Answering some questions about The American

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The following blog contains plot information about the movie The American. If you have not seen the movie you may not want to read this.

One of my most frequent commenter's has made many critical and ridiculing remarks about the film, and has disputed my rating of the movie. He has raised many questions about the movies plot. This is my attempt to answer them.

The first thing to realize about the movie is that it is told completely from the point of view of the George Clooney character. If he is not experiencing it, then the audience does not experience it either. We don't get to know what any of the other characters are doing when they are not in contact with the Jack/Edward character played by George Clooney.

My commenter has asked. "Why don't the police arrest or question Jack?"

The movie is not a police procedural or a cops vs. killer story. The actions of the authorities are not part of the plot. In fact apart from a police car with sirens, the police are never seen.  The priest is aware because he knows Jack and may have connected the two, but he has no real information. We know nothing about the action of the authorities because they are not part of the story. One can suppose that they are investigating and suspicion has not fallen on the American tourist. Why should it? Jack has been killing men for many years and is good at not getting caught. Or maybe one can suppose the police are investigating and have been asking others about Jack, but have no cause to question him yet. Who are the police? It is a small town of 500 hundred people. does it even have a local police force? Who knows? The police are not part of the story and not present, so to ask about them is non-sesnical.

What we do know is:
That someone is trying to kill Jack. He refers to them as the Swedes. We know that he is a skilled and ruthless killer, since he escapes a trap set for him and kills his girlfriend without hesitation.

He heads to Rome where is boss is surprised to hear from him and seems more surprised that he is in Rome. We also know that his boss is aware of what happened in Sweden, and knows Jack killed the girl. Jack calls her a friend and his boss reminds him that he should not make friends.

His boss provides him with a car and sets him up in a flat, in a small town, outside Rome. We learn he does not trust anyone when he drives through the town and goes on to another one about 12 miles away, where he rents a room. He also discards the cell phone he was provided but keeps the car.

We do not know anything about his boss. We see him only when Jack is talking to him. Whether in person or on the phone. We know he drinks, and we know he has either a residence or office in Rome, but that is all. I am not sure why my favorite commenter mentioned something about his "lair".
We never see anything other than him talking on a cell phone. We do not know where he is and it is a false assumption to believe he has stayed in Rome the entire time. He always talks to Jack by cell phone and he could be staying in the town where the pay phone Jack uses is located. We do not know.

Jack contacts his boss and he is asked to take on an assignment. On this job he "will not have to pull the trigger". This tells us that he has taken jobs where he has pulled the trigger before. He takes on the assignment but insist it will be his last. He is a man trying to quit his current life. We can assume he was trying that in Sweden too.

He meets a woman who tells him what his new assignment is. To make a high-powered rifle. He also sees a man he suspects is watching him. He tells his boss the Swedes may have found him and wonders how, his boss states that he may be losing his edge.

As he goes about making the rifle we learn he is an isolated man. We learn he is very disciplined. What ever training he had in the military he maintains everyday, without fail. For physical comfort he turns to prostitutes. But he is suffering emotionally and mentally. He is on edge. He has nightmares about the woman he shot in Sweden. He makes friends with a local priest, but he keeps the man at a distance. The priest says he is living in a hell of his own making. The priest offers him a chance at absolution but he turns him down.

He becomes more and more paranoid, suspecting everyone, including the prostitute he frequents. Things take an unexpected turn when he goes on an impromptu date with the prostitute. He needs more than the physical comfort she provides. He craves the companionship of another human being. Against his better judgement he begins to date her and believes if he can escape, he can have a life of his own.

He makes the rifle and takes it to a wooded area to test it. Then he takes his client to the same secluded place for her to to try it out. She orders some modifications. It is during this scene that Jack, and the audience, realize that she knows more than she should about Jack. We learn this when she calls him Mr. Butterfly, a nickname he has acquired because of the tattoo on his back and his knowledge of butterflies. The client should have no knowledge of this nickname.

At the end of the film we find out that she too is an assassin and works for the same organization as Jack. She attempts to kill Jack using the rifle Jack made. So the question has been asked; Why doesn't she kill Jack when they are in the forest. The reasons are simple.

1.) At this point the boss is still relying on the swedes to do it. Having the Swedes do it avoids any connection to the organization.
2.) She may not have been ordered to do it yet and may not even know it is part of the plan.
3.) Jack is highly skilled and on-guard. It would not be easy to get the drop on him.

By this time the audience should know or suspect the following: His boss is trying to have him killed. His boss has been the ones informing the Swedes of his where abouts, both in Sweden and in Italy. His boss has given him the job of making the complicated weapon in order to keep him in one place so that he can be killed.

It has been suggested that having Jack make the rifle that will be used to kill him was a dumb plot point. It is dumb only if you assume that was the original purpose of the rifle from the beginning. I don't believe it was.

The rifle itself was not originally intended as the weapon to kill Jack. It was just a project to keep him busy and close by. The Swedes were originally going to kill Jack. And then later the woman was going to do it with a handgun. It was only after these two attempts failed that the woman decided to use the rifle to kill Jack. But it was not part of the original plan by the boss to have Jack make the instrument of his own death.

We see the attempt by the Swede fail. The Swede knows Jack is dangerous so he watches and take his time. But Jack is able to out maneuver him and almost gets him, until a man on a scooter gets in the way. The swede runs off and get in his car and drives the switchbacks down out of the village. Jack grabs the scooter and rides straight down the steps so both the car and the scooter arrive at the same place at the same time. Jack is behind the car and the car is getting ahead so Jack fires his gun and is able to disable the car and cause it to crash. This is how a scooter can chase a car.

Since the Swede assassin failed, the boss must rely on "the client" to kill Jack. But Jack is already aware that something is going on and he makes adjustments to the gun. The client may try to kill him at the meeting place using a hand gun, but cannot because a bus load of kids arrive. She follows him to town and decides to use the high powered gun Jack made, to kill him from a distance. But the adjustment Jack made causes the gun to misfire and explode in her face. She falls from the roof and is mortally injured. Jack has the opportunity to question her and learns she works for the same man as Jack does. That man is in town. He may have always been there. We do not know how closely he has been monitoring Jack.
When he shows up in town we are not surprised. the rifle is done and Jack may move on. he wants to ensure Jack is dead even if he has to do it himself. This results in a final confrontation between the two men.

My favorite anonymous commenter has been obsessed with the plot of the film while I enjoyed it for it's emotional content. As a film it is extremely well crafted and highly suspenseful. It has an ending that is fitting for a film of this type with a complex anti-hero. I felt Clooney's performance was spot on and on the whole a very good film.

I do understand why others didn't like the movie. It is not your typical thriller and is very slowly paced.  While it is open to negative critical interpretation I don't think it is a film that is easily ridiculed and is definitely not "asinine" to use the favorite word of my anonymous commenter.