Movie Two Hundred Eighty Two
A Secret Service agent must protect repeated attempts on the First Lady’s life in Assassination.
Jay “Killy” Killion (Charles Bronson), a Secret Service member coming back from sick leave is assigned to the newly inaugurated First Lady, Lara Royce Craig (Jill Ireland). Lara is condescending and unappreciative of Killy does not make things easy on him. Lara acts like a spoiled brat, constantly undermining him and insisting on the uselessness of his protection until several assassination attempts are made on her life and she begins to understand the Killion is the right man for the job of protecting her life.
I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I freaking love Charles Bronson. To me, there are no bad Charles Bronson movies, there are simply Charles Bronson movies. Still, I am not immune to recognizing the flaws in some of these films and Assassination is definitely not one I would recommend freely. Of course, we do have Charles Bronson being a total badass, but by this point in his career, he had better, more memorable roles as a badass.
Jill Ireland, Bronson’s wife in real life until her death, either annoys me or makes me swoon and unfortunately, her character in Assassination is meant to be irritating and she pulls it off almost too well. I wanted her character to actually get killed pretty early on in Assassination because Charles Bronson can be a badass with or without her in the movie. Still, I love that Bronson and Ireland worked together so often and there’s something to be said to see them both onscreen, regardless of how annoying she can be.
Assassination has everything one would expect from a Charles Bronson movie – guns, violence, and an awesome mustache. The fact that Bronson’s character is called “Killy” really shows that the screenwriters wanted little more from the film than Charles Bronson killing people, I think. While Assassination isn’t high up on my favorite Bronson films, it does the job.
I give it 3 videos of the best scene of Assassination out of 5.
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Great write up. I’m also a big Bronson fan. Some of his flicks were a bit campy like the Death Wish sequels (still rocked) but he also did a lot of great work. Love his teamings with McQueen (my all time favorite action star). Too bad they never made a movie as a duo rather than an esamble cast.
McQueen was almost too popular for his own good, I would have loved more McQueen/Bronson films
I actually saw this one in the theater, and haven’t thought about it years. Almost makes want to see it again. Almost.
Actually the only two Bronson films I’m looking forward to revisiting soon are 10 to Midnight and Murphy’s Law, especially the former. I recently watched Chato’s Land, and it was really good but sadly Bronson’s performance was by far the weakest. I still love him though.
I know what you mean.
I was disappointed by that one but don’t remember why. Maybe underutilized Bronson. One film of his I’m on the lookout for is White Buffalo.
I own the MGM on-demand DVD of that one! It’s a guilty pleasure.
I considered getting that but it was kind of pricey. I’d love owning all of Bronson’s films, though
I love Steve McQueen and Bronson is a better actor than most people give him credit for. I agree with you sometimes his wife Ireland could be annoying in her roles. You may like to know that during the month of March I will be reviewing all the movies that Bronson did with his during the 70′s.
Outstanding news, Richard! I’ll be looking forward to that!
YES
I may have to join you for that Bronson-a-thon
I’m like you, I don’t know if there’s such a thing as an out-and-out bad Charles Bronson film. I haven’t seen this one, but I’ll definitely check it out at some point.
I don’t know what it is about him but I just love watching him onscreen.
I didn’t realize Bronson made movies other than the Death Wish millionology.
Hahaha “millionology”
He actually had quite a long career but Death Wish is kind of his signature series for most of his later roles
I too am a big fan of Bronson. The Evil that Men Do and Death Hunt are two that come to mind as personal favourites among the lesser-known classics.
Death Wish and Hard Times are favourites of the more well-known films.
I’m also on the lookout for Red Sun – the film he did with Toshiro Mifune. And I have a copy of White Buffalo but I haven’t watched it yet.
My all-time fave is still Once Upon a Time in the West though.
I’ve never seen Red Sun either…The hunt is on for that and White Buffalo.
Once Upon a Time in the West is boss, gotta love Harmonica.
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