Hit men and assassins are a dime a dozen in Hollywood. They are primarily used as an incidental plot device.
The assassin’s lifestyle is typically portrayed as being glamorous. There are no shortage of women to choose from, and traversing the globe to all sorts of exotic locales is a job requirement. If you’ve got nerves of steel and a steady hand, you’ll be rolling in money in no time.
In The American, this conventional portrayal is turned on its ear. The American is a pensive, stark film that peels back the facade and exposes the realities of such a life. There’s no glamor, no partying, and no peace, ever. It’s a somber, isolated, lonely existence.
George Clooney plays Jack, the tortured man who has chosen this lifestyle. He spends most of his time out of the public eye in hotels, cabins or other temporary domiciles. He’s in a perpetual state of paranoia, because anyone he meets could be the person who has been sent to kill him. Therefore, he spends most of his life obsessively scanning his surroundings and sleeping with one eye open.
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