A lone stranger enters a town. His motives are nebulous and he keeps to himself. He falls for a woman while sinister forces conspire to take him unawares in the town.
This description is boilerplate material for hundreds (if not thousands) of Westerns. Yet it also describes the latest intriguing George Clooney thriller “The American,” which squarely (though not overtly) commits itself successfully to this seemingly lost genre.
After his latest job in Sweden ends more harshly than expected, American assassin Jack (Clooney) retreats to the Italian countryside in the small medieval town of Abruzzo. He begins an unexpected affair with a prostitute (Violante Placido) and a friendship with the local priest (Paolo Bonacelli). But as in the case of all Westerns, danger lurks in the shadows.
Taking place in the gorgeously shot vistas in Sweden and Italy, adapted for the screen by Englishman Rowan Jaffe, and directed by the Dutch filmmaker Anton Corbijn (“Control”), “The American” superficially has very little in common with most American film genres. The allusions made to the Western begin with the plot structure, but by using succinct stylistic choices such as the story taking place in the dying majesty of the crumbling medieval Italian town, Corbijn conveys a sense of a man accepting responsibility for the death he caused and his own fate. In addition, at one point, Jack watches what some consider to be the last, great Western film, “Once Upon a Time in West;” a film which reveled in the decay of the frontier and those who inhabited it.
Clooney fully immersing himself in Jack’s recognition of the journey his life has taken. It takes a strong, capable actor to comprehend that lingering sense of indifference to morality, which works superbly in conjunction with the sparse dialogue of Jaffe’s barren script. This allows Clooney, for the first time in his career, to act with his haunted eyes. Director Corbijn lets the visuals speak for the film and permits the silence to speak of one man’s comprehension of death, especially in his will to live.
“The American” does not flow as the average action thriller. Rather it is a portrait of Jack coming to terms with his identity and an approval of all the death he played a part in. This sense of the inevitable grips the viewer as would any typical Hollywood thriller, and stronger still, as the message lingers on before ultimately fading away. A-
New On Dvd/Blu-Ray
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Funny, but not as funny as the original, “Death at a Funeral” has a few “laugh out loud” moments on Blu-ray. Unfortunately, the transfer of this slapstick comedy is lackluster and the extras are lacking. C+
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Ari Silber is a Loyola MBA student. Before graduate school, he worked for nine years in the Los Angeles film industry, focusing on marketing, publicity and distribution.
He can be reached at
