Assassination Tango

Assassination Tango is a 2002 American 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. Francis Ford Coppola was one of the executive producers. The film centers on the life of a hitman who travels to Argentina for a job, as well as his discovery of Argentine tango and his relationship with a woman living there. The film is considered a "labour of love" of Duvall, a self-confessed tango addict. Most of the film was shot in Buenos Aires, 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 Argentina. His contacts inform him that his target is a former general who took part in 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.