Skip Tracer

This grainy, grimy filmed story of a collection agency superstar (top guy four years running) is one brutal unrelenting piece of dark independent cinema. Director writer Zale Dalen in economically imaginative fashion follows the day to day efforts of an unctuous process collector John Collins (David Petersen) and the sadistic delight he gets on forclosing on anything that isn't nailed down, perfectly summed up as he reposesses a small TV set that a child is watching cartoons on.

Played with a very effective bland indifference by Petersen, Dalen makes no attempt to soften Collins or his pond scum associates. "You wanna be loved be a minister," roars one in a sleazy strip joint scene that beautifully sums up the depraved lifestyle and occupation.

In addition to his uncompromising storyline, Dalen does some interesting work with his soundtrack to emphasize pressure and inner turmoil as Collins deconstructs and makes a desultory attempt at redemption but not before a brutally powerful reckoning that makes this bleak story bleaker. Unrelenting grim stuff.

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.

I often feel that if my user comments on this website are to achieve any purpose, it will not be by scribbling yet another eulogy on "The Third Man" or toppling the sacred cow of "Citizen Kane"; rather should I be drawing attention to little known films that have excited me in the hope that they may be discovered and find other admirers. "Skip Tracer" is a classic example of one that seems to have sunk without trace (excuse the pun) possibly because it was made in the wrong place (Canada has a great tradition of French-Canadian cinema, but Vancouver is outside this scene), at the wrong time (the '50's was the decade when they made films like this) and contains no familiar faces. How else to explain the neglect of a work that I honestly believe to be a near-masterpiece! Significantly the only other user comments are from UK viewers who seemed to have discovered it as I did when it got an airing on British TV in the early '80's. The central character, John Collins, is a debt chaser for a loan firm in Vancouver. It is an occupation that demands single-minded toughness and a complete suppression of moral feeling or any form of human pity. Collins appears to have what it takes to make it as he has already amassed several "man of the year" awards in a row, but slowly little chinks in his armour appear such as the time when he advises an elderly prospective client who needs a loan for his wife's kidney treatment to look to a bank instead. "Skip Tracer" is about Collins's odyssey towards a form of moral salvation, not a quest he actively seeks, but rather something foisted on him as he becomes increasingly more sickened by what he is doing. Not only is David Peterson's performance wonderfully sustained, he is supported by two perfectly contrasted colleagues, the hard-bitten middle-aged Leo who has completely suppressed any desire to be liked to the extent that he can say anything to anyone - even verbally abusing a strip dancer as she performs in public, and the gangling, inexperienced and rather effeminate young Brent, who fails to make his quota as he has not got it in him to be nasty enough. The scene where he visits Collins in hospital after Collins has been beaten up by a client is as great a scene between two men facing a moral divide as one is likely to see outside the Brando/Steiger conversation in the cab in "On the Waterfront". That one can mention "Skip Tracer" in the same breath as Kazan's masterpiece gives some idea of its extraordinary quality. Both are about men whose gradual awareness of what they are gives them the strength to transcend what they might become.

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 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.