movies (subject to tumblr's inconsistent search engine. for more complete results, try the archive): badlands, blow out, bring me the head of alfredo garcia, cadavres exquis, charley varrick, chinatown, dog day afternoon, il conformista, klute, le cercle rouge, marathon man, mean streets, night moves, point blank, prime cut, save the tiger, serpico, sisters, straight time, the day of the jackal, the don is dead, the driver, the friends of eddie coyle, the getaway, the harder they come, the hot rock, the killing of a chinese bookie, the last of sheila, the long goodbye, the mackintosh man, the onion field, the organization, the parallax view, the spook who sat by the door, the sting, the taking of pelham one two three, the yakuza, three days of the condor, villain, wanda
Charley Varrick (1973)
Hired gun Molly is more Carson Wells asshole than pensive Anton Chigurh
Charley Varrick (1973)
Having watched Charley Varrick for the first time after the release of the Coen Brothers’ No Country For Old Men, it’s easy to notice the similarities between the two movies. In the latter, a man discovers $2 million in drug money while out hunting, attempts to take it for himself, and consequently is chased around west Texas by gunmen hired to retrieve the stolen loot. In Charley Varrick, Walter Matthau as Varrick discovers his haul from a New Mexico bank robbery contains a large sum of mob money. The remaining member of his heist crew is unwilling to lay low until things calm down, and Varrick must now stay one step ahead of the hit man and other lowlifes scheming to get a hold of the cash. The movie culminates in a chase scene between former stunt-pilot Varrick in a single-engine Cessna and hit man Molly in an Imperial LeBaron.
Two men take money that’s not theirs and there is hell to pay. However, while No Country For Old Men is a nihilistic look at man’s struggle with fate and chance set in the harsh West, the theme behind Charley Varrick can found in the motto of the crop-dusting business Varrick operates between his stunt pilot and bank robber days: “the last of the independents.” In an era distrustful of government and corporations, Varrick is the little guy who uses his mind and guts to outwit the “organization” and end up on top. The New Mexico desert setting of the film helps to add to the characterization of Varrick as a lone, self-sufficient cowboy.
