Rude Mechanical

The Mechanic is the original 1972 version of the Jason Statham movie of the same name. It's pretty much the same, but completely different.

The title character is played by Charles Bronson, and he's plays it a lot like the Statham character - cool, methodical, detached. But where Statham has an emotional range that includes mildly amused and pissed off, Bronson feels nothing. But he unlike Statham, he can't sleep at night.

The mechanic's mentor in the later movie is played by Donald Sutherland, as a lovable old coot, a retired spook turned professor. In the Bronson version, he's played by Keenan Wynn as a shifty fixer.

His son, who becomes the mechanic's apprentice, was played as an annoying hipster by Ben Foster in the 2011 movie. In 1972, he is Jan Michael Vincent. His role is the 1972 equivalent, but I guess annoying hipsters were cooler in the 70's. He's not just a spoiled punk, but he has a chilly existentialist core. He is also Jan Michael Vincent - Big Wednesday, Damnation Alley, Airwolf (OK, skip that). He was the Val Kilmer of his day (hmm, maybe skip that too). Anyway, he was a great beatnik anti-hero, like Buck and Ron from Kitten with a Whip.

Also, in 1972, the movie takes place in LA (Hollywood, Malibu) and Naples, instead of Louisiana. I liked Statham's bayou pad, but Bronson's has it beat solid. And the sleazy side of LA looks even better than New Orleans.

As far as the action goes, there's some pretty decent explosions, motorbike chases, etc, but of course, nothing up to modern standards. They claimed the largest explosion in LA for the time - took out an old hotel.

I'm not sure how great this movie was - we liked it, though. But maybe that's just in comparison to the comparatively soulless 2011 version.