Skip Tracer

There was a screening of Skip Tracer tonight in Vancouver (24 March 2011), at art-house cinema Pacific Cinémathèque, the first in perhaps twenty years in the city where the film was made. The screening was presented by writer and critic Michael Turner, and some of the cast and crew from 1977 were in attendance, including lead David Petersen. Following the screening there was an informal back and forth among Turner, cast and crew members, and the audience. More than one of the cast members mentioned that the film has always been more highly regarded in England and Europe than it ever was here in Canada, and the location of all the previous reviewers would seem to confirm that judgment.

I agree with the general consensus among previous reviewers that Skip Tracer is a small gem. And as a Vancouverite, the film has the added resonance of depicting the recent past of a city that has been changing at a bewildering pace. I think Skip Tracer's vision of a raw, nasty Vancouver was getting at something that might still be here, albeit polished over with the wealth and gloss of thirty years of high-end development.

An audience member asked Petersen if he could speculate a bit on the character of John Collins. "He's a bit ambiguous," the audience member said, "quite an a**hole throughout, although at the end I guess he's sort of redeemed." Petersen thought for a while, took his time, and then just replied, "No."

I don't think Collins is meant to be an a**hole. He's a deeply conflicted character, just as trapped as the 'clients' he mercilessly hounds, and there's plenty of humanity buried beneath the steely, almost catatonic demeanour. If there wasn't, the film would be far less interesting. You could certainly read the whole thing as a Marxist critique of the emotional and psychic damage wrought by capitalism and its often seedy workings. But that would also diminish much of the film's three-dimensionality. Nevertheless, Skip Tracer's exploration of the toxicity of debt, and our hunger for money, certainly feels timely. The film has aged well.

Skip Tracer tells the story of John Collins, a collections agent, whose entire job is to lean on poor people for their outstanding debts, after they have taken out predatory loans, that leave them with a lien on everything they own.

Collins' job is to get the money they owe, by any means necessary.

If they are unable to pay in the allotted time, he will shamelessly repossess all their worldy possessions, without a second thought.

He's so good at his job...that he's been "Man of the Year" at his company, for 4 years running.

But it's conditioned him to become, nothing short of, a psychopath in the process.

This year, however...he's set to face a reckoning.

As he not only gets stabbed by a hockey mask wearing culprit (which may or may not have acted as the inspiration for the Jason character from the Friday The 13th movies).

But is forced to reflect on his very nature...when his actions...lead to consequences that he simply cannot ignore.

Ultimately leading to his redemption in the conclusion of the film.

I caught this on 16mm at a Canadian National Film Day screening at my local microcinema.

Going into it with low expectations...fully expecting that it was going to be super cheesey, and all around trashy.

Only to be pleasntly surprised to find that it was actually a pretty solid film, that is both competently constructed and generally quite well done.

I must admit that I rather quite enjoyed it.

Having been shot in Vancouver, it might not be the easiest example of cultural Canadiana to find.

But if you can track it down, it's certainly a worthwhile film to watch.

As, on top of being a pretty decent film, it also acts a cool little time capsule of Vancouver in the 70's.

So definitely give it a shot if you do.

6 out of 10.

Yes, James Cornish is correct, this film has appeared on British TV and like most Canadian productions was well crafted. If memory serves me well it concerns a skip tracer who is exceptionally effective at his job but after seeing the misery his actions cause develops a conscience and makes a complete u-turn. I think the cast was of mainly unknowns but if anyone knows if it is available on video then I'd like to hear from you.

Skip Tracer Can. 1977 Dir: Zale R Dalen

Low budget tale of the ambitious loan agent (tracing 'skips' who have defaulted on payment) culminating in his juggling of customers plight with personal conscience. In England, first seen on terrestrial television early to mid 1980's on BBC2's forerunner to the Moviedrome collections.

The mental angst of the hunter grabs your intetest at the outset, but it slowly develops into vulnerability, demonstrating that pressure can make you thrive, but can also leave the door open to compromise and ultimately weaken you. It sets out as a study in power, developing into empathy and ultimately redemption.

Vancouver is set as an unspectacular backdrop; it's portrayed modesty is a comfort - ordinary City, ordinary people like the Skip Tracer. The violence is justified by the subject matter as are the flirtations with sleaze.

I have been hooked from that first showing and it is now 2018, a good time to edit my original review. Skip Tracer was a promising personal vehicle for Peterson. His character, John Collins, made an impression on me. The man was so natural, it didn't seem like acting at all. Effortless and effective - that is a gift. The movie was more popular in England than in Canada; I dont know why? Perhaps because Canadians didnt find it out of the ordinary - I did. Urban Vancouver looked good to me. It is a unique film memory, which has become an English cult following.

I haven't seen the film after that sole showing on British TV (see the other comments!) and never met anyone who's seen it (except my brother Fred who watched avidly with me), but the memory has stuck with me ever since. I sense that it may not have dated well, and I sort of fear to see it now, but it remains one of my all-time favourites. It predates Repo Man (another all-time great) but sort of covers similar territory, sort of. It's less surreal and far more gritty, about the hard-nosed skip tracer (that's 'bailiff' to me and maybe 'repo man' to you - anyone know what they call them in Australia and NZ?) who finds he has a heart and promptly watches his whole life and cherished values go down the tube. This came out of the beginning of a period of startlingly good films produced in Canada that lasted up to the early 1990s. There's not that many undiscovered classics around - this is one of them, as are most of those other Canadian movies.