The Hot Rock (1972)
7/10
70s' Zeitgeist
19 August 2007
Okay okay, Westlake's novels are always much better than the respective movies (take for example "What's the Worst that Could Happen"), but I must admit that director Peter Yates did a really good job. Dortmunder (the author was inspired to this name by the German beer!) is not much like Donald Westlake's original in the Dortmunder books, along with some of the other characters. Redford is too handsome. George C. Scott in "Bank Shot" was much more Dortmunderish (Westlake's master-crook John Archibald Dortmunder is worn down and pessimistic), but in the "Hot Rock" movie Yates catches the 'Zeitgeist', or spirit of the times. And that's enough.

Brilliant: Quincy Jones' soundtrack (with Gerry Mulligan playing the sax).
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