An American Abroad

Who would have guessed that a movie called The American would be so European in character? It stars a quintessential American actor, but with a Dutch photographer as a director it shouldn’t come as a surprise. It is a callback to older espionage thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal (1973). And quite honestly, it just reminds me of 1969’s Downhill Racer. And I thoroughly enjoyed it.

George Clooney plays…well, it’s never really said out loud what his character’s profession is. Is he an assassin or a hitman? Or does he just facilitate things? The most likely answer is that he is a hitman involved in the criminal underworld. After his hiding place in Sweden is discovered he uses a contact in Italy to find a new safe house in the countryside. Everyone in the small town knows him simply as, “the American.”

As I referenced before, this is more like your father’s espionage movie. Doug Liman and Paul Greengrass may be partly or jointly responsible (with Matt Damon) for creating a new style of spy movie, and action movie in general, with the three Bourne films. We’ve all seen it. Fast cuts and hand-held “shaky” cams. Hardly any time to process what just happened before you are jetting off to a new part of the world. Its influence can clearly be seen in 2009’s The International. To contrast, it’s been said before that the real excitement is in the journey, not the destination, or that we should “stop and smell the roses.” In other words, that the tortoise beats the hare.

Undoubtedly those Bourne movies are very enjoyable and very good. I know I enjoyed them; but I’ve also always enjoyed those political and espionage thrillers from the past. They have a certain deliberateness and pacing about them. They don’t give anything away, and they make you work for the payoff. All this is present in The American.

The American is not free of clichés, one of which is its theme. I’m actually not sure if I would say that it is thematically as deep as those Bourne films. For instance, our protagonist has a butterfly tattoo (yes, a guy with a butterfly tattoo) and more than once he is called “Mr. Butterfly.” Yeah, butterflies represent something in this movie, and it doesn’t take long to guess. But that’s alright, it does what it does, and it does it well. One of the joys found in this movie is in the pacing I wrote briefly of earlier. I wouldn’t call it a slow pace, just deliberate. There are many shots of the Italian countryside and of Clooney’s car driving through it. And those shots of the Italian countryside are another one of the great things about this movie. I think that to truly enjoy this movie, one should not as concerned with the story as they are about the characters. Truly this is a character driven story and a story that is also very heavy with dialogue. By that I don’t mean that everyone is always talking; but the dialogue that is there is important. No word is wasted.

Likewise, no shot is wasted. Anton Corbijn, the director, is a photographer and music videographer by trade and directed the Ian Curtis/Joy Division music biopic Control. His cinematographer is Martin Ruhe, another person with a music video background. He also worked in the same position under Corbijn for the film Control. Music videos and commercials are short and usually fast paced, but this movie is the opposite. Although some would call the pace of the film “slow,” I prefer to say “deliberate” to avoid the negative connotations. Despite the length of the cuts, nothing is superfluous. Everything, every line, every shot, has a point and a meaning.

Another thing I found really appealing about the movie is how you don't know anything about George Clooney or his handler. We even don’t really know his name. We don’t know what jobs he’s done in the past. We don’t know who is trying to kill him and why. All we know is what we sear and hear in the present of the film.

I also like it for using Violante Placido as the prostitute with a heart of gold (another cliché); for those that don’t know, Placido is the daughter of actress Simonetta Stefanelli. Now I’m sure many of you are asking who she is. Well, I’ll tell you. Stefanelli played Apollonia Vitelli…Michael Corleone’s first wife who was tragically cut down by a car bomb in The Godfather (1972). Another great moment in the movie is when Clooney goes into a café that is playing Once Upon a Time in the West, which I consider to be Sergio Leone’s Western masterpiece. Once Upon a Time in the West is another movie that uses deliberate pacing to set the mood; and it was directed by one of Italy’s greatest: Sergio Leone, the man responsible for the Spaghetti Western and bringing Clint Eastwood out of bit Western parts and into the mainstream.

I really did enjoy this movie, and I do consider it to be one of the best of the year. I don’t mind the clichés so much because the movie is simply a solidly well made film. My final rating: 8/10.