From the Now I've Seen Everything File

Phil Elmore

Phil Elmore

Joined
Feb 28, 2002
Messages
7,636
This is Charles Bronson, wielding a samurai sword, in The Mechanic. This is an obscure 70s thriller in which Bronson plays an aging hit man who befriends young would-be killer Jan-Michael Vincent, teaching him the tricks of the trade. When it becomes evident that the pair have been betrayed by the mob for which they work, bad things happen to bad people.

mechanic.jpg


It's a little slow, but not a bad film at all, and the ending took me by surprise (even though it should not have).
 
I've seen this a couple of times, but don't remember the samurai sword part. I do remember the ending though, which was great.
 
I remember that movie. There's a scene that shows what prostitution is really about (not sex). If you just want to watch a lot of senseless violence and rest your brain that movie is going to disappoint you -- it has actual characters in it, motivations, things like that. It's a good movie.
 
Classic Bronson movie. My dad took me to see it when I was a kid. Still watch it when it comes on!:thumbup:
 
The ball of wax Bronson squeezed was something he actually used. I remember seeing him on one of the old talk shows, (Mike Douglas?), and he was explaining how he'd built up his hand and forearm strength with it. If my memory is clear, a baseball player was on the set with him and could not make a dent in the wax. Bronson squeezed it so that it oozed between his fingers. Pretty impressive.
 
Charles Buchinsky had a pretty accomplished list of appearances before he died in 2003. He served as a B-29 tail-gunner in WWII and received the Purple Heart. He changed his name to Bronson during the McCarthy scouge of the 50s to keep working in film. Perhaps the biggest late bloomer in Hollywood history, he did not get the marquee treatment he deserved until his late 40s. He was already 53 when Death Wish premiered in 1974.

I've always enjoyed The Mechanic and Telefon more than many of his more famous roles.



j
 
TorzJohnson said:
I've seen this a couple of times, but don't remember the samurai sword part. I do remember the ending though, which was great.
Click to expand...

ditto.
Good movie, but don't remember the sword.
 
Is that the movie where he shatters a bad guy's eardrums with the palm of the hands to the ears technique? Also where he has a shotgun hidden up in the pipes of his car?
 
zenheretic said:
Is that the movie where he shatters a bad guy's eardrums with the palm of the hands to the ears technique?
Click to expand...

This isn't just fantastical movie hyperbole by the way, in case anyone was unsure. In my case it was just a perforation but it still hurt in a bad, bad way. And, to top it off, I upset my mother on Thanksgiving day by dripping blood on her white linen table cloth.
 
Lol, I was trying to find what movie, if any, was the one I mentioned above, a Bronson movie.

In one synopsis I found this line regarding the plot:

Renda offers a fortune for his freedom but Majestyk just wants to get back to his melons.
Click to expand...

Only a movie in the 70's would put something like that in an action movie...
 
I was also trying to find the name of one of his early westerns (were he actually looked young). If memory serves he was playing a half breed that good/bad guys were gonna hang. Don't remember much of the movie but I remember being impressed by his acting in that one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top