"Assasination Tango" w/ Robert Duvall

Robert Duvall directs and stars in Assassination Tango, and since his gray moustache and ponytail prevent him from playing a convincing hooker with a heart of gold, the seasoned veteran has chosen the next best role: a hitman with a tender soul and a connoisseur's taste for tango. By day his John Anderson is the owner of a chain of beauty salons, the loving boyfriend to Maggie (Kathy Baker), and devoted father figure to her ten-year-old daughter Jenny (Katherine Micheaux Miller). By night he's a killer-for hire who takes a cool, detached approach to his work. And by God if his character isn't a complete figment of the imagination.

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Read full review at Filmcritic.com.

Also, it looks like there are some spectacular dance scenes in the movie. You can see a clip with dancing on the Assasination Tango website.

I understand that the movie premiers in Philadelphia this month and it is followed by a free Milonga. Does anyone know the date?

According to http://www.users.voicenet.com/~michaelv/:

Actor/tango-lover Robert Duvall will be in Philadelphia for a private screening of his new movie "Assassination Tango". Reportedly, Mr. Duvall and his tango co-star will afterwards go to the Society Hill Dance Academy (2nd and Pines Sts., Phila.) to join a milonga there which was specially organized for the occasion, 9:15pm to midnight. The Academy has been informed that several television news stations will be covering the event, so, stunning dress is "encouraged and optional". Email Shana Vitoff or call 215-574-3574 for further details.

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I just watched this last night on DVD, it was good. I expected to see him dance more. I think I would have like to see real lessons start at the dance club Frankies instead of just his imagination.

Hey. I didn't know the DVD was out. Thanks for the tip. I'll have to get that one. Any movie with dance scenes in it, is a movie I want to see. 8)

If you don't count Geraldine Rojas dancing through the credits, there are maybe ten or fifteen seconds of dancing in it. As a serious movie, it is even worse than it is as a dance movie. The plot sounds more like a Mel Brooks comedy than a serious movie. I wish now that Mel Brooks had thought of it before Duvall. It would have at least been funny. Think of it, a hired killer goes to Argentina on a job and learns to Tango instead. With all due respect to some of the most talented dancers there are, Copello, Monti, Paiva, Nieves, it is just boring. More dance, less Duvall please. Very indulgent, typical hollywood, let's stick in a love interest and hired killer and horse race and political stuff so we can sell this thing to some people. And guess what, it was a flop, anyway. Why not just a movie about a guy who goes to milongas? Or a woman? Or a couple?

I never bothered to go and see this movie. I guess I didn't miss much. I would have thought that there would be more than 15 or 20 seconds of dancing in the movie, especially since Robert Duvall is a tango buff. Why even put the word "tango" in a movie if there isn't going to be dancing? Maybe they should have called it "Last Tango in Buenos Aires". :lol:

Oh bummer! I was hoping to see some actual dancing. I'd heard he's not a great dancer, but still, a few minutes of dancing would have been worththe DVD rental. Boo! :cry:

Maybe I'll just buy another Daniel Trenner video. Then at least I'll get to see dancing.

Don't worry guys, someday there will be a good Tango movie to satisfy everybody. It will have lots of dancing, lots of the history of people who dance a lot, and it will please the people who want a good story, too. It's just that Assassination Tango ain't quite it. Until then, we can maybe watch Adam Boucher's thing with Copello over and over. It's not too bad. On the other hand, I have seen Geraldine Rojas and Javier dance in a milonga in Buenos Aires, and it was worth ten times Assassination Tango. It was no show. They were just dancing with everybody else for fun. I have yet to see Maria Nieves or Orlando Paiva in a milonga, but I'll keep watching out for one or the other. Maybe I'll make a movie about Tango someday. There was one good scene in Assassination when they taught Robert Duvall how to lead an ocho as he was leaving the bathroom. I saw the DVD recently to see the scenes they cut out. It could have been a good movie if they had made more scenes like the one with Geraldine combing her hair in the mirror and talking to Luciana Pedrazza. It was one of the few things from the movie that actually looked natural.

pygmalion said:

Oh bummer! I was hoping to see some actual dancing. I'd heard he's not a great dancer, but still, a few minutes of dancing would have been worththe DVD rental. Boo! :cry:

Maybe I'll just buy another Daniel Trenner video. Then at least I'll get to see dancing.

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I was hoping to see more dancing too. Especially since he loves the tango so much and was in a documentary about arg. tango

That documentary was not bad, but it was mostly when he was sitting in a hotel room talking about the Tango. It seems when stars have complete control over their own work (Duvall, Sally Potter, Carlos Saura) it justs becomes about them and not about Tango. I'd love to write a movie about some old milonguero who has been dancing the Tango for about fifty years whose wife died and he goes to the milongas again now like he did when he was a kid. I even have a guy in mind for the role, but I would have no control over what they do to the script after it leaves my hands. It would probably end up with John Travolta and Britney Spears as the stars. Do you see what I mean? Hollywood stinks, no matter what country you move it to. It is about consumption.

Good point, will. Big studios usually buy commercially attractive movies, not the kind of quality stuff you're talking about.

Gosh, maybe I saw a different "Assassination Tango", which I just rented. I found it very affecting, almost mesmerizing. Lots of beautiful dancing, don't know how much more could've been in it. Not meant to be an adventure or a comedy. Hypnotic is how I would describe the beauty of the dancing, and several dancers were featured, not just Duval.

Hi lokat! welcome to the forums.

I haven't seen it yet.

Glad to have you join us lokat! I never went to see this as it got "dissed" over here!! Hmm...I guess one's perspective depends on how much one knows about/does Argentine Tango. How much dancing would you say is there? (For instance, 10 minutes out of a 100 minutes?)