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The Hit

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United Kingdom · 1984
Rated R · 1h 38m
Director Stephen Frears
Starring John Hurt, Terence Stamp, Tim Roth, Laura del Sol
Genre Drama, Action, Thriller, Crime

Ex-gangster Willie Parker has been living safely in Spain ever since he ratted on his partners ten years ago, but Willie's past finally catches up with him when two hitmen are sent to exact revenge. They're supposed to bring Willie back to Paris, but the road is long, and anything can happen along the way.

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What are critics saying?

70

Time Out by

Hurt is in good vicious form as the shaded hit man; Stamp once more wears a smile like a halo; and the prospect of approaching death is handled without too much metaphysical puffing and blowing. All in all, a very palpable hit.

88

Miami Herald by Bill Cosford

Frears displays a complete mastery of the mechanics of a thriller, such that his movie is terrifying even when it pauses for breath. [08 Feb 1985, p.D8]

75

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Jay Scott

Eventually, the film, shot on location in Spain by a director with an innate understanding of how to stylize without becoming self-conscious, asks to be seen as a comic but moving meditation on the ways we do, or do not, go gently into that good night. [05 Apr 1985]

40

The New York Times by Vincent Canby

The Hit' is a disappointing English underworld movie directed by Stephen Frears. Less a film noir than a film gris, partly because almost all of it takes place in sun- drenched Spain and because the characters talk too much. These guys don't have to use guns. All they have to do is open their mouths and bore each other to death.

91

The A.V. Club by Zack Handlen

The script by Peter Prince occasionally errs too much on the side of opacity, but the few revelations that do come are deftly handled. It’s a meditation on death, and in the end, it belongs to Hurt.

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