User reviews

George C Scott plays Harry Garmes, a former getaway driver who comes out of retirement to prove to himself he hasn't lost his touch. He lives in a small Portugese fishing village, but he isn't fulfilled; he views retirement as preparation for death and goes behind the wheel again to inject some vitality into his existence. What promises to be a straightforward job, however, brings him unexpected challenges. The film boasts suspenseful car chases, impressive cinematography, a good script and a compelling performance from George C Scott as the cynical driver who gets more than he bargains for as he chauffeurs an escaped prisoner and his girlfriend across country. The film is thought-provoking, it deals with love, death, regret, frustration and determination, and coupled with tension and suspense makes it a memorable ride.

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.

I caught this George C Scott vehicle on TCM last night and thought I'd venture forth with a few thoughts about it. The title pretty much covers the the central plot here, you've got George C Scott as an ex-getaway drive who has spent the last nine years trying his hand at retirement in a Portugese fishing village. The first 15 minutes of the film are very economic in the way they set up what is to come and lay out all the necessary background information on this character without it coming over as clunky exposition. His house betrays a life spent not always in solitude, and a visit to a grave tells of a previous tragedy. A post coital conversation with a local hooker allows Scott to demonstrate his intelligence, charm and dissatisfaction with his current lot that has led him to accept this 'one last job'.

The job in question is to ferry to France an escaped convict (Tony Musante) and his girlfriend (Trish Van Devere, later to become Mrs Scott in real life). Cinematic convention tells us that we're not going to be in for a smooth ride. Prior to leaving for the job Scott's character all but tells us that he doesn't expect to come back and wouldn't be altogether fussed if that were the case. It's the last hurrah of a forgotten man, the battle cry of a warrior finding his voice again. Apart from some well shot and staged chase sequences that show the skill of our protagonist, Scott is the main reason to be watching this (see the first look of joy on his face in the entire film as he gets back to doing what he does best). He's a man of integrity and pride but also the ultimate weakness of compassion and love that at once reignites his passion for life whilst putting it in danger.

I wouldn't be altogether surprised if the makers of The Transporter expressed a fondness for this film, as it certainly shares certain baser elements with the later Statham-starrer, but is certainly less one dimensional. As far as performances go this is the Scott show and his supporting act is unfortunately rather less than stellar. I'd recommend it, especially for Scott fans and those that enjoy a good car chase that doesn't feel the need to flip upside down underneath a crane. 7/10

A really excellent film, written by the wonderful and neglected Alan Sharp (see Night Moves). Scott is great and in an era of endless explosions and car chases, this is a welcome, intelligent relief.

Richard Fleisher did several good early noir films before his late career as a hack TV director. Also, this background reminds one of Frears film The Hit. (or is it The Last Hit?)...anyway,the writing is first rate, as always with Sharp and the characters quite memorable. Why is it so overlooked? This is the kind of genre piece that simply doesn't get made anymore. All performances are solid --- and I also have to wonder at the career of Richard Fleisher. From something as good as this, to his late work will remain a filmic enigma.

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.

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.

Subtlety is everything in understanding the Last Run. It is a movie about lost dreams and lives that didn't turn out quite like things were planned. The protagonist is not old Harry Garmes, retired and living the good life, a beautiful spot in seaside Portugal. If anything, Harry is the antagonist: he is the one who made it past all the danger only to be caught up in the real web of life. Harry thought life would be perfect, but it isn't. He wakes up at the beginning of this film and discovers he has nothing, despite having almost everything he thought he wanted. As others have said, this is existential, to be sure, but so beautifully sublime, I could only wish more movies were made like this, replete with beautiful cars for those who know, in contrast to the flashy but horrid handling boats like the bloated 428 Mustangs.

The protagonist is the car, the exquisite BMW 503. Harry comes back to the car, not all the other things surrounding the plot. He resurrects the car along with himself. Watch the careful way he sets the floats, listens to the engine the old way, with a rubber tube. He does it carefully, step by step dusting himself off at the same time. he does it with devotion and love. Harry knows that things aren't as important as living and he only feels alive when driving the car. Harry comes alive when he is driving "her" and he is only too happy to make one more run for his old employer's friends. He wants to feel again, something that the pain of life has beaten out of him slowly. Remember, Harry retired 9 years before;he knows he's a dinosaur, just like his car. He knows he is dying, albeit of complacency and scar tissue, and wants a chance at life... one more chance to be alive. He wants to dance with someone he loves. His driving mirrors real life. His love is really the car, the only thing he has left of which he is capable of loving, Trish Van Devere's underwear notwithstanding. To any car buff, the sound of the supercharger engaged in this car is a thrill beyond measure. There are no fat tires, no suspensions on the ground, no huge engines. In fact, the 503, cum supercharger wasn't even all that fast in its day. In 1971, the XJ6 with a 4.2 liter engine would have made a good match for the old Beemer. Tony Musante is perfect in the guise of the young action oriented hit-man who can only have fun by hurting and killing things. It's a perfect scenario of the modern world steamrolling art. When you add the scenery and a gorgeous Trish Van Devere, who I think later married George C., Colleen Dewhurst, whose acting is stunning, how can anyone think of a better action movie? Subtlety in art is better than flash and tinsel. Nevertheless, maybe it would lose in a ballot to what passes for art these days.

With two fantastic directors (Richard Fleischer, but also John Huston) and one of the most iconic macho-actors (George C. Scott) involved, I can't deny I expected a little bit more from "The Last Run". Sure, it's an entertaining enough thrill-ride with a strong lead performance and a couple of impressively photographed action/car chase sequences, but the plot is strictly routine and as thin as can be. Good old George is a retired getaway driver/wheelman for a criminal syndicate, living in a Portuguese coastal town. Purely to prove to himself he still has the skills after nine years of non-activity, he accepts one last job, but evidently it turns out to be a fishy one. With a minimalistic plot like this, there inevitably are many "filler" sequences. There are two subsequent opening/potential credits' scenes, for instance, one with George fixing up his car and another one with him test-racing. He also muses a lot about the past and smokes about 30 packs of cigarettes throughout the entire movie. "The Last Run" isn't boring, or at least never for longer than a minute or two, but you also guess exactly what'll happen long before it happens.

I love this film, and really do wonder about the sensibility of contemporary reviewers who just didn't get it. My favourite scene is when Trish Devere is using the shared pension bathroom to dry her underwear, explaining to Scott that she can't be expected to "walk around in wet knickers". Scott smirkingly replies, "which wouldn't bear thinking of", and receives a "death at forty paces" glare from Devere !

Well made dramatic thriller about an ex-driver for the mob, now retired and living on a beach with nothing else to do, and nothing else he knows how to do. When he's called upon after nine years to perform a job he takes it, simply to see if he can still do it. Scott is the best reason to watch this other-wise standard chase film; As the aging driver who's lost everything and has nothing to do but die, he is masterful. This is one of his finest (and most under-rated) performances. An engaging film with some intense moments of action and a great existentialist feel to it. Doesn't quite hit it's mark at times, but worth-while for Scott. Good photography.

*** out of ****

I caught this film on TCM and watched it with great curiosity and expectation, never having heard of it, and of course intrigued by anything with the great George C. Scott in it. I understand perfectly what the movie is aiming at, i.e. a sort of "Old Man of The Sea" of the crime world. However, despite adequate performances and fine cinematography, it left me a bit cold. Although the point was made, something about the execution - script? direction? what ? - left a bit of a void. None the less it is worth watching for all Scott fans. (Of interest is the fact that Scott was married - at different times - to both of his female costars, Coleen Dewhurst and Trish Vandervere.)

As the pres alluded to below this film is more notable for George C. Scott's marital affairs at the time it was made than it is for the interest in the character Scott plays or the story in which he's enmeshed. Most of the fault for this can be laid, in my opinion, at the feet (or typewriter) of scenarist Alan Sharp whose dialogue gets talky when it should be laconic (i.e. Scott philosophizing about death when sleeping with his future wife, Trish Van Devere)) and closemouthed when it should be informative (i.e. Sure would have liked to know why Scott's wife...the one in the movie, not real life...left him after their kid died and why the whore played by Scott's first wife...the one in real life, not the movie...betrayed him). Still, the scenes of conflict between Scott's old timer and Tony Musante's young punk (Musante is very good at playing young punks) work well and veteran director Richard Fleischer does a good job with the action scenes, and it's kinda fun to see Portugal, Spain and Southern France through the lens of Sven Nyqvist. So let's give it a B minus.

This is a movie I would love to see come out on DVD or VHS, and am surprised after all these years it hasn't.

George C. Scott is the real reason to see this picture. An intimate portrayal of retired mobster driver/runner Harry Garmes, and certainly one of Scott's best performances. The other reason to see The Last Run (1971) is the final and true love of his character's life, his 1957 BMW 503. They are a pair, and after 9 years of quiet retirement in Portugal, (filmed on location in and around Malaga), Garmes is feeling the old love of the chase surfacing again.

Lonely, bored and disappointed in the realities of retired life, he accepts an assignment to pick up a young hit man sprung from prison, and transport him (and unexpectedly his girlfriend, too) across the border into Spain. Of course, the prospect of one last run in the tradition of his former profession excites Garmes, and his "hobbies" of tinkering with his vintage supercharged sports car and gun become once again professional realities for him.

The chase scenes, especially between Garmes and his '57 BMW and the hit men's Jaguar XJS, are superb, without the special effects permeating films made since, and the whole movie somehow conveys a "vintage" and authentic feel, from Garmes' leather flight jacket to his supercharged old friend and partner. His sensitive acting is a study in an empathetic yet unsympathetic portrayal of Garmes, and George C. Scott fans will not be disappointed.

The downside of the picture is the at times ponderous and clumsy direction and also the other characters, (excepting Colleen Dewhurst, who in a near cameo is at her earthy and gritty best). The picture has an overtone of at times depressing realism, and this might well have triumphed under skillful direction. John Huston began the film from all accounts, and it's a pity he didn't complete the picture. The pace drags at times, and there are some truly awful and lame scenes, especially the incredibly disappointing and mawkish ending, which Huston never would have permitted. If it weren't for these, this could have been a great film. But if you can overlook such and appreciate Scott, his vintage car, and the chase scenes, it is a memorable movie.

Will it ever be available in DVD or VHS? Hope so! -RC Evans

Retired driver-for-criminals George C. Scott is sick of his empty life in Portugal and accepts a job picking up Tony Musante from a prison escape in Spain and smuggling him across the border into France. Scott and Musante clash immediately, with the energetic, talkative Musante irritating Scott, and Musante doubting that retired Scott has anything left in him. The situation worsens when Musante insists on picking up his girlfriend Trish Van Devere and this creates sexual tension.

Scott succeeds in getting Musante to his destination, but it turns out that the guys who sprung him just want him dead. Scott opts to save Musante and Van Devere, and races to bring them to Portugal where he can whisk them off to Africa in a fishing boat he owns. Complications arise when Van Devere seems to pick Scott over Musante and Scott conspires to run back to America with her.

John Huston originally agreed to direct this, but he demanded a lot of changes to Alan Sharp's screenplay. This annoyed Scott and he used his post-Oscar clout to get Huston off the picture. Richard Fleischer stepped in and I think he does his usual admirable job of crafting a cracking little crime film. Scott's spiritually empty driver is refreshingly not a guy who understands all the angles, and the film's meditation on three unsympathetic people driving straight into a tragic finale is pretty compelling. Plus there's a really nice car chase mid-film.

Sven Nykvist surprisingly shot this film, and he unsurprisingly delivers a really great looking film that feels more European than your expecting. Jerry Goldsmith also turns in a great score.

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.

The Last Run is a psychological analogy and public expression of George C. Scott's complicated, intense relationships with Colleen D. and Trish V. Although low-key and ahead of its time, The Last Run is entertaining if you enjoy adult drama which examines details of relationships, emotion, fear of death, determination to succeed, and guilt. George C. Scott's characterization of an aging criminal is intensely quiet and effective.

Spoiled by the laborious setup, The Last Run seems to be turning into a travelogue at the start. Once it gets into its stride and the car chases start, it becomes an interesting three-hander, but there seems to have been a total loss of focus by writer and director, as explained in the trivia. George C. Scott also seems to sleepwalk through a few scenes, but it's atmospheric and doesn't fizzle out. I wonder what John Huston would have done with it in the end. If you've never seen it, it's worth watching for the authentic car shenanigans - and the plot is strong enough to carry it. If you have to get popcorn and beer first, don't worry about missing the first ten minutes.

This is a fairly dull typical '70's movie that tries to be more than it really is.

Problem is that there isn't much interesting ever happening in this movie, with also an unnecessary and also far from believable love triangle story in it. Hard to imaging that George C. Scott and Trish Van Devere actually got married one year later, after this movie. The movie movie clearly lacks a good main plot line and gets mostly carried purely by George C. Scott's performance.

In this movie George C. Scott once more shows his talent, by giving away one fine performance. But no matter how good he is in his role, he still feels miscast. Even though Scott was 'only' 44 at the time, he already looked far too old for his role, to consider him really believable. George C. Scott just wasn't an actor who aged really well. When he was 40 he already looked like he was 60 years old. The rest of the cast consists out of insignificant actors, who show why they never broke through as actors.

At times the movie still is a typical '70's movie, with a good atmosphere and way of storytelling. Yet the movie doesn't always feel coherent, since its good at some times and completely dull and uninteresting to follow at others. It perhaps has to do with the fact that famed director John Huston walked from the movie after having heated arguments with George C. Scott over some script changes.

Only a typical '70's car chase is good enough to grab your attention for a short while but the movie swiftly becomes less exciting and more dull after that again. The movie really could had used some more action and at least more speed at times.

The movie tries hard to be in the same style as some old classic '40's but neither the script nor characters allow this movie to ever get close. The movie should had sticked more to its own style and time period.

Really only worth watching because of George C. Scott.

5/10

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