The American
The American is a 2010 drama film by director Anton Corbijn (most known for directing Control and numerous U2 music videos). Adapted from Martin Booth's 1990 novel A Very Private Gentleman (in which the protagonist is actually English), it follows George Clooney as Jack, a lonesome assassin who, after some enemies track him down to his remote cabin in Sweden, moves to a remote village in Italy to lay low. What follows is a character study of a man who lives a very rigid, lonely life due to his career. He befriends the local priest, and starts a relationship with Clara, a prostitute in the area.
Taut, featuring beautiful cinematography, and poor marketing, The American is notable for how it subverts the tropes common in the hitman movie, not so much by lampshading them, but simply by using them to the advantage of the film's contemplative tone.
- Blond Guys Are Evil: The Swedes are hunting Jack down after all. The blond assassin in the middle of the film exemplifies this.
- Backwards-Firing Gun: Jack ends up rigging Mathilde's gun to do this once he figures out she's been contracted to kill him.
- Bolivian Army Ending
- Classically-Trained Extra: The older Swedish Audience may recoginze an old, but respectable and (of course) classically trained stage actor turning up at the start of the movie... to be shot seconds later.
- Contract on the Hitman: Jack's mistakes through the movie eventually lead to this.
- Hidden Depths: While it's early seen that Jack is a skilled and ruthless professional, a large curveball is thrown when it's shown his back tattoo is not another military emblem or Biblical passage... but a butterfly. He's later shown reading a book on butterflies and asks Mathilde not to move when an endangered species lands on her shoulder.
- Hollywood Silencer: Averted. Jack stresses he can modify a rifle with a "suppressor," but it will mostly just mask where the shot is coming from. When it's tested, there's still a loud CRACK! from each shot, and the accuracy is significantly affected.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Clara is this.
- Subverted when it looks like she's an assassin out to get Jack.
- Doubly subverted when she's got a gun simply because someone is killing prostitutes.
- Ms. Fanservice: Clara is this. She spends half of her screentime naked.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The commercials (not so much the trailers) advertise it as a Bourne-style action film. It's really not. It's more of a character study interspersed with bits of action.
- Neck Snap: Done realistically for once.
- One Last Job: Subverted. At first it doesn't start like this, but the stress on Jack's life ultimately lead him to this decision.
- Recycled in Space: Le Samourai IN ITALY!
- Retirony: See One Last Job.
- Scenery Porn: The film revels in this. It's a Corbijn special.
- Unproblematic Prostitution
- Wham! Line: When Clara calls Jack Mr. Butterfly, a name we have only seen him give to Mathilde. The film leaves it ambiguous whether this actually meant anything.