Le rapace (1968)

In Veracruz, Mexico, in 1938, “The Italian,” also known as “The Bird of Prey,” makes his way across a country that is not his own and sneaks into Guatemala. He is an adventurer with no ideals, a disillusioned, cynical and brutal hired killer. After taking numerous precautions in a country under the watchful, all-powerful eye of the police, he eventually reaches the people who hired him: a group of conspirators preparing an uprising. His mission is to assassinate the country’s president. However, to sustain the myth of a revolutionary hero from the people, it is agreed that the spectacular deed will be credited to an impassioned idealistic student, Miguel, the grandson of a former president of the country, who will assist him during the operation. They will take advantage of a visit by the head of state to his mistress, Camito, to kill him. Hidden in a house opposite Camito’s residence, the two men wait in a tense atmosphere. “The Bird of Prey” never misses an opportunity to express his contempt for the young man, humiliating and roughing him up as he constantly calls him “little hero” or “chico” (“kid”), repeatedly reducing him to the role of a revolutionist in name only. “The Bird of Prey” kills the president in front of his mistress, but spares her because “you don’t shoot a woman,” revealing a code of honor that his cynicism had not led one to expect. The two men then manage to escape, as the conspirators’ plan dictates. “The Bird of Prey” does not know that the plan next calls for his elimination—and perhaps Miguel’s too—and that they will both have to fight hard to save their own skins against rebels who switch sides when their revolution fails. Miguel eventually comes to see “The Bird of Prey” as the only honest man in this story, while his comrades, supposedly revolutionaries driven by a desire to help the people, are really just political operators, brutal mercenaries, or common bandits seeking power. But “The Bird of Prey” is no idealist, as he will remind Miguel in no uncertain terms.