The Last Run (1971)

Good concept, poorly executed.

best movie i've ever seen.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Blistering performances.

Certainly not awful, but with a title like this, one would expect a whole lot more action. George C. Scott is a getaway driver out for one last score, helping to break low-life creep Tony Musante out of a Portugese prison. Musante hooks them up with his dishy (and decidedly sane) girlfriend (Trish Van Devere). The three flee the law as well as a number of gangsters. It's all rather dull for a film that promises fast paced thrills. Director Richard Fleischer does his standard journeyman's work and despite stunning cinematography by Sven Nykvist(!) and a suitably rousing score by Jerry Goldsmith, the film is shockingly inert. Scott growls a lot, Musante is annoying and Van Devere is pretty fetching. Colleen Dewhurst has a small, and very unlikely role. Started by director John Huston, who walked off the project after one too many arguments with the famously temperamental Scott.

This is a fairly dull typical '70's movie that tries to be more than it really is.Problem is that there isn't much interesting ever happening in this movie, with also an unnecessary and also far from believable love triangle story in it. Hard to imaging that George C. Scott and Trish Van Devere actually got married one year later, after this movie. The movie movie clearly lacks a good main plot line and gets mostly carried purely by George C. Scott's performance.In this movie George C. Scott once more shows his talent, by giving away one fine performance. But no matter how good he is in his role, he still feels miscast. Even though Scott was 'only' 44 at the time, he already looked far too old for his role, to consider him really believable. George C. Scott just wasn't an actor who aged really well. When he was 40 he already looked like he was 60 years old. The rest of the cast consists out of insignificant actors, who show why they never broke through as actors.At times the movie still is a typical '70's movie, with a good atmosphere and way of storytelling. Yet the movie doesn't always feel coherent, since its good at some times and completely dull and uninteresting to follow at others. It perhaps has to do with the fact that famed director John Huston walked from the movie after having heated arguments with George C. Scott over some script changes.Only a typical '70's car chase is good enough to grab your attention for a short while but the movie swiftly becomes less exciting and more dull after that again. The movie really could had used some more action and at least more speed at times.The movie tries hard to be in the same style as some old classic '40's but neither the script nor characters allow this movie to ever get close. The movie should had sticked more to its own style and time period.Really only worth watching because of George C. Scott.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Subtlety is everything in understanding the Last Run. It is a movie about lost dreams and lives that didn't turn out quite like things were planned. The protagonist is not old Harry Garmes, retired and living the good life, a beautiful spot in seaside Portugal. If anything, Harry is the antagonist: he is the one who made it past all the danger only to be caught up in the real web of life. Harry thought life would be perfect, but it isn't. He wakes up at the beginning of this film and discovers he has nothing, despite having almost everything he thought he wanted. As others have said, this is existential, to be sure, but so beautifully sublime, I could only wish more movies were made like this, replete with beautiful cars for those who know, in contrast to the flashy but horrid handling boats like the bloated 428 Mustangs.The protagonist is the car, the exquisite BMW 503. Harry comes back to the car, not all the other things surrounding the plot. He resurrects the car along with himself. Watch the careful way he sets the floats, listens to the engine the old way, with a rubber tube. He does it carefully, step by step dusting himself off at the same time. he does it with devotion and love. Harry knows that things aren't as important as living and he only feels alive when driving the car. Harry comes alive when he is driving "her" and he is only too happy to make one more run for his old employer's friends. He wants to feel again, something that the pain of life has beaten out of him slowly. Remember, Harry retired 9 years before;he knows he's a dinosaur, just like his car. He knows he is dying, albeit of complacency and scar tissue, and wants a chance at life... one more chance to be alive. He wants to dance with someone he loves. His driving mirrors real life. His love is really the car, the only thing he has left of which he is capable of loving, Trish Van Devere's underwear notwithstanding. To any car buff, the sound of the supercharger engaged in this car is a thrill beyond measure. There are no fat tires, no suspensions on the ground, no huge engines. In fact, the 503, cum supercharger wasn't even all that fast in its day. In 1971, the XJ6 with a 4.2 liter engine would have made a good match for the old Beemer. Tony Musante is perfect in the guise of the young action oriented hit-man who can only have fun by hurting and killing things. It's a perfect scenario of the modern world steamrolling art. When you add the scenery and a gorgeous Trish Van Devere, who I think later married George C., Colleen Dewhurst, whose acting is stunning, how can anyone think of a better action movie? Subtlety in art is better than flash and tinsel. Nevertheless, maybe it would lose in a ballot to what passes for art these days.

Other viewers' comments, both negative and positive, have aptly classified this film's genre. Those with inclination toward existentialist thought (e.g., why are we here and what are the best options before embracing the void?) generally like it. I think the film great and wish it were available on DVD. Others find it vapid. Yet I think the theme similar to that found in Blade Runner or Pierrot le Fou - though different from, say, Kafka's Metamophosis, or The Trial, or from Camus' The Stranger, etc., in that this film's protagonist undergoes emotional development - along with another character who fears her fate and sees no other path to follow. Our protagonist's past life as an underworld character is significant not in the cops-and-robbers sense, but rather as an earmark of his "loner" personality - like Camus' Stranger. He's a retired individualist - like Blade Runner's Deckard - who after a career on the "outside" is sucked against his will into a melee of action and intrigue. All he'd longed for was to finish out his days in peace - in Portugal - though one can wonder if his automotive hobby (his surrogate child) and petty daily ritual could really have sustained him - yet such is the trap some see themselves born into; perhaps an earlier, unexpected coup de grace isn't to be under-appreciated.