassed on him before skipping the country with £200,000 he has hidden away in an abandoned movie house. But, who is Pat's new lover and is he closer to Lomart than he actually realises? Violent and brutal crime drama in the wake of Get Carter (1971) and, while it cannot even hope to match the quality of that seminal movie, it benefits from the direction of Douglas Hickox who manages to stage some exciting action scenes and makes maximum uses of the locations including around the Clapham area of London and the prison scenes (shot in two Irish jails) creating a genuine sense of realism and add to the hard hitting action sequences. Films like this make one regret that the director's talents were not used more consistently in the British cinema. The script by Alexander Jacobs is at times difficult to follow but the cast of British TV regulars such as Edward Woodward, Ian McShane. Frank Finlay, Mike Pratt and Freddie Jones also contribute to the enjoyment of this meaty but underrated thriller. Reed is totally convincing as the escaped convict alternating between outright thuggery and a softer and more compassionate side to his character while Jill St John, the imported American leading lady who is best known for her role in the Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever, is only moderately effective in her part.
Brutal Crime Thriller
The main character in "Sitting Target" is Harry Lomart, a convict serving a lengthy jail term, who learns that his attractive young wife Pat has not only cheated on him with another man but is also expecting that man's baby. Lomart, infuriated, swears revenge; together with another inmate, Birdy, he breaks out of jail with the intention of killing Pat and her lover before fleeing the country. The film has some similarities with another British crime drama from the early seventies, "Get Carter", which came out the previous year. Both are gritty gangster dramas with a revenge theme, concentrating on the criminals themselves rather than on the police's fight against crime. In films like this there is no honour among thieves; one gangster's worst enemy is often another gangster rather than a policemen. In keeping with the permissive ethos of the era both films treat violence graphically, far more graphically than would have been permitted only a decade earlier. Both were shot on location ("Get Carter" in the North-East, "Sitting Target" in South London) and have a strong sense of place. And yet, unlike another reviewer, I cannot but find myself in agreement with those who have characterised "Sitting Target"as a poor man's "Get Carter". Not all the acting is particularly good, especially from the former Bond girl Jill St John who seems miscast as Pat. (This was her first film after "Diamonds are Forever"; presumably the producers felt they needed a big-name American star to help with overseas sales). Like a number of foreign, especially American, actors, she makes the mistake of assuming that all British people speak with the same "posh" accent and that mastering this accent is all one needs to do in order to portray a British character convincingly, regardless of social background. (Others who have fallen into the same trap include Natalie Portman in "V for Vendetta" and even Meryl Streep in "The French Lieutenant's Woman"). Jill might have done better to drop the accent altogether; it is far more conceivable that a South London villain might have married an American girl than that he might have married a Roedean-educated débutante, which is what she sounds like here. Oliver Reed is better; although his Lomart may lack the depth of some of his other performances from this period, such as his Grandier in Ken Russell's "The Devils", he does at least make the character convincingly thuggish, a man whose every move is driven by anger and resentment. Unlike Michael Caine's Jack Carter, who hides his violent nature beneath a veneer of stylish sophistication, with Lomart what you see is what you get. There is nothing stylish or sophisticated about him. The film moves along at a swift pace, although it does perhaps get over-complicated in the second half, as it becomes progressively more violent and moves towards an explosive finale. It never, however, achieves the depth or significance of "Get Carter", a sort of anti-"Godfather" which demythologises the criminal lifestyle. "Sitting Target", by contrast is a brutal and nasty crime thriller, if occasionally an effective one, exploiting the violence it purports to condemn. 5/10
Tough as nails potboiler...
As brutal and bleak as you're like to find in an early 70s British crime thriller. Director Douglas Hickox pulls no punches with this balls-to-the-wall potboiler. Oliver Reed has a plethora of anger management issues, mostly directed at unfaithful wife Jill St. John. He doesn't allow prison walls to stop him from getting to her. He breaks out with an assist from sleazy fellow con Ian McShane. It's an unrelentingly depressing film with Reed in top form and McShane every inch his squalid equal. Hicokox's direction is dynamite (the prison break is a nail biter). Jill St. John affects a slight English accent, never overdoing it and is quite convincing. She's also a knockout, making it easier to see why the demented Reed goes to such lengths to get to her. The cinematography is by Edward Scaife, who shot everything from the Connie Francis vehicle FOLLOW THE BOYS to the WWII classic THE DIRTY DOZEN. The supporting cast includes Frank Finley and the great Edward Woodward.