The Hard Way
                           
Director: Michael Dryhurst
Year: 1979
Rating: 6.0
Patrick McGoohan and Lee Van Cleef are two grizzled genre war horses who face off against one another in this moody hitman film that is as sparse in its dialogue as the desolate Irish landscape much of it is set in. It was a TV movie and clearly one without much of a budget besides the two actors but that actually gives the film a sense of reality - the small connecting working-class homes in Dublin, the dreary streets, the solitary drinkers in the local pub. It moves slowly and inevitably towards a showdown in which one of them has to die. The final ten minutes is nerve-wracking and suspenseful. 



Connor (McGoohan) is an assassin for hire. He has been in the game for a long time and is considered the best at it with his sniper rifle and sure hand. He has had a long working relationship with McNeal (Lee Van Cleef) who is the agent and then parcels out jobs. In the first scene Connor meticulously prepares for a kill. An easy one. A standing target. A man alone waiting for a meeting. With death as it turns out.  After the job is done, Connor informs McNeal that he is done. No more assignments. He retires to his isolated rural home in the middle of nowhere in Ireland, surrounded by hills and woods. A daily walk to the pub for a solitary drink. But hitmen rarely are allowed to retire. If you want a nice retirement package, get a nine to five job with three weeks vacation a year after 20 years of work.



McNeal wants him for just one more hit. An African priest who is causing concerns for the whites in South Africa. There is only a ten second unsecure gap where he is vulnerable - from the airport to the plane where he has to walk. It needs a perfect shot from 600 yards. Connor refuses. I am done. I told you. They send him pictures of his ex-wife outside her house with an implicit threat. Not sure if threatening a hit man is a good option. They come after him. He goes after them.  Very low-key for a hitman film - today if this was made, they would triple the action and the body count. But you can't beat McGoohan and Van Cleef just for their cold killer presence. Past their prime but they automatically bring with them their past films and TV that we grew up on.