The Last Run

Other viewers' comments, both negative and positive, have aptly classified this film's genre. Those with inclination toward existentialist thought (e.g., why are we here and what are the best options before embracing the void?) generally like it. I think the film great and wish it were available on DVD. Others find it vapid. Yet I think the theme similar to that found in Blade Runner or Pierrot le Fou - though different from, say, Kafka's Metamophosis, or The Trial, or from Camus' The Stranger, etc., in that this film's protagonist undergoes emotional development - along with another character who fears her fate and sees no other path to follow.

Our protagonist's past life as an underworld character is significant not in the cops-and-robbers sense, but rather as an earmark of his "loner" personality - like Camus' Stranger. He's a retired individualist - like Blade Runner's Deckard - who after a career on the "outside" is sucked against his will into a melee of action and intrigue. All he'd longed for was to finish out his days in peace - in Portugal - though one can wonder if his automotive hobby (his surrogate child) and petty daily ritual could really have sustained him - yet such is the trap some see themselves born into; perhaps an earlier, unexpected coup de grace isn't to be under-appreciated.

Syndicate wheelman Harry Garmes (George C. Scott) comes out of a nine year retirement to do one last job that involves ferrying escaped con Paul (Tony Musante) and his girl Claudie (Trish Van Devere) over the French border. Naturally, things do go as planned as their rendezvous is a set-up to kill the duo and Harry takes action. If you like the misanthropy on display in other early 70s Scott flicks like RAGE (1972) and THE NEW CENTURIONS (1972), than this is for you. This is a great little action flick that is really working on two levels, kinda like the same year's VANISHING POINT (what a great time for fans of esoteric action!). Garmes laments about the enemy of time and the car he so meticulously takes care of becomes a symbol of the man himself as it slowly starts to wear down over this tough journey. Apparently Scott feuded so much with original helmer John Huston that he quit and was replaced by Richard Fleisher. Fleisher uses the beautiful mountain roads of Spain to stage some great car chases, all set to a fantastic score by Jerry Goldsmith.

This film almost should have been in black and white! Very solid throwback to the gritty film-noir gangster films of the 40's. The ever brilliant George C. Scott tackle's the Bogartesque protagonist with style - a retired gangland getaway-driver lured out of retirement by personal reasons for one 'Last Run' in Spain in which he has to transport a escaped killer and his moll across the border to France.

Of course nothing ever goes quite as planned and Scott soon find's his assignment calling for him to make some tough choices in the face of mounting odd's and hidden dangers. This film benefits from it's strong cast, fantastic camera-work by the great Sven Nykvist(Bergmann films), great location scenery in Spain and an economical screenplay from the talented Alan Sharp(Night Moves). Underrated director Richard Fleischer gives the film a great Hemingway type atmosphere and does a good job with the action scenes. Interestingly John Huston started this film and left after three weeks into the production following rows with Scott, Sharp and the producers over wanting to have the script re-written by his eighteen year old son! Overall this is a good solid thriller that works and is waiting to be rediscovered.

There's something about Tony Musante that makes you want to punch him in the nose. Or if you're not the violent type - to have someone else do it. Which is perfect for an actor like George C. Scott, who didn't suffer fools and would scrap with just about anyone, on or off the set...

In THE LAST RUN Scott plays an aged getaway driver hired to take an escaped convict... whom he helped escape... on a score, and the entire Spain setting takes place either in the adobe brown countrysides, painted landscapes and, there and back again, a cool blue, fishing-boat beach. The tagline states, "In the tradition of Hemingway and Bogart," but with a Jerry Goldsmith score detailed by a haunting, reposeful harpsichord, it's really more of a Spaghetti Western with sporadic bursts of action between a "two's company, three's a crowd" road trip from one double-cross to another chance to score, with some twists and turns that shouldn't be spoiled in-between...

Stretched upon another intentionally bleak, atmospheric Neo Noir canvas by director Richard Fleischer, the action ala chase scenes and roadside shootout sequences flow smoothly at times, awkward at others within the parenthetical, motel-hopping, uneven yet savory dialogue, so it's about the characters, guided by their reactions to and against each other rather than the situation at hand, which needed more urgency, overall...

Meanwhile, the signature Spaghetti "revenge" element is portioned out to the audience as it's learned and dealt with by our main man, going from "over his head" to "in too deep" while far from alone in this particular, road-weaving purgatory that includes a brief June/November romance that's more a contrived male fantasy than being necessary to the overall story-line. Then again, this is pulp and it's fiction both. In droves - literally.

As the ingenue, Trish Van Devere delivers lines in a sort of dreamy, lifeless monotone, and she doesn't provide any chemistry in either direction as Scott's initial abhor for the cocky and condescending Musante shapes into something of an Uncle/Nephew who still have it in for each other, and the anti-chemistry works...

Once the trio hooks up during the second act there's a slick, cool, slownburn pace after suffering through a somewhat grueling rudimentary stage: by his rugged, granite looks and tough guy name alone, Scott's Harry Garmes need only exist in a sparse tale that initially tries too hard to establish his rabbit's-foot-religious yet existential character (in a loose "relationship" with a hooker played by ex-wife Colleen Dewhurst) who does only one thing well, and may or may not have waited too long for his return to it. In that, literally from the onset, the title explains everything about him while, at the same time, giving everything away.

The plot is simple: an aging criminal getaway driver stumbles out of semi-retirement for one last job and ends up getting more than he bargained for. It's the stuff film noir writers have dreamed up for years. But in Richard Fleischer's "The Last Run", released in 1971 and starring George C. Scott, it feels refreshingly original and brash.

A troubled production from the start, "The Last Run" barreled through several directors (including John Huston) before Fleischer came on board. It probably wouldn't have been quite as successful without the star status of Scott... an interestingly low budget choice for an actor spring boarding off his home run performance in the blockbuster "Patton" a year earlier. And it is Scott who gives the film its grizzled pessimism... portraying his character Harry Garmes as a guy who understands the consequences of a lifetime on the fringes. He doesn't wink at the audience and for that, "The Last Run" is a seriously overlooked film that ranks with "The Outfit" and "Prime Cut" as three no-nonsense early 70's examples of the crime picture done amazingly right.