Editing Assassination Tango

{{Infobox film
| name           = Assassination Tango
| image          = Assassinationtango.jpg
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| alt            =
| director       = [[Robert Duvall]]
| producer       = Rob Carliner<br>Robert Duvall
| screenplay     = Robert Duvall
| starring       = Robert Duvall<br>[[Rubén Blades]]<br>[[Kathy Baker]]<br>[[Luciana Pedraza]]
| music          = [[Luis Enríquez Bacalov]]
| cinematography = Félix Monti
| editing        = Stephen Mack
| studio         = [[United Artists]]<br>[[American Zoetrope]]
| distributor    = [[MGM Distribution Co.]]
| released       = {{Film date|2002|09|11|Toronto International Film Festival|2003|03|28}}
| runtime        = 114 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = English<br />Spanish
| budget         =
| gross          = $1,013,272
}}
'''''Assassination Tango''''' is a 2002 American [[Crime thriller|crime thriller film]] written, produced, directed by, and starring [[Robert Duvall]]. Other actors include [[Rubén Blades]], [[Kathy Baker]] and Duvall's Argentine wife, [[Luciana Pedraza]].<ref name="Luongo2011">{{cite book|last=Luongo|first=Michael|title=Frommer's Buenos Aires|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SQjgNYjSs4IC&pg=PA18|date=5 July 2011|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-118-11548-0|page=18}}</ref> [[Francis Ford Coppola]] was one of the executive producers.

The film centers on the life of a [[Professional assassin|hitman]] who travels to [[Argentina]] for a job, as well as his discovery of Argentine [[tango (dance)|tango]] and his relationship with a woman living there. The film is considered a "labour of love" of Duvall, a self-confessed tango addict.<ref name="PazHart2008">{{cite book|last1=Paz|first1=Alberto|last2=Hart|first2=Valorie|title=Gotta Tango|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uyet_cMrfFYC&pg=PA4|year=2008|publisher=Human Kinetics|isbn=978-0-7360-5630-4|page=4}}</ref> Most of the film was shot in [[Buenos Aires]],<ref name="Bernhardson2011">{{cite book|last=Bernhardson|first=Wayne|title=Moon Buenos Aires|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PhBn9tKce4oC&pg=PA148|date=11 January 2011|publisher=Avalon Travel|isbn=978-1-59880-884-1|page=148}}</ref> and some scenes at the beginning and end of the story were filmed in [[Coney Island, Brooklyn]].

==Plot==
Anderson (Duvall) is a successful American hitman whose employer sends him to do a job in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His contacts inform him that his target is a former general who took part in [[National Reorganization Process|Argentina's last military dictatorship]]. Following a phone call with one of the co-conspirators, Anderson learns that his job is delayed due to his target sustaining an injury in a riding accident.  Angry and frustrated that he is stuck in Argentina until the target is recovered from his accident, he walks the street and hears music behind a red curtain.  He finds that behind the curtain is a beautiful woman gracefully dancing the tango with a man. He is immediately entranced by the dancing and wants to learn more about it, which leads to his meeting with Manuela, a local tango dancer and instructor, and the woman he first saw behind the red curtain.

Things are not as easy as they seem. Although Anderson has immersed himself in the world of Manuela and dancing tango, he continues to prepare for and plan to assassinate the general. A paranoid Anderson simultaneously rents a room in two different hotels. From the safety but close proximity of one hotel room, he witnesses police converge on the other hotel. Anderson will fulfill his obligation to do the job despite the obvious reality that there is a leak. Although Anderson initially plans on shooting the general from the rooftops, he ends up pretending to deliver flowers while the general is in his backyard and shoots him point-blank in the heart.  The police investigate, bringing in the prostitute Anderson slept with, but she has no information on him.

Meanwhile, Anderson desperately tries to get a hold of his co-conspirators so that he can leave Argentina. Unknown to Anderson, his Argentinian co-conspirator Miguel (Rubén Blades) has been arrested by the police. Miguel is harshly interrogated, but can breathe a sigh of relief when his conspirator within the Argentinian federal authorities shows up.

Anderson, thinking that he has been abandoned and is stuck in Argentina plus will be found out for the general's murder, hides out in his room until he realizes that the joy he had with the tango was fleeting.  He suddenly remembers that he left the special boots he bought for his daughter, in the other rental room and risks his life to retrieve them.  He decides to try to go back home before he gets killed in Argentina.
Meanwhile, Manuela goes about her life with what appears to be her toddler daughter.

Although Anderson is almost stopped at the airport, he eventually makes it out of Argentina safely. On the airplane back to the U.S., Anderson dreams about dancing the tango with Manuela. He makes it home to his family, showing them a few steps of the tango he learned, but right before he goes in the house he scans the area—just in case.

==Cast==
* [[Robert Duvall]] as John J. Anderson
* [[Luciana Pedraza]] as Manuela
* [[Kathy Baker]] as Maggie
* [[Rubén Blades]] as Miguel
* [[Katherine Micheaux Miller]] as Jenny
* [[Julio Oscar Mechoso]] as Orlando
* [[James Keane (actor)|James Keane]] as Whitey
* [[Frank Gio]] as Frankie
* [[Frank Cassavetes]] as Jo Jo
* [[Michael Corrente]] as the policeman
* [[Raúl Outeda]] as Tony Manas
* [[Géraldine Rojas]] as Pirucha
* [[Elbio Nessier]] as General Humberto Rojas
* [[Marzenka Novak]] as Orlando's aunt

==Reception==
The film received a mixed reception. {{Rotten Tomatoes prose|48|5.6|88|Slow to start, this quirky film eventually overstays its welcome.|access-date=7 March 2025|ref=y}} {{MC film|51|30|access-date=15 December 2023|ref=y}}

Many critics criticized its slow pace and saw the film as nothing but personal self-indulgence from Duvall.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/malos-aires/content?oid=14792|title=Malos aires|publisher=Sacramento News Review|date=17 April 2003|accessdate=9 October 2013|archive-date=28 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230328092706/https://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content/malos-aires/14792/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="SFC"/> [[Mick LaSalle]] of the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'' called the film "vanity project" and said that it's "hard to see what Duvall thinks is so interesting about the hit man, aside from the fact that he's playing him".<ref name="SFC">{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Duvall-s-gravity-weighs-on-Tango-Actor-s-2624516.php|title=Duvall's gravity weighs on 'Tango' / Actor's vanity project falls as flat as his ponytail|newspaper=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]|date=4 April 2003|accessdate=9 October 2013|archive-date=2 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202225920/http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Duvall-s-gravity-weighs-on-Tango-Actor-s-2624516.php|url-status=live}}</ref> Michael Luongo of [[Frommer's]] stated that the film was slow-paced, but "highlights his [Duvall's] obsession with Argentina and the tango, letting the city [Buenos Aires] serve as the backdrop".<ref name="Luongo2011"/> [[Roger Ebert]] awarded the film three stars out four and although he said that the film is "not quite successful", he considered it a "fascinating effort".<ref name="Ebert2005">{{cite book|last=Ebert|first=Roger|title=Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2006|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780740755385|url-access=registration|date=1 November 2005|publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing|isbn=978-0-7407-5538-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780740755385/page/36 36]}}</ref> However, he said that ''Assassination Tango'' is "not entirely about crime or dance, and that will be a problem for some audiences, although the little girl skipping in the playground scene really steals the show".<ref name="Ebert2004">{{cite book|last=Ebert|first=Roger|title=Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2005|url=https://archive.org/details/rogerebertsmovie0000eber_m5j7|url-access=registration|date=1 November 2004|publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing|page=[https://archive.org/details/rogerebertsmovie0000eber_m5j7/page/34 34]|isbn=9780740747427 }}</ref> Amy K. Kaminsky {{Who|date=August 2022}} said that the film was "utterly personal", in that the "violence of the [[military junta|junta]] seems to be overshadowed by individual desire". She stated that the film masked "U.S. involvement in setting up dictatorships, teaching torture techniques, and underwriting state violence".<ref name="Kaminsky2008">{{cite book|last=Kaminsky|first=Amy K.|title=Argentina: Stories for a Nation|url=https://archive.org/details/argentinastories0000kami|url-access=registration|year=2008|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-0-8166-4948-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/argentinastories0000kami/page/186 186]}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|id=0283897|title=Assassination Tango}}
* {{Rotten-tomatoes|id=assassination_tango}}
* {{Mojo title|assassinationtango}}
* {{Metacritic film}}

{{Robert Duvall}}

[[Category:2002 films]]
[[Category:2002 crime thriller films]]
[[Category:American Zoetrope films]]
[[Category:2000s English-language films]]
[[Category:English-language Argentine films]]
[[Category:Films about contract killing]]
[[Category:Films about Latin American military dictatorships]]
[[Category:Films directed by Robert Duvall]]
[[Category:Films shot in Argentina]]
[[Category:2000s Spanish-language films]]
[[Category:Films scored by Luis Bacalov]]
[[Category:Films shot in Buenos Aires]]
[[Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films]]
[[Category:United Artists films]]
[[Category:Tango films]]
[[Category:2000s Argentine films]]
[[Category:English-language crime thriller films]]
[[Category:Spanish-language American films]]
[[Category:Spanish-language crime films]]
[[Category:Spanish-language crime thriller films]]