Just so...so bad

Crappy film

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

As brutal and bleak as you're like to find in an early 70s British crime thriller. Director Douglas Hickox pulls no punches with this balls-to-the-wall potboiler. Oliver Reed has a plethora of anger management issues, mostly directed at unfaithful wife Jill St. John. He doesn't allow prison walls to stop him from getting to her. He breaks out with an assist from sleazy fellow con Ian McShane. It's an unrelentingly depressing film with Reed in top form and McShane every inch his squalid equal. Hicokox's direction is dynamite (the prison break is a nail biter). Jill St. John affects a slight English accent, never overdoing it and is quite convincing. She's also a knockout, making it easier to see why the demented Reed goes to such lengths to get to her. The cinematography is by Edward Scaife, who shot everything from the Connie Francis vehicle FOLLOW THE BOYS to the WWII classic THE DIRTY DOZEN. The supporting cast includes Frank Finley and the great Edward Woodward.

Oliver Reed was the best villein in the scene with sharp eyes and long voice he played this film with a goodly way and the best scene after he killed his bad wife he cried in spite of her bad work with him because he liked her very much and he choose to die with her in the crash and burning car in the time of police arrest him but the crash space the police in a dramatical scene and descriptive music.This film was the best one of Reed as a big and great actor after his best role in (Lion of desert)in the role of Gratsiani the Italian leader in Libya who arrested Omar MOkhtar the Libyan leader who made a resistance to the Italian army in Libya.He was the best actor in action film in the 20th century.

Caught this one late night on Turner Classics Movies… yet, I'm still wondering what's so classic about it. Sitting Target is an entertaining film for as long as it lasts, but that's about it. Raw and hard-boiled action sequences with a charismatic Oliver Reed stealing the show, but the plot is weak and belongs in the `seen-it-all-before'-section. Reed is the angry inmate Harry Lomart. His lovely wife comes to tell him she found a new lover, got pregnant and wants a divorce. Harry snaps and, along with his partner in crime Birdy, he escapes in order to take revenge on his unfaithful wife. Sitting Target is a wholesome of brutal and relentless sequences, spiced with solid macho attitude. Yet, there are several stylishly photographed scenes and very good acting altogether. I especially liked watching Edward Woodward as the loyal copper whose duty is to protect Lomart's endangered wife. Only a year after this film, Woodward will play the lead role of what easily may be the greatest film ever made in Britain: The Wicker Man. If you're a fan of `Get Carter' and other violent Brit action films from the early 70's, you'll have a good time watching `Sitting Target'. Car-chases, rude behavior towards woman and adrenalin-filled prison escapes. The big twist near the end is very predictable but it does provide the film with an extra action-rush.

With a gossamer wing-span, this curiosity from the early 70's is a quirky hybrid of Demetrius and the Gladiators versus Darker than Amer. Flight of fancy aside, the determination of this director JUST TO GET THIS RELEASED must have been mind-boggling. Without Jill St. John as his muse, Mr. O. Reed would have canoed upstream without his proverbial paddle.Shocking one instant, lovingly discerning the next, this mild upgrade of post-War alienation seems to say escape is all there is for this Bluto-type force of nature with plenty of rope on hand. He just won't give up his sense of "Come and get me, (warden, coppers)"! He's there when he needs to be or so it seems. Justice is a foreign word when bad haircuts and razor-thin wit run the terrain. References to St. Matthew would hardly seem out of order. Tough and grinding like a Mac Truck. A relentless 8 out of 10 for a special "action" flick. Reminiscent of Get Carter, but a bit more brutal on the senses. Highly recommended