SITTING TARGET
Production: UK, 1972
Director: Douglas Hickox
Category: Crime/Violence
One of three outstanding, brutal crime thrillers made in early 70s England, each starring one of that country’s top actors. Whilst Get Carter had Michael Caine and Villain had Richard Burton, Sitting Target boasts the immortal Oliver Reed in one of his most powerful, psychotic performances as Lomart, a violent convict who smashes his way out of jail when he learns of his wife’s infidelity, swearing to kill her. After a series of betrayals and brutal encounters, the films ends in mayhem and self-annihilation. It was the first British film ever to be certificated X purely because of excessive violence. Downbeat, vicious, and nihilistic – British crime thrillers would seldom reach this level of intensity again, coming close only with parts of The Long Good Friday in 1980, and then at the very end of the millennium with parts of Sexy Beast and Gangster No. 1 (both 1999).
Posted by Cryptomaniac
SITTING TARGET
