Sitting Target

Incarcerated thug Oliver Reed breaks himself, his crime partner, and another cell mate out of a maximum security prison in England; he's after his wayward wife, who has announced her desire to divorce Reed to be with another man and have his child. Occasionally confusing or confounding drama with indecipherable dialogue (at least to the untrained ear) and a twist finish that is more ridiculous than clever. After an obtuse start, director Douglas Hickox keeps the pace bristling with violence or the threat of violence, while brooding Reed and buddy Ian McShane are a fine tough-guy pair. The cinematography, art direction, and editing are all quite stylish, and fans of the crime genre will enjoy it, but the female characters are batted about like useless playthings and Edward Woodward has a thankless role as an inspector who's never around when needed. ** from ****

I really fell for this movie when I saw it on TCM. A simple, straight forward, almost ordinary story but this movie is much more memorable thanks to it's stylish direction and good cast. A very intense movie. To me it's just as good as the more known "get carter" from the same era.

To this day SITTING TARGET is one of the most bleak and disturbingly violent thrillers Britain has ever produced . I remember watching this one TV in the early 1980s and being slightly shocked as to how nihilistic it all was . If there's any type of message in this film it's that there's no honour amongst thieves and that it's bad news to drive a motorcycle while the petrol tank explodes . It's also one of the few British films to show the mind numbing living death of long term imprisonment and this alone makes it worth watching . It's also interesting to note that Ian McShane is playing a villain . It might not be surprising casting with hindsight since we'll all remember McShane for his scene stealing role in DEADWOOD but before that HBO series he was always cast as likable good guys

Under-appreciated British crime thriller with antisocial characters and an antisocial plot: a convict finds out his wife is pregnant by another man, so he busts out of prison to hunt her down with every intention of killing her. No time wasted on "redeeming" characters. No goofy humor or chase scenes through clubs playing bad, dated music. Just a spare, tense study of two vicious men (Oliver Reed, Ian McShane) hot on the trail of a treacherous moll (Jill St. John). A nemesis detective (Edward Woodward) tries to intervene, but never fouls the nihilistic tone. Solid performances and one of Reed's best as an uber-thug who does push-ups on the ceiling of his jail cell, is sitting on a volcano, and only lets on what he has to, even to his partner. The script does the same thing, imparting information on a need-to-know basis, doing so smoothly as it races toward Hell. All in the back-lots and stygian prisons of a cold, drab London, with a musical score by Stanley Myers that perfectly enhances the story and mood. A must for fans of seventies crime thrillers, British or otherwise, that take no prisoners.

There were a number of brutal thrillers made in Britain in the early 70s ("Get Carter" and "Villain" were others) and this may be the nastiest of the lot. There are few likeable characters and a lot of unpleasant violence in the film, although it can boast a strong cast and stylish direction from the underrated Hickox, who made the excellent (if equally violent) "Theatre of Blood" the following year.