unknown infuence
Being relatively obscure, this film has a sort of unknown influence (BTW, screw that pretentious hack Tarantino, I hope he never has or will see this film just so he can steal from it and call it an "homage"). Two great directors: Jean-Pierre Melville and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, have cited this film as influence for their own hitman films: "Le Samourai" and "The American Soldier" respectively--in turn these two films that have had a profound effect on a number of popular directors in a number of movements and countries.It is perhaps the missing link between the noir era hitman film, "This Gun For Hire" and the hitman film of the neo-noir era, with all its foreign and modern permutations. It might not be a visual beauty, but it's so uniquely off-beat--it satirized this sub-genre's tropes long before Seijun Suzuki put them through the wringer in his "Branded to Kill."
Anyhow, I just truly appreciate this film, which I only saw incidentally...cinephiles unite and go see this film!
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Yeah, I'm so bad I kick my own ass twice a day.
-Creeper, the Hamburger Pimp from "Dolemite"