Killshot

I have wanted to see Killshot ever since I heard it was in development, because it's one of my favorite Elmore Leonard novels. I read it about twenty years and it was so cinematic in style that I could imagine the movie in my head. I heard that Quentin Tarantino was interested in doing it, but it was finally made with John Madden, director of Shakespeare in Love, instead.

And then it sat on the shelf. The film was first slated for release in 2006, but gathered dust until it was finally issued straight to DVD in May of this year. After watching it, I have to wonder what goes in the corridors of the Weinstein Company. With all of the garbage that is released in theaters, why was this minor gem kept in the can and then bypass theaters? It certainly wouldn't have been a blockbuster, but might have made enough to make back costs.

The script, by Hossein Ameni, is very faithful to the novel as far as the plot, but takes a very different tone. While Leonard's novels typically have an undercurrent of mordant humor, Killshot the film is grim business. It is about a hitman, nicknamed the Blackbird, (Mickey Rourke) who is part Ojibwa Indian. At the beginning of the story he is hired to take out a mob chief but when he kills a whore that could be a witness he ires the man who hired him. He takes to the underground, and ends up partnering with the extremely incompetent small-time criminal (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who reminds Rourke of his dead kid brother. They attempt to shake down a real estate office, and a married couple, Thomas Jane and Diane Lane, see Rourke's face, that means they must be eliminated.

The film then is an unrelenting tale of suspense as Jane and Lane go into the witness protection program but Rourke has ways of finding them. The couple are also going through a separation, which complicates things for them when they must pretend to be a happy couple in their new location.

I really liked this film. Rourke, who made this film before his career resuscitating The Wrestler is spot-on in his role as a cold-blooded killer who is also conflicted about his feelings about his heritage and his family. Gordon-Levitt is also a delight, playing one of those gloriously stupid criminals that people Leonard's novels.

Madden's direction is lean and spare, without frills. The film clocks in at a perfect ninety or so minutes, and unfolds with its own momentum. Excellent use of the rural Michigan locations is another plus. I hope this film finds an audience in home video.