Cold breath

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Movie
German title Cold breath
Original title The Mechanic
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1972
length 96 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Michael Winner
script Lewis John Carlino
production Irwin Winkler
Robert Chartoff
music Jerry Fielding
camera Richard H. Kline
Robert Paynter
cut Frederick Wilson ,
Michael Winner
( as Arnold Crust Jr. )
occupation

Mechanic is an American action - thriller from 1972 with Charles Bronson and Jan-Michael Vincent . The film is known for being devoid of dialogue for the first 16 minutes of the film. In 2011, The Mechanic was remake with Jason Statham as Arthur Bishop .

action

Arthur Bishop is a "Mechanic", a contract killer who does his jobs cleanly and without a trace. He works exclusively for a secret international organization that has very strict rules. Any member who becomes unreliable must be murdered before they could endanger the organization. The fact that Bishop has had a bigger career and withstood this pressure can be seen in which villa he lives in, how pronounced his taste in wine and that he is also a connoisseur of classical music. But this success also has its price, he takes antidepressants and has hardly any human contact. He cannot afford a lover or friends. The emotional pressure is so high that he ended up in the hospital after an overdose. To counter his loneliness, he pays a prostitute to write emotionally demanding love letters for him.

One day Bishop is assigned the task of killing one of the leaders of his organization. "Big Harry" McKenna is supposed to die. He carries out this job with the same efficiency as anyone else before. When he met him, he made it look like they were being shot at by an unknown sniper . Bishop knows about Harry's weak heart, which is why he calculates that Harry will flee. Harry is forced to walk up a steep hill. The desired heart attack occurs and Bishop uses this moment to suffocate Harry . At his grave he meets his narcissistic and ambitious son Steve, who is immediately fascinated by Bishop and wants to learn more about him. Bishop is also fascinated by him, as he discovers qualities in him that predestine him for a contract killer. He takes Steve under his wing and shows him the tools of the professional killer. So he teaches him to fly, shoot and lip-read. As part of the training, Bishop Steve teaches that every person has a weakness and that it is important to find out which one it is, because once you know it, the potential victim is easy to kill.

When the organization expresses its displeasure with the team after an almost messed up job, he is warned that it is irresponsible to let someone like Steve work without the organization's permission and that the organization will not tolerate such negligence. In order to ensure their own survival, they cannot tolerate such selfish actions. He then received an urgent assignment in Italy . He initiates Steve and takes him on his mission. When they are about to leave the United States , Bishop discovers a file with Steve containing information about himself. It is the same type of file that he usually receives when he gets his assignments. It looks like the organization turned to Steve to kill his teacher. But Bishop doesn't let it show and starts his own research on Steve. To keep up appearances, he allows Steve to accompany him to Italy to do the job.

In Italy they embark on the boat that they believe could be their potential target. But the boat is empty and it turns out to be the organization's trap to kill both of them. You must kill all the other killers from this ambush and you must not leave any witnesses. After having managed this with great difficulty, they go back to their hotel in Naples . There Bishop announced that Steve's training was complete. He also wants to toast it with a festive bottle of wine. However, he wetted Bishop's glass with brucine , a deadly alkaloid. When Bishop realizes that he has been poisoned and is slowly succumbing to paralysis, he asks Steve if it was because he killed his father, but Steve didn't even know he was murdered, he thought he had a heart attack died. Steve begins to say that he is not acting on behalf of the organization, but is pursuing his own goals. He himself wanted to kill Bishop, and since he quickly found out his weakness, he had managed to poison him. Bishop's weakness is that he just can't be alone. And after his death, Steve was a kind of legitimate successor to Bishop and could take on similarly large assignments without having to wait for permission from the organization.

Steve leaves the hotel room contemptuously and lets Bishop die in what will then look like a heart attack. He flies back to the United States and travels to Bishop's house. He inspects it and takes the key to the red Ford Mustang that is parked in front of the door. He gets into the car and sees a note in front of the rearview mirror. He reads it through. The note says that if he, Steve, read this, Bishop did not make it back from Italy and he would have started a 13 second countdown. When Steve tries to get out of the car, it explodes.

Reviews

Rotten Tomatoes counted 67% positive approval, with 4597 users voting (as of September 24, 2015). At IMDb , the film received an above-average rating with a rating of 7.0 from 7724 votes. (As of September 24, 2015).

"In 1972, director Michael Winner ( A man sees red ) made a smooth film that was more interested in fashion effects than psychological and social backgrounds."

“Smoother, more thrillers interested in outward appearances and effects than in psychological and social backgrounds; Despite the considerable camera work and representation, it is lengthy at times. "

“The pace in“ The Mechanic ”is leisurely, but the thriller builds up incredible tension [...]. Only Charles Bronson's methods of judging his victims seem a bit overcomplicated, in 1972 it was perhaps more difficult to make murders look like accidents. "

- Zelluloid.de

publication

After the film had its US theatrical release on November 17, 1972, it was released in Germany on December 14, 1972. The film was released on DVD on May 18, 2004. The film exists both in a cut version with a lower age rating and as an uncut version with an FSK-16 rating. Both versions were shown during its broadcasts on ARD and other third programs.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Cold breath at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
  2. Cold breath. In: prisma.de . Retrieved September 24, 2015 .
  3. Cold breath. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed September 24, 2015 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  4. Review of Cold Breath ( Memento of the original from August 24, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on zelluloid.de; accessed on September 24, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.zelluloid.de
  5. DVD review of Kalter Hauch on dtm.at; accessed September 24, 2015
  6. Versions and broadcast dates of Kalter Hauch on ofdb.de; accessed on September 24, 2015