Welp, sheeit. This is a more difficult one to review retroactively after watching the remake Payback: Straight Up (Directors Cut) just a bit previous. Same story from Richard Stark’s book The Hunter. Not entirely the same beats, but it sure does rhyme. And interesting to see it play out through two very different eras (late 60s vs late 90s) and two very different geolocations (West Coast vs East Coast).
Walker. First name: unknown. Wakes in a prison cell. How? Flashback! Crime gone bad. We quickly discover his prison cell is on the now-abandoned island of Alcatraz. Just turns out that’s a great out-of-the-way place for criming. But as it always goes, his partner in crime has other plans and maybe also another close associate. Damn. Problem is, even unguarded, Alcatraz? Not an easy place to escape from. Ask Clint Eastwood. So there may just might be a little extra pent-up rage on top of the already large pile of anger and go-fuck-yerselves badges already acquired. But dang, seems a lot easier back then to interrogate a guy. Just, uh, wear a seatbelt? And drive a car that doesn’t shit the bed after hitting a pylon or two. That seems like a luxury in this day and age. Back then? Cars were pretty much indestructible. Why did that change? Hmmm. I will ponder that as I acquire another beer.
Got it! New cars suck. Give me my Blade Runner Flying Car, you regressive bastards! Or a jetpack. I would settle for a reliable jetpack. Not those Temu ones that explode mid-air for no reason. Fuck those jetpacks.
Lee Marvin is pretty bad-ass, and establishes that fact here along with same year release of The Dirty Dozen hitting the screens, with that hard demeanor you reeeeeally don’t want to fuck with. He just. Wants. His Money. The simplest of motivations, the hardest of resolutions, especially when considering “The Organization” and all its bullshit levels and bureaucracy. Doesn’t seem too efficient, to me at least. But it does make for some decent revengings here.
