The American (2010 film)
Encyclopedia
The American is a 2010 American thriller film directed by Anton Corbijn
and starring George Clooney
, Thekla Reuten
, Violante Placido
, Irina Björklund
, and Paolo Bonacelli
. It is an adaptation of the 1990 novel A Very Private Gentleman
by Martin Booth
. The film opened on September 1, 2010.
), a gunsmith, is relaxing in a remote cabin in Sweden
with his lover and friend, Ingrid (Irina Björklund
). As they walk on a frozen lake, Jack detects a sniper, who opens fire as the couple run to safety. Jack kills the sniper and then, in a terrifyingly cold blooded fashion, shoots his friend and lover Ingrid in the back of the head, after deceiving her to go and get help, as well as another armed man on a nearby road. He then flees to Rome
and contacts a "business associate" named Pavel (Johan Leysen). Pavel insists that Jack cannot stay in Rome, gives him the keys to a Fiat Tempra
and sends him to Castelvecchio
, a small town in the mountains of Abruzzo
. Pavel tells him "Don't make any friends, Jack... you used to know that," blaming Jack's recent loneliness and vulnerability to his last assassination attempt. Jack becomes nervous, and, disposing of the cell phone which Pavel had given him, goes to nearby Castel del Monte instead.
While he is hiding out there, Jack is "befriended" by an elderly priest, Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli
), even though he resists said befriending. Father Benedetto pressures him to seek absolution, something which Jack, now going by the name Edward and posing as a photographer, resists. Jack contacts Pavel, who sets him up with another job. He meets with a woman, Mathilde (Thekla Reuten
), who wants him to build a custom-designed sniper rifle for an assassination. Jack begins working meticulously on the weapon – a Ruger Mini-14 carbine with folding stock. He also starts patronizing a prostitute, Clara (Violante Placido
). Jack meets with Mathilde to test the weapon he has made. Mathilde is impressed by the accuracy and misdirection provided by the weapon's suppressor, but asks that Jack make a few more adjustments, but not before asking Jack to test the weapon by shooting at her, apparently wanting him to kill her, before she must fulfil her obligation to kill him, as per Pavel's clandestine orders. It appears that Mathilde's unrequited love and friendship for Jack causes her to attempt suicide in this manner.
While having coffee one day, Jack bumps into Clara and a friend. Clara invites him on an actual date, and the two begin a "friendship," ie, a relationship. Later that night, Jack realizes that he is being followed by an assassin, whom he kills. After the incident, Jack begins to become suspicious of Clara when he finds a gun in her purse and sees her meeting with some men. He takes her on a picnic, where he confronts her about her pistol. Clara explains that she has the gun because of a number of assaults on prostitutes which have occurred in the area, and that the men were cops investigating the case.
After talking to Pavel one last time, Jack agrees to deliver the weapon to Mathilde as his last job, but at the last moment he re-opens the briefcase and modifies the rifle. At the drop off, Jack becomes suspicious that Mathilde plans to kill him when she excuses herself to go to the bathroom. Before anything can happen, a busload of school children arrives, and the two go their separate ways. While driving away, Mathilde is contacted by Pavel, who asks if she has killed Jack. She informs him no but insists that she is following Jack and will kill him.
Clara surprises Jack in the crowd at a local religious procession. He kisses her and asks her to go away with him. She joyfully agrees. Meanwhile, Mathilde is lurking on a nearby rooftop, attempting to fulfil her orders from Pavel to assassinate Jack, with Jack in the sights of the weapon he has just delivered to her. When Mathilde pulls the trigger, the gun misfires and explodes in her face. Seeing her fall from the roof Jack tells Clara to go to the river where they had picnicked and wait for him. He runs up to Mathilde, who is dying on the pavement, and asks her who she works for. With her final breaths, she says, "The same man as you... Jack."
As Jack goes to meet Clara, he notices that Pavel is following him. Pavel opens fire, but Jack spins and shoots Pavel in the head, killing him. As Jack drives desperately to meet Clara, he realizes that Pavel had shot him in the abdomen. As Jack arrives at the picnic spot and sees Clara standing, he collapses on the steering wheel and horn, hand reaching for the windshield. Clara sees him collapsing and runs screaming to the car. The film ends with a long shot of a sole butterfly ascending heavenward, just visible against a dark tree trunk.
, with Henry Fonda
facing off as villain in a gunfight, is playing on a television on the back wall of a modest restaurant where Jack has been, alone. As Jack then pays, the proprietor says "Sergio Leone
. ... Italian," and Jack acknowledges the information with a nod and a click of a coin on the counter. As the door then closes behind Jack the gunfighter onscreen, now seen from outside through the restaurant window, fires his long-barreled pistol directly at the camera, whiting out the TV screen and with the report coinciding with the door-slam. Director Corbijn in the DVD commentary noted this homage
and said the American Western
and more specifically the Italian-American so-called spaghetti western
s produced by Leone and others were explicit models for The American. Corbijn also noted the Ennio Morricone
scores which became famous for Once Upon a Time in the West and other Leone titles like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
.
The Western movies theme of the "lonely gun slinger" skulking through the cruel and unforgiving desert, surrounded by potential enemies and foes, where friendship and love can act to leave one vulnerable and weakened, is interwoven through this film and many of the underlying themes of those westerns are interspersed throughout "The American."
Speaking of the narrow, labyrinthine streets of the Italian hill towns where much of the action of The American occurs, Corbijn said he was thinking, in filming, of the streets of Venice
and the way they appeared in Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now
(1973).
and Campo Imperatore
in the Province of L'Aquila
; in Rome, and in Östersund
, Jämtland
and other locations.
The "most romantic moment," per Corbijn, of the film -- when Jack takes Clara to a restaurant of her choice, their "actual date" above -- was filmed at a restaurant in Pacentro
, Italy, near Sulmona. Pacentro is known for among other things being the town from which entertainer Madonna
's father hailed. The comic-acting waiter in this restaurant scene was directed to stand in front of a two-bulb lamp fixture so that he appeared to have "devil's horns." Photographs on the restaurant's walls are reportedly of all the lovers of an early-20th-century poet from the town. Clara orders Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
wine for the dinner, and Corbijn said the film's company enjoyed many of the fine wines of the region during the months of production there.
The film score
was written and composed by German singer-songwriter (and longtime friend of Anton Corbijn) Herbert Grönemeyer
. A 1967 song called "Window of My Eyes" by the Dutch blues band Cuby & the Blizzards
is played over the ending credits. The aria "Un bel dì vedremo" ("One fine day we'll see") from Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly
can be heard in the background of one scene and "Tu vuò fà l'americano
" in another. In another scene the Italian song "La Bambola" by Patty Pravo
plays.
and the second official trailer on June 19, 2010 and was attached to Jonah Hex
, Grown Ups, Inception
and The Other Guys
.
based on 203 reviews with an average score of 6.5/10. Its consensus states "As beautifully shot as it is emotionally restrained, The American is an unusually divisive spy thriller—and one that rests on an unusually subdued performance from George Clooney." Similarly, another review aggregator, Metacritic
calculated an average score of 62 based on 35 reviews. Rolling Stone
s Peter Travers
gave the film two and a half stars, writing director Anton Corbijn "holds his film to a steady, often glacial pace," and is of "startling austerity."
Roger Ebert
gave the film four stars, writing, "Here is a gripping film with the focus of a Japanese drama, an impenetrable character to equal Alain Delon
's in Le Samouraï
, by Jean-Pierre Melville." Leonard Maltin
called it a "slowly-paced, European-style mood piece, short on dialogue and action and long on atmosphere."
which grossed $11.4 million on the Labor Day
weekend. The American grossed a total of $65,464,324 worldwide – $35,606,376 in North America and $29,857,948 in other territories.
The film was given a R-Rated rating by MPAA for sexual scenes and strong nudity.
Anton Corbijn
Anton Corbijn is a Dutch photographer, music video and film director. He is the creative director behind the visual output of Depeche Mode and U2, having handled the principal promotion and sleeve photography for both for more than a decade...
and starring George Clooney
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
, Thekla Reuten
Thekla Reuten
Thekla Simona Gelsomina Reuten is a Dutch actress.Reuten was born in Bussum, Netherlands, the daughter of an Italian mother and a Dutch father. Reuten portrayed Duncan MacLeod's love interest Anna in Highlander: The Source, released in September 2007...
, Violante Placido
Violante Placido
Violante Placido is an Italian actress and singer. She is the daughter of actor-director Michele Placido and actress Simonetta Stefanelli.-Film:...
, Irina Björklund
Irina Björklund
Irina Björklund is a Finnish actress.Björklund was born in Danderyd, Stockholm County, Sweden but she quickly moved to Finland with her family. She has acted in movies and in television series. Some well known movies include Rukajärven tie , Levottomat , Minä ja Morrison , and Vieraalla Maalla...
, and Paolo Bonacelli
Paolo Bonacelli
Paolo Bonacelli is an Italian actor.He is best known for his performance as The Duke de Blangis in Pasolini's notorious Salò...
. It is an adaptation of the 1990 novel A Very Private Gentleman
A Very Private Gentleman
A Very Private Gentleman is a novel written by British author Martin Booth, published in 1990. It is a tragedy following events in the life of a gunsmith who sells his services to assassins...
by Martin Booth
Martin Booth
Martin Booth was a prolific British novelist and poet. He also worked as a teacher and screenwriter, and was the founder of the Sceptre Press.-Early life:...
. The film opened on September 1, 2010.
Plot
Jack (George ClooneyGeorge Clooney
George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
), a gunsmith, is relaxing in a remote cabin in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
with his lover and friend, Ingrid (Irina Björklund
Irina Björklund
Irina Björklund is a Finnish actress.Björklund was born in Danderyd, Stockholm County, Sweden but she quickly moved to Finland with her family. She has acted in movies and in television series. Some well known movies include Rukajärven tie , Levottomat , Minä ja Morrison , and Vieraalla Maalla...
). As they walk on a frozen lake, Jack detects a sniper, who opens fire as the couple run to safety. Jack kills the sniper and then, in a terrifyingly cold blooded fashion, shoots his friend and lover Ingrid in the back of the head, after deceiving her to go and get help, as well as another armed man on a nearby road. He then flees to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and contacts a "business associate" named Pavel (Johan Leysen). Pavel insists that Jack cannot stay in Rome, gives him the keys to a Fiat Tempra
Fiat Tempra
The Fiat Tempra is a small family car produced by Italian automaker Fiat from 1990 to 1998. The Tempra was intended as a replacement for the Fiat Regata. The original project was called Tipo 3, being a mid-size car between the Fiat Tipo and the bigger Fiat Croma...
and sends him to Castelvecchio
Castelvecchio Calvisio
Castelvecchio Calvisio is a comune and town in the Province of L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region of Italy. It is located in the natural park known as the "Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park"....
, a small town in the mountains of Abruzzo
Abruzzo
Abruzzo is a region in Italy, its western border lying less than due east of Rome. Abruzzo borders the region of Marche to the north, Lazio to the west and south-west, Molise to the south-east, and the Adriatic Sea to the east...
. Pavel tells him "Don't make any friends, Jack... you used to know that," blaming Jack's recent loneliness and vulnerability to his last assassination attempt. Jack becomes nervous, and, disposing of the cell phone which Pavel had given him, goes to nearby Castel del Monte instead.
While he is hiding out there, Jack is "befriended" by an elderly priest, Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli
Paolo Bonacelli
Paolo Bonacelli is an Italian actor.He is best known for his performance as The Duke de Blangis in Pasolini's notorious Salò...
), even though he resists said befriending. Father Benedetto pressures him to seek absolution, something which Jack, now going by the name Edward and posing as a photographer, resists. Jack contacts Pavel, who sets him up with another job. He meets with a woman, Mathilde (Thekla Reuten
Thekla Reuten
Thekla Simona Gelsomina Reuten is a Dutch actress.Reuten was born in Bussum, Netherlands, the daughter of an Italian mother and a Dutch father. Reuten portrayed Duncan MacLeod's love interest Anna in Highlander: The Source, released in September 2007...
), who wants him to build a custom-designed sniper rifle for an assassination. Jack begins working meticulously on the weapon – a Ruger Mini-14 carbine with folding stock. He also starts patronizing a prostitute, Clara (Violante Placido
Violante Placido
Violante Placido is an Italian actress and singer. She is the daughter of actor-director Michele Placido and actress Simonetta Stefanelli.-Film:...
). Jack meets with Mathilde to test the weapon he has made. Mathilde is impressed by the accuracy and misdirection provided by the weapon's suppressor, but asks that Jack make a few more adjustments, but not before asking Jack to test the weapon by shooting at her, apparently wanting him to kill her, before she must fulfil her obligation to kill him, as per Pavel's clandestine orders. It appears that Mathilde's unrequited love and friendship for Jack causes her to attempt suicide in this manner.
While having coffee one day, Jack bumps into Clara and a friend. Clara invites him on an actual date, and the two begin a "friendship," ie, a relationship. Later that night, Jack realizes that he is being followed by an assassin, whom he kills. After the incident, Jack begins to become suspicious of Clara when he finds a gun in her purse and sees her meeting with some men. He takes her on a picnic, where he confronts her about her pistol. Clara explains that she has the gun because of a number of assaults on prostitutes which have occurred in the area, and that the men were cops investigating the case.
After talking to Pavel one last time, Jack agrees to deliver the weapon to Mathilde as his last job, but at the last moment he re-opens the briefcase and modifies the rifle. At the drop off, Jack becomes suspicious that Mathilde plans to kill him when she excuses herself to go to the bathroom. Before anything can happen, a busload of school children arrives, and the two go their separate ways. While driving away, Mathilde is contacted by Pavel, who asks if she has killed Jack. She informs him no but insists that she is following Jack and will kill him.
Clara surprises Jack in the crowd at a local religious procession. He kisses her and asks her to go away with him. She joyfully agrees. Meanwhile, Mathilde is lurking on a nearby rooftop, attempting to fulfil her orders from Pavel to assassinate Jack, with Jack in the sights of the weapon he has just delivered to her. When Mathilde pulls the trigger, the gun misfires and explodes in her face. Seeing her fall from the roof Jack tells Clara to go to the river where they had picnicked and wait for him. He runs up to Mathilde, who is dying on the pavement, and asks her who she works for. With her final breaths, she says, "The same man as you... Jack."
As Jack goes to meet Clara, he notices that Pavel is following him. Pavel opens fire, but Jack spins and shoots Pavel in the head, killing him. As Jack drives desperately to meet Clara, he realizes that Pavel had shot him in the abdomen. As Jack arrives at the picnic spot and sees Clara standing, he collapses on the steering wheel and horn, hand reaching for the windshield. Clara sees him collapsing and runs screaming to the car. The film ends with a long shot of a sole butterfly ascending heavenward, just visible against a dark tree trunk.
"Western" films and other influences
Once Upon a Time in the WestOnce Upon a Time in the West
Once Upon a Time in the West is a 1968 Italian epic spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone for Paramount Pictures. It stars Henry Fonda cast against type as the villain, Charles Bronson as his nemesis, Jason Robards as a bandit, and Claudia Cardinale as a newly widowed homesteader with a...
, with Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
facing off as villain in a gunfight, is playing on a television on the back wall of a modest restaurant where Jack has been, alone. As Jack then pays, the proprietor says "Sergio Leone
Sergio Leone
Sergio Leone was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter most associated with the "Spaghetti Western" genre.Leone's film-making style includes juxtaposing extreme close-up shots with lengthy long shots...
. ... Italian," and Jack acknowledges the information with a nod and a click of a coin on the counter. As the door then closes behind Jack the gunfighter onscreen, now seen from outside through the restaurant window, fires his long-barreled pistol directly at the camera, whiting out the TV screen and with the report coinciding with the door-slam. Director Corbijn in the DVD commentary noted this homage
Homage
Homage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....
and said the American Western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
and more specifically the Italian-American so-called spaghetti western
Spaghetti Western
Spaghetti Western, also known as Italo-Western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western films that emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's unique and much copied film-making style and international box-office success, so named by American critics because most were produced and...
s produced by Leone and others were explicit models for The American. Corbijn also noted the Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, , is an Italian composer and conductor, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces...
scores which became famous for Once Upon a Time in the West and other Leone titles like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a 1966 Italian epic spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach in the title roles. The screenplay was written by Age & Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni and Leone, based on a story by Vincenzoni and Leone...
.
The Western movies theme of the "lonely gun slinger" skulking through the cruel and unforgiving desert, surrounded by potential enemies and foes, where friendship and love can act to leave one vulnerable and weakened, is interwoven through this film and many of the underlying themes of those westerns are interspersed throughout "The American."
Speaking of the narrow, labyrinthine streets of the Italian hill towns where much of the action of The American occurs, Corbijn said he was thinking, in filming, of the streets of Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
and the way they appeared in Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now
Don't Look Now
Don't Look Now is a 1973 thriller film directed by Nicolas Roeg. Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland star as a married couple whose lives become complicated after meeting two elderly sisters in Venice, one of whom claims to be clairvoyant and informs them that their recently deceased daughter is...
(1973).
Cast
- George ClooneyGeorge ClooneyGeorge Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
as Jack/Edward - Violante PlacidoViolante PlacidoViolante Placido is an Italian actress and singer. She is the daughter of actor-director Michele Placido and actress Simonetta Stefanelli.-Film:...
as Clara - Thekla ReutenThekla ReutenThekla Simona Gelsomina Reuten is a Dutch actress.Reuten was born in Bussum, Netherlands, the daughter of an Italian mother and a Dutch father. Reuten portrayed Duncan MacLeod's love interest Anna in Highlander: The Source, released in September 2007...
as Mathilde - Paolo BonacelliPaolo BonacelliPaolo Bonacelli is an Italian actor.He is best known for his performance as The Duke de Blangis in Pasolini's notorious Salò...
as Father Benedetto - Irina BjörklundIrina BjörklundIrina Björklund is a Finnish actress.Björklund was born in Danderyd, Stockholm County, Sweden but she quickly moved to Finland with her family. She has acted in movies and in television series. Some well known movies include Rukajärven tie , Levottomat , Minä ja Morrison , and Vieraalla Maalla...
as Ingrid - Johan Leysen as Pavel
Production
Filming began in Septemer 2009 and took place in Castel del Monte, Abruzzo, SulmonaSulmona
thumb|150px|Celestine V's hermitage and the remains of the Shrine of Hercules Curinus.thumb|150px|Palazzo SS. Annunziata and Museo Civicothumb|150px|Church of SS...
and Campo Imperatore
Campo Imperatore
Campo Imperatore is a mountain grassland or alpine meadow formed by a high basin shaped plateau located in the Province of L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region of Italy in the Gran Sasso massif. It is the largest plateau of the Apennine ridge...
in the Province of L'Aquila
Province of L'Aquila
thumb|left|200px|Map of the province.The Province of L'Aquila is the largest, most mountainous and least densely populated province of the Abruzzo region of central Italy. It comprises about half the landmass of Abruzzo and occupies the western part of the region...
; in Rome, and in Östersund
Östersund
Östersund is an urban area in Jämtland in the middle of Sweden. It is the seat of Östersund Municipality and the capital of Jämtland County. Östersund is located at the shores of Sweden's fifth largest lake, Storsjön, opposite the island Frösön, and is the only city in Jämtland. Östersund is the...
, Jämtland
Jämtland
Jämtland or Jamtland is a historical province or landskap in the center of Sweden in northern Europe. It borders to Härjedalen and Medelpad in the south, Ångermanland in the east, Lapland in the north and Trøndelag and Norway in the west...
and other locations.
The "most romantic moment," per Corbijn, of the film -- when Jack takes Clara to a restaurant of her choice, their "actual date" above -- was filmed at a restaurant in Pacentro
Pacentro
Pacentro is a comune of 1279 inhabitants of the province of L'Aquila in Abruzzo, Italy. It is a well preserved historic medieval village located in the central part of Italy, several kilometers from the City of Sulmona about 170 km east of Rome...
, Italy, near Sulmona. Pacentro is known for among other things being the town from which entertainer Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
's father hailed. The comic-acting waiter in this restaurant scene was directed to stand in front of a two-bulb lamp fixture so that he appeared to have "devil's horns." Photographs on the restaurant's walls are reportedly of all the lovers of an early-20th-century poet from the town. Clara orders Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is a red Italian wine made from the Montepulciano wine grape in the Abruzzo region of east-central Italy. The wine was classified as Denominazione di origine controllata in 1968 with a separate Denominazione di origine controllata e Garantita for wine produced around...
wine for the dinner, and Corbijn said the film's company enjoyed many of the fine wines of the region during the months of production there.
The film score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
was written and composed by German singer-songwriter (and longtime friend of Anton Corbijn) Herbert Grönemeyer
Herbert Grönemeyer
Herbert Grönemeyer is a German musician and actor, popular in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He starred as war correspondent Lieutenant Werner in Wolfgang Petersen's movie Das Boot, but later concentrated on his musical career...
. A 1967 song called "Window of My Eyes" by the Dutch blues band Cuby & the Blizzards
Cuby & the Blizzards
Cuby + Blizzards – also known as Cuby & the Blizzards – are a Dutch blues group that formed in 1964 around Harry Muskee and Eelco Gelling...
is played over the ending credits. The aria "Un bel dì vedremo" ("One fine day we'll see") from Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
can be heard in the background of one scene and "Tu vuò fà l'americano
Tu vuò fà l'americano
"Tu vuò fà l'americano" is a Neapolitan language song by Italian singer Renato Carosone....
" in another. In another scene the Italian song "La Bambola" by Patty Pravo
Patty Pravo
Patty Pravo is an Italian pop singer whose career has spanned more than four decades. Her first single "Ragazzo triste", released in 1966, was the first pop song aired on Vatican Radio...
plays.
Marketing
The first official poster was released on June 17, 2010. The first trailer was attached to Robin HoodRobin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
and the second official trailer on June 19, 2010 and was attached to Jonah Hex
Jonah Hex (film)
Jonah Hex is a 2010 post-Civil War antihero Western film loosely based on the DC Comics character of the same name. Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, the film is directed by Jimmy Hayward and stars Josh Brolin as the title character, Jonah Hex, and also stars John Malkovich, Michael Fassbender,...
, Grown Ups, Inception
Inception
Inception: The Subconscious Jams 1994-1995 is a compilation of unreleased tracks by the band Download.-Track listing:# "Primitive Tekno Jam" – 3:23# "Bee Sting Sickness" – 8:04# "Weed Acid Techno" – 8:19...
and The Other Guys
The Other Guys
The Other Guys is a 2010 American action comedy film directed and co-written by Adam McKay, starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, and featuring Dwayne Johnson, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Keaton, Eva Mendes, Steve Coogan, and Ray Stevenson...
.
Critical reception
The American received a generally positive response from critics, garnering a 66% rating on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
based on 203 reviews with an average score of 6.5/10. Its consensus states "As beautifully shot as it is emotionally restrained, The American is an unusually divisive spy thriller—and one that rests on an unusually subdued performance from George Clooney." Similarly, another review aggregator, Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
calculated an average score of 62 based on 35 reviews. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
s Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Peter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
gave the film two and a half stars, writing director Anton Corbijn "holds his film to a steady, often glacial pace," and is of "startling austerity."
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film four stars, writing, "Here is a gripping film with the focus of a Japanese drama, an impenetrable character to equal Alain Delon
Alain Delon
Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon is a French actor. He rose quickly to stardom, and by the age of 23 was already being compared to French actors such as Gérard Philipe and Jean Marais, as well as American actor James Dean. He was even called the male Brigitte Bardot...
's in Le Samouraï
Le Samouraï
Le Samouraï is a 1967 French crime film directed by French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville, starring Alain Delon.- Plot :The story follows a perfectionist free-agent hitman, Jef Costello , who religiously adheres to a strict code of duty...
, by Jean-Pierre Melville." Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
called it a "slowly-paced, European-style mood piece, short on dialogue and action and long on atmosphere."
Box office
The film grossed $13.1 million opening at #1, ahead of MacheteMachete (film)
Machete is a 2010 action film directed by Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis. The "Machete" character originates from the 2001 Spy Kids film, written and directed by Robert Rodriguez. This film is an expansion of a fake trailer that was released together with Rodriguez's and Quentin Tarantino's...
which grossed $11.4 million on the Labor Day
Labor Day
Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers.-History:...
weekend. The American grossed a total of $65,464,324 worldwide – $35,606,376 in North America and $29,857,948 in other territories.
The film was given a R-Rated rating by MPAA for sexual scenes and strong nudity.