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Post by london777 on Sept 19, 2017 14:43:45 GMT
This is a typical list of the most common occupations in the US: 1 Retail salesperson 2 Cashier 3 Office clerk 4 Food preparer 5 Registered nurse 6 Waiters and waitress 7 Customer service representative 8 Janitors and cleaner 9 Freight & stock laborer 10 Secretary and administrative assistant
My knowledge of that great country is solely derived from movies, TV and books, so I was surprised and consulted other lists to double-check. They all gave similar results.
From American movies I had gathered that one of the the most common occupations was hitman (or hitwoman). I do not watch many "action" movies. My favorite fare is drama, with lots of talking and minimal violence, yet even I come across hitmen and hitladies far more frequently than I do food preparers or customer service representatives. I would hate to think that American cinema is unrepresentative of real life.
What hitmen (and hitwomen) do you remember (not just from US movies)? It should be their main or sole occupation. Gangsters and others who kill indiscriminately or as one of their varied duties for their usual employer do not qualify. So Loren Visser (M Emmet Walsh) in Blood Simple (1984) is ineligible because his day job was as a private eye. We want the type of assassin your average American citizen would hire from Yellow Pages.
So Joe, who kills Eels in Out of the Past (1947), does not qualify (just part of his job description for Whit). But Raven (Alan Ladd) in This Gun for Hire (1942) does.
Loretta (Dimitra Arliss) in The Sting (1973)
Canino (Bob Steele) in The Big Sleep (1946). This guy has a massive 242 credits, nearly all of them for westerns, so an untypical part for him. But he is convincing.
Ghost Dog (Forest Whitaker) in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)
Was there one in Goodfellas (1990) or did all our chums do their own dirty work?
Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson) in In Bruges (2008)
Frank Bono (Allen Baron) in Blast of Silence (1961)
Joe Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) in Killer Joe (2011). Or maybe not. He was still a cop but it did not seem he devoted much time to those responsibilities.
There is a hitman in Dead Man's Bluff (2005) among all the other murderous gangsters but I cannot remember which one he was from the long cast-list. Great little movie for those who do not know it (but too violent for spiderwort) and it has an unusual setting (Nizhny Novgorod).
Tim Roth plays a washed up hitman in Killing Emmett Young (2010) and recycles much the same type of character in The Liability (2012). And, I suppose, he could be called a hitman in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead (1990).
Mister Shhh (Steve Buscemi) in Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995)
Alex (William H Macy) in Panic (2000), a truly awful movie stitched together out of clichés.
Jack (George Clooney) in The American (2010)
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Post by teleadm on Sept 19, 2017 18:18:39 GMT
Ralf Milan aka Trabuco (Lino Ventura, Walter Matthau, Richard Berry) in L'emmerdeur aka A Pain in the A__ 1973, Buddy! Buddy! 1981, and remaked again, L'emmerdeur aka A Pain in the Ass 2008.
Leon (Jean Reno) in The Professional 1994.
Claude (Vince Edwards) in Murder by Contract 1958.
The Pretender 1947 a hitman by contract must be stopped, but the middleman who hired him has been murdered, things have changed, so the man who went to the middleman is now in the position to be the hitman's target.
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Post by bravomailer on Sept 19, 2017 19:28:42 GMT
Pretty sure Luca was a hitman: Albert Neri did the job on Barzini (and later Fredo): Rocco Lampone offed Paulie and Hymn Roth: Willie Cicci nailed one of the dons in a revolving door:
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Post by mattgarth on Sept 19, 2017 20:32:12 GMT
Pre-hitman era Jack Palance as gun-for-hire 'Jack Wilson' in SHANE might qualify:
Ryker: "I'll kill him if I have to!"
Wilson: "You mean I'LL kill him if YOU have to."
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Post by manfromplanetx on Sept 19, 2017 20:51:38 GMT
Sydney Tafler steps up in the world in Assassin For Hire (1951) Usually playing a spiv character (UK petty criminal) Tafler plays Antonio Riccardi, a young British criminal of Italian heritage, yes Tafler with a thick Italian accent once you get over this aspect, it is a very good little film with a neat little twist. Tafler is a cold blooded professional assassin who fronts as a rare postage stamp dealer...
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Post by manfromplanetx on Sept 19, 2017 21:25:09 GMT
Der amerikanische Soldat , The American Soldier (1970) West German Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder Ricky is a cold-blooded U.S. German contract killer. After serving in Viet Nam, he returns to his home town of Munich for a job to eliminate a few problem crooks for three renegade cops... A bold, dark and unpredictable crime film. Fassbinder's macho hired killer is close only to his male buddy, Ricky has returned from legally killing "gooks" in Vietnam, which serves as a platform for Fassbinder's comments on the war and America's penchant for making "hypocritical films and fighting wars over hypocritical ideals".
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Post by manfromplanetx on Sept 19, 2017 22:06:10 GMT
Alain Delon stars as Jef Costello a professional Hitman in Jean-Pierre Melville's stylish and influential 1967 crime drama, Le samouraï An opening text reads There is no greater solitude than that of the samurai unless it is that of the tiger in the jungle... Perhaps... Bushido (Book of the Samurai) Costello works alone is methodical and disciplined in his profession, but he was seen carrying out his latest hit ...
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Post by Doghouse6 on Sept 19, 2017 22:43:58 GMT
The Pretender 1947 a hitman by contract must be stopped, but the middleman who hired him has been murdered, things have changed, so the man who went to the middleman is now in the position to be the hitman's target. This sounded vaguely familiar, and I've finally remembered what it reminded me of: The Whistler (1944 - and William Castle's third feature as director), the first in an anthology series of eight programmers made at Columbia, seven of which starred Richard Dix as a different character in each unrelated story. In this one, Dix is a man so despondent and guilt-ridden over his inability to save his wife from a shipwreck he survived that he arranges through a middleman for his own assassination (time, location and means unknown). When Dix discovers his wife has indeed survived, he's unable to call off the hit with the middleman having been killed and with no knowledge of the hitman's identity. J. Carrol Naish provides another in his long line of colorful characters as the hitman who's a student of psychology and philosophy, and harbors his own morbid fear of death. That psychological/philosophical angle also brings to mind The Lineup (1958 - Don Seigel), in which icily calm Robert Keith and psychotic Eli Wallach are couriers in San Francisco to retrieve a doll smuggled into the country containing heroin. While not a hitman per se, Wallach enjoys killing, does so with little provocation and, at Keith's insistence, reports to him each victim's last words, which Keith duly records in his notebook collection of them. Beginning as a staid procedural, The Lineup kicks into high gear with the arrival of Wallach and Keith and the narrative's shift to their point of view, never letting up on the tension for its duration. With the exception of one or two brief studio interiors, it was otherwise filmed entirely on location, providing a wonderful document of late-'50s San Francisco (outshining that of even Vertigo) and featuring extensive scenes photographed in now-gone locations such as the Sutro Baths (by then converted to a skating rink) and the under-construction - and ill-fated - Embarcadero Freeway.
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Post by Nalkarj on Sept 20, 2017 0:21:18 GMT
After reading London's post, a few conclusions:
This is a typical list of the most common occupations in the UK (specifically London):
1 Stuck-up snob 2 Knight 3 King 4 Detective/Spy 5 Member of Parliament 6 Scrooge-like money-lender 7 Murderer 8 Actor 9 Wizard 10 Dickensian beggar living on the street whilst being kicked by passersby
My knowledge of that great country is solely derived from movies, TV and books, so I was surprised and consulted other lists to double-check. They all gave similar results.
From postings on this board by myself in particular I had gathered that one of the the most common occupations was "annoying guy who likes to whine and moan about everything, especially if he can criticise the United States". I do not post on many "boards". My favourite fare is bothering other people, with lots of talking and verbal violence, yet even I come across such a person (i.e., myself) far more frequently than I do MPs or Scrooges. I would hate to think that British cinema is unrepresentative of real life.
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Post by london777 on Sept 20, 2017 0:21:53 GMT
Pre-hitman era Jack Palance as gun-for-hire 'Jack Wilson' in SHANE might qualify: For sure. He was a contract killer brought in from outside. I think the phrase "contract killer" is the definition I was fumbling for. More precise than "hit-man".
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Post by london777 on Sept 20, 2017 0:27:09 GMT
Sydney Tafler steps up in the world in Assassin For Hire (1951) Tafler is a cold blooded professional assassin who fronts as a rare postage stamp dealer... mfpx, you have been outed! Re: the Tafler film. Does it discuss "Cape of Good Hope Triangulars"? I have been trying to lay that ghost for decades?
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Post by OldAussie on Sept 20, 2017 0:54:16 GMT
The Mechanic
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Post by gunshotwound on Sept 20, 2017 1:19:48 GMT
The Jackal (Edward Fox) from Day of the Jackal (1973)
Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) from No Country for Old Men (2007)
G. Joubert (Max Von Sydow) from Three Days of the Condor (1975)
Charley Partanna (Jack Nicholson) & Irene Walker (Kathleen Turner) from Prizzi's Honor (1985)
Charlie Strom (Lee Marvin) & Lee (Clu Gulager) from The Killers (1964)
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Post by manfromplanetx on Sept 20, 2017 8:34:45 GMT
Murder by Contract is a 1958 American film noir/crime directed by Irving Lerner. Blacklisted Screenwriter Ben Maddow did uncredited work on the film which centres on an existentialist hit man . The excellent little film has been praised for its spare style and a peculiar sense of cool. The film has been an influence American crime cinema, most notably director Martin Scorsese who once famously cited Murder by Contract as , "the film that has influenced [him] most.". Vince Edwards plays Claude, a disaffected man who, in search of money, decides to become a professional contract killer. Claude, is set apart from the usual hit men he is unwilling to carry a gun, most of his victims are dispatched of in ingenious unusual ways. He has a casual detached approach to murder, which he treats as a money earning business. After successfully killing targets in a barber shop and a hospital, as well as his own boss, Claude is given a contract to kill the witness in a high-profile trial. . At first calm about the assignment, Claude becomes more nervous and anxious when he discovers the witness hit in question is a woman...
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Post by BATouttaheck on Sept 20, 2017 16:14:03 GMT
london777Thanks so much for spoiling one the secrets in The Sting for anyone unfortunate enough to have not seen it yet. From American movies you had "gathered that one of the most common occupations was hitman (or hitwoman)". I wonder how many of these "assassins your average American citizen would hire from Yellow Pages" were surprises in the plot. btw. ot: This sniping at Americans is getting really really old. Makes one wonder if your application for immigration got refused and this is why you are bitterly on your "Devil's Island".
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Post by manfromplanetx on Sept 20, 2017 20:21:23 GMT
Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki wrote and directed the excellent film I Hired A Contract Killer (1990) which has an interesting twist on the typical Hitman theme, it is an English language film with a London location . Frenchman Henri Boulanger is has been working in London but is made redundant from his job. He falls into depression and in desperation attempts suicide, but Henri cannot go through with it. Plan B, he hires a contract killer in a seedy bar to murder him at some unspecified time in the near future. But very soon afterwards he meets and falls in love, his life is back on track with renewed enthusiasm . But what of the contract ? a desperate search by Henri to stop the hit, fails to find any trace of the contracted killer... The contract is made...
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Post by london777 on Sept 20, 2017 22:17:38 GMT
...he hires a contract killer in a seedy bar to murder him at some unspecified time in the near future. But very soon afterwards he meets and falls in love, his life is back on track with renewed enthusiasm . But what of the contract ? a desperate search by Henri to stop the hit, fails to find any trace of the contracted killer... A film I mentioned above, Killing Emmett Young, has a similar theme where our hero arranges "suicide by contract killer" but then cannot back out when he changes his mind. Even as I watched it I knew I had seen that trope before, but it was not the Aki Kaurismäki film, which I have never seen, so there must be at least one more. Probably there are quite a few. What about my Cape of Good Hope Triangulars?
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Post by bravomailer on Sept 20, 2017 23:19:49 GMT
In The Sting, Redford is about to get hit by a hitwoman when a hitman hits the hitwoman.
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Post by morrisondylanfan on Sept 21, 2017 0:05:34 GMT
The first person who came to my mind is hitwomen Nikita
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Post by fangirl1975 on Sept 21, 2017 0:18:00 GMT
The British film The Long Good Friday featured a young Pierce Brosnan making his film debut as a hitman.
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