Parting Shots
UK 1998
Reviewed by Richard Falcon
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
London-based phot0grapher Harry Sterndale is told he has only six weeks to live. Deciding to get even with everyone who has treated him badly, Harry goes to buy a gun. He goes to see his ex-wife Lisa, who left him after Harry lost all his money. Harry shoots her dead. Next up is financier Gerd Layton who swindled Harry out of his savings. Harry drowns Layton in his own swimming pool, but is discovered by Layton's PA Jill who secretly hated her boss.
Harry and Jill fall in love and go to dine at a posh restaurant. The head chef Renzo humiliates them so Harry kills him. Harry discovers his insurance policy will pay out more money if he meets a violent death, so he hires hitman Stewart to kill him. Harry takes Jill to the country where he shoots the bully who tormented him at school, and then kills an "old friend", Maurice Walpole, who stole Harry's ideas when they went into business together. However, Harry discovers he is not going to die after all. He tries to call off Stewart, who shoots a visiting dictator while trying to kill Harry. Stewart is arrested and confesses to Harry's murders. Harry is free to live happily ever after with Jill.
Review
At one point in this latest dog's dinner from Michael Winner, Chris Rea's Harry muses over his photographic album, and compares the betrayal of his "friends" with kids mugging old ladies. "In there," he says, "are all the people who mugged me." Harry's subsequent revenge against a series of ridiculously caricatured victims echoes this sentiment by constantly referring back to Winner's most famous movie, Death Wish. Like the hero of that earlier movie, Harry plays music loudly to celebrate after his first murderous act. Rockstar Rea, in his first role, and the only likable element in this movie, looks occasionally like a middle-aged 70s Charles Bronson who has never worked out. (In fact Winner's talent for making male flesh look grotesque through flatly lit, low wide-angle shots should have given both Rea and Bob Hoskins pause for thought before agreeing to the swimming-pool scene.) Harry's victims have included a shrewish ex-wife and a self-regarding celebrity chef (fallout, perhaps, from Winner's well-publicised barring from the restaurant La Gavroche last year). Both these characters, though nasty, have broken no laws, so when the police suggest Harry's trail of revenge will put them out of a job, it only makes sense as a reference to Death Wish.
The most interesting thing here, then, is the way Parting Shots brings the whole idea of self-reflexivity into disrepute. It serves as a dismal summary of the director's career to date, one in which the swinging-60s comedies and the vigilante movies finally fuse to no great purpose. Instead of laughs, we get excessively ripe turns from performers who should know better, including Diana Rigg and John Cleese (the presence of the latter tells us this is comedy in the absence of any other cues). In fact, this looks like little more than another case of the director slapping together a film with his celebrity friends. True friends, though, tell you when you're embarrassing yourself.
Credits
- Producer
- Michael Winner
- Screenplay
- Michael Winner
- Nick Mead
- From a story by
- Michael Winner
- Director of Photography
- Ousama Rawi
- Editors
- Arnold Crust
- [i.e. Michael Winner]
- Supervising:
- Chris Barnes
- Production Designer
- Crispian Sallis
- Music/Music Arranger
- Les Reed
- ©Michael Winner Ltd
- Production Company
- Scimitar Films presents a Michael Winner film
- Associate Producer
- Ron Purdie
- Production Co-ordinator
- Christine Fenton
- Location Manager
- Michael Harvey
- Assistant Directors
- Antony Ford
- Toby Hefferman
- Script Supervisor
- Hilary Fagg
- Casting
- Noel Davis Casting
- 1970s Photos
- Tom Hustler
- Wardrobe
- Supervisor:
- Sue Wain
- Mistress:
- Emma Lock
- Special Hair/Make-up
- Deborah Lindsell
- Stevie J. Hall
- Hairdresser
- Dinah May
- Titles/Opticals
- Peter Govey
- Main Themes/Songs Composer/Performer
- Chris Rea
- Conductor
- Barrie Guard
- Strings Arranger
- Max Middleton
- Sound Engineer
- Frederic Blanc-Garin
- Recordist
- Dick Lewzey
- Sound Mixer
- Ian Munro
- Re-recording Mixers
- Dean Humphreys
- Tim Cavagin
- Mark Lafbery
- Re-recordist
- Venetia Crust
- [i.e. Vanessa Perry]
- Sound Editor
- Jim Roddan
- Cast
- Chris Rea
- Harry Sterndale
- Felicity Kendal
- Jill Saunders
- Bob Hoskins
- Gerd Layton
- Ben Kingsley
- Renzo Locatelli
- Joanna Lumley
- Freda
- Oliver Reed
- Jamie Campbell Stewart
- Diana Rigg
- Lisa
- John Cleese
- Maurice Walpole
- Gareth Hunt
- Inspector Bass
- Peter Davison
- John
- Patrick Ryecart
- Cleverley
- Nicholas Gecks
- Detective Constable Ray
- Caroline Langrishe
- Vanessa
- Nicky Henson
- Askew
- Sheila Steafel
- president's wife
- Edward Hardwicke
- Doctor Joseph
- Ruby Snape
- Melissa
- Nicola Bryant
- Beverley
- Vanessa Perry
- bride
- Tristan Middleton
- bridegroom
- Taryn Kay
- Mrs Layton
- Alison Reynolds
- Zoe Layton
- Michael Ayers
- young Harry Sterndale
- Steve Brownlie
- young Maurice Walpole
- Sarah Reeves
- young Lisa
- Brian Poyser
- President Zlomov
- Trevor Baxter
- maître d'
- David Marrick
- wine waiter
- William Wilde
- Jamie's solicitor
- Timothy Carlton
- Commissioner Grosvenor
- Donald Standen
- Rick
- Sarah Parish
- ad agency receptionist
- John Tordoff
- father of the bride
- Nora Connolly
- mother of the bride
- Andrew Grainger
- best man
- Andrew Neil
- Alison Jack
- TV newsreaders
- Peter Gale
- ballistics expert
- Jon Paul Morgan
- lab assistant
- Jack Galloway
- TV journalist
- David Griffith
- hotel official
- Mildred Shay
- Mary Mitchell
- old ladies at wedding
- Roland Curram
- Lord Selwyn
- Jenny Logan
- Lady Selwyn
- Jeremy Peters
- country policeman
- Christopher Routh
- young policeman
- Mark Gillis
- Mark Hill
- Mark Stratford
- Steve Paget
- Barney Craig
- policemen
- Steve Bronowski
- officer 1
- Nathan Weaver
- Harry Sterndale, aged 12
- Craig Jelley
- Cleverley, aged 12
- Tim Kelly
- Jay Hammond
- boys
- Anthony Smee
- George
- Crispian Belfrage
- courier
- Father Donovan
- vicar
- Walter
- Patsy the poodle
- Certificate
- 12
- Distributor
- United International Pictures (UK) Ltd
- 8,853 feet
- 98 minutes 22 seconds
- Dolby stereo
- In Colour