O Tango e o Assassino

I'm a student of Robert Duvall's career. The films he has personally written and directed tend to to quirky and the subjects are those in which he has a strong interest. He has spent a fair amount of time in Argentina, and has a passionate interest in the Tango. His leading lady later became his wife. My suspicion is that Duvall made this movie out of love and could care less if it made money. The opaque nature of the assassination side of the story fits right in with Argentine political history. The Tango portion of the film is very well done, and shows his love of the dance. In any case, the movie is worth watching if you are a Duvall fan.

The tango scenes were absorbing. But they seemed to be just kluged on to a movie about an aging, warm-hearted gangster. I kept waiting for something to tie these seemingly disparate plot lines together. Nothing ever did. See it to admire a great actor. See it to admire some wonderful dancing and scenery. Just don't try to make sense of it.

I have seen this movie and thought it was great. The casting is well done because the characters are actually down to earth people. The acting is closer to the way people are in the real world, which makes parts of the plot more tangible. The photography also makes this movie worth seeing, as it shows the world as it is, not changed in any way whatsoever. For the acting and the plot, as well as the photography, this movie is worth seeing. The movie transports the viewer to the areas the main character goes to, which makes the movie extremely enjoyable. The music is great, and is the basis of the movie, and helps it move along while keeping the viewer interested in it.

Robert Duvall directed this film, which seems first of all made in order to allow Robert Duvall the actor to play a pretended complex character of a paid killer with a soul. From this point of view the film is a failure. The character does not succeed to gain the sympathy of the viewer, and the complexity of the character is faked. Too much is badly written or un-explained in this movie. Even if action is not supposed to be in the focus, the reasons and details of the murder conspiracy and the events around are left too much in the fuzzy zone.

What remains is the well described atmosphere of Argentina, and the love of the character with tango dancing, and the beautiful Argentinian who introduces him to the secrets of tango. These are indeed the best moments of the film, but it is still to little to sustain the film, and left me with the feeling that they are strangely disconnected from the rest.

An un-satisfactory film experience. 6/10 on my personal scale.

I love this movie. Beautiful. Thank you. The cast, the scenes, the music, the story, the cinematography. Perfect. Total entertainment. The drama, the comedy, the dance, even the smells. Robert Duvall's name in a picture guarantees great value. I wish to see many more of these superb works from the director and all the actors, and other creators of this film. Here is another example of great American movie making. I also want to say thanks to Sundance to show this piece on TV, unfortunatelly there aren't any movie theaters that would show this and similar movies. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys watching a movie with great acting, nice music, and not the usual boring plot.