Cuckolding one of his bosses while scheming to steal as much of their money as possible is only the most obvious example of his depravity. Hodges said he was influenced in his writing by the works of Raymond Chandler and Hollywood B-movies such as Kiss Me Deadly, because they showed "how to use the crime story as an autopsy on society's ills".

The book on the surface seems like a standard revenge thriller plot, but there is much to admire in the intricacies of Lewis’ writing and his gradual unravelling of the mystery. The film's music also enjoyed its own resurgence in popularity, for it tapped into a 1990s interest in vintage film soundtracks.The resulting 1972 movie, Hit Man, involved a man who travels to Southern California for the funeral of his brother and becomes obsessed with tracking down the individuals responsible for his death. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

A book can really express such things (and a character’s inner thoughts) so much more easily and with more time (obviously). In his quest to dismantle the opposition, he peels back the veneer of English society and offers a hard look at a gritty world of pool halls, strip clubs and the red lights of Soho nightlife. Klinger was invited to view a first print of Peter Walker's Man of Violence (1969) and was unimpressed, telling the director "I'm going to make a gangster film, but it's going to cost a lot more than this and it's going to be better".He and Pierce Brosnan are marvelous in this Frederick Forsyth Cold War thriller which still doesn’t have an official U. He thought the general stance of British critics "was to admire the film's power and professionalism while condemning its amorality and excessive violence". This release utilised a new 4K restoration of the film's original camera negative, which was approved by Hodges. A number of scenes in the film, for example when Jack throws a businessman from the Gateshead car park (demolished a few years ago), still have the capacity to shock.