I do so love the black humor in British crime films and this underappreciated gem is a fine example of it. Made by Stephen Frears, another director whose work I should definitely pay more attention to, this was the feature film debut of Tim Roth and also stars British film greats John Hurt and Terence Stamp. In addition to the always funny capers the characters get to up in it, I was surprised by the seriousness with which the film treats the prospect of imminent death as well as the respect it pays to its female lead, who usually in such films is very quickly killed and forgotten about.

A gangster Willie Parker testifies against his compatriots so they swear revenge against him one day. Ten years later he is living in Spain when he is nabbed by a gang of Spanish youths. They hand him off to English hitman Mitchell Braddock and his young assistant Myron but most of them are in turn killed by a briefcase bomb that they thought contained their payment. Between this and the youths running over Parker’s bodyguard, the police are soon on their trail so Braddock changes their plan. He leads them to a gangster safehouse in Madrid that he expects to find empty but instead finds that another gangster and his young mistress Maggie have been living there for some time without the knowledge of their boss. Braddock at first tries to take Maggie with them to keep the other gangster quiet while they flee in a different car. But Parker reminds him of the reward offered by the police and so he returns to kill the other man anyway. As they speed across the Spanish countryside towards the French border, Parkers tries to incite Myron against Braddock while affecting insouciance about his eventual fate. Myron takes a liking to Maggie and wants to prevent Braddock from killing her.

Braddock comes across as a seasoned professional with his unflappable demeanor and propensity to keep his plans close to his chest. Yet this is one kidnapping and extraction mission in which nothing goes right. Myron talks too much and can’t keep a rein on his emotions. Parker’s impossible calmness in the face of his imminent death gets to the both of them while Maggie, knowing fully well that she may be killed anytime, never stops fighting back and trying to escape. This creates the conditions for some sick black humor without any of the characters needing to tell a single joke. The ridiculousness of them stumbling onto their colleague who has been living large at their’s boss expense in Madrid is a case in point as the poor man desperately tries to convince Braddock that he won’t tell on them. There’s also the strange incongruity of them having kidnapped Maggie and Myron starts acting like she is a potential girlfriend and trying to protect her. It’s a little irritating that for all of the mistakes they make, the police keep staying just one step behind them and never actually catch up but that’s just another part of the craziness of the film as we keep seeing the same Spanish inspector calmly and sagely examining the clues at each successive crime scene.

Apart from the humor and the entertainment value of watching this road trip from hell fall apart, the film is also unexpectedly insightful as an examination of different attitudes towards death. Parker’s repeated insistence that he has made his peace with death eventually manages to evince some sympathy even from the cynical Braddock. Yet to Braddock’s disgust his stoicism falls apart when the actual moment of death arrives a little sooner than he expected. Conversely Maggie fights tooth and nail, literally, to live and tries every trick she can think of, including pretending to be stupid and not understand English. Myron is attracted only to her looks but Braddock seems to come to admire her tenacity. The twist is surprising and the seriousness with which the film contemplates the subject of death is effective in adding just the right amount of philosophical introspection into what would otherwise be a very simple film.

I note that while this film was rightfully lauded by critics upon release, it is not as yet considered to be one of the greats of cinema. In my opinion, that means this is underrated and deserves a larger audience. It’s a road trip film, a gangster film and a meditation into how one approaches death all in one, and it’s a wickedly funny and entertaining one to boot. Highly recommended.