The Hot Rock

Summary

“It’s both good and bad. There’s a guaranteed return and that’s good. But the guarantor is Amusa. He’s a rookie.. and that’s bad.”

Boutique distribution label Twilight Time recently released the 20th Century Fox film The Hot Rock starring Robert Redford and George Segal. Based on the novel by writer Donald E. Westlake, the film was adapted by legendary screenwriter William Goldman. Goldman and Redford were always a great pairing. Other notable films that they worked on together include All The President’s Men and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid which have both attained classic status. I had not heard of The Hot Rock, but given the strong credits attached to the film, I was excited to watch it with my two boys the other night.

The film begins in a prison as John Dortmunder (Robert Redford) is released. He gets picked up by his old pal Kelp (George Segal.) Kelp has a job for Dortmunder. He wants to steal a large diamond from the Brooklyn Museum called the Sahara Stone to receive payment from Dr. Amusa (Moses Gunn.) Amusa hails from a country in Africa and represents the country at the United Nations. The Sahara Stone has been fought over for generations in his native country and Dr. Amusa would feel better with it in his possession. He is willing to pay $100,000 for the stone – $25,000 per man. This is not agreeable to Dortmunder, so Kelp manages to negotiate the job up to $150,000 plus expenses. Dortmunder agrees, but Kelp’s involvement makes the job more complicated. Dortmunder would prefer not to work with him on the job because Kelp is married to Dortmunder’s sister and also Kelp gets nervous under pressure. Dortmunder eventually agrees to let Kelp work with him. They enlist a driver named March (Ron Liebman) and an explosives expert named Greenberg (Paul Sand) for the job. They perform a clever heist of the diamond that has some comedic elements that I won’t ruin in this review. When Greenberg is nabbed after safely tucking away the rock, Dortmunder and his gang are put into a jam. 

The Hot Rock was directed by Peter Yates one year before he would direct the classic The Friends of Eddie Coyle and three years after directing Steve McQueen in Bullitt. Yates was an excellent stylist on film and he expertly utilized director of photography Ed Brown to make the film pop. It didn’t hurt that the film was shot on Panavision – one of the most beautiful film stocks. Yates was great at bringing out a cool and reserved energy from his performers and was well-suited to directing the film. Robert Redford is reliably solid in the lead role. Redford has always been one of my favorite actors and he does well here. George Segal is great as Kelp. Watching these two interact on screen is a big reason why the movie works. I love Zero Mostel’s performance in the movie. Zero Mostel is hilarious as Greenberg’s father and lawyer. He steals every scene he is in. Moses Gunn turns in an understated and very funny bone-dry performance.

The screenplay by William Goldman does an excellent job of adapting the material from the novel by Donald E. Westlake. As mentioned in the excellent commentary track, Westlake met several times with Goldman while he adapted the novel. Westlake fully approved of this adaptation and openly praised the script by Goldman. Goldman would go on to write All The President’s Men for Redford a few years later. The movie is an interesting twist on the caper genre. Whereas films like The Driver, Thief, or Le Cercle Rouge play towards gritty realism, The Hot Rock plays for laughs. The setups are elaborate and require some suspension of disbelief to work, but they still work for the most part. That said, traditionalists may get upset with some of the more absurd setups (particularly the final setup which is admittedly a little weak.) 

Overall, despite some absurd plot machinations (or because of them,) I really enjoyed watching The Hot Rock. It’s a fun and breezy way to spend a little time watching Redford and Segal on film.

Video

20th Century Fox provided Twilight Time with an exceptional ransfer of the film in 2.35:1 aspect ratio with an MPEG-4 AVC encoded image. This film has some great looking cinematography courtesy of Peter Yates and director of photography Ed Brown. It was filmed in Panavision and the colors and scenery in the film pop. If it were up to me, everything would be filmed in Panavision. The transfer has excellent clarity and color reproduction. I did not see any signs of DNR and the print seems to be in great shape. This movie looks fantastic in high definition.

Audio

Twilight Time have provided both a DTS-HD 2.0 and a DTS-HD Mono track. I listened to the stereo mix. Fox are exceptional at restoring their audio tracks and this is a solid mix. I love the score to the film. The music is jazz circa the time of the filming – think Miles Davis during the On The Corner period but not quite as busy as that, mixed with a little bit of the fun of a Mancini score. The music was composed by the maestro Quincy Jones the same year he provided the music for The Getaway. If you don’t love Quincy Jones scores, there is simply something wrong with you.

Supplements:

Audio Commentary – Nick Redman, Julie Kirgo, and Lem Dobbs provide an excellent and informative commentary. Lem Dobbs worked with Redford on the film The Company You Keep and lends a great perspective on how Redford works. It is always a pleasure to hear Julie and Nick discuss films. For fans of the label, Nick will be sorely missed. This was one of his last tracks before he succumbed to cancer and it is a good one!

Isolated Music Track

Original Theatrical Trailer

Overall Scores;

Video – 5/5 

Audio – 5/5

Supplements – 3/5

Overall – 4.5/5

The Hot Rock is a fun and funny caper film. The lineup for the film is pretty incredible: William Goldman adapting Donald Westlake with Peter Yates directing Redford and Segal to the soundtrack by Quincy Jones. And… it is shot on Panavision. The plot itself has some moments that certainly stretch the imagination of the viewer, but if the viewer is like myself, they will hardly care. This film has been given a beautiful transfer and it looks fantastic on Blu-Ray. The included commentary by Nick Redman, Julie Kirgo, and Lem Dobbs is excellent and well worth your time. Fans should upgrade their disks at their earliest convenience and I recommend checking this movie out for yourself.