Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #82729 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-09-02
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 89 minutes

Amazon.com
There's lots of desert in this made-for-cable caper, but not many saints. Banks (Keifer Sutherland) is a hit man for hire and Bennie (Magnolia's Melora Walters) is the abused wife he takes on as an accomplice. She just wants a ride out of town. If it means driving the getaway car while Banks makes his next hit--so be it. As the duo drives from Arizona to Mexico for his next assignment, Banks turns out to be more sensitive than he at first appears, while the seemingly ditsy Bennie turns out to be smarter. Jamey Sheridan (Law & Order: Criminal Intent) plays the FBI agent who's hot on their trail. Desert Saints, which was coproduced by Meg Ryan and premiered on Cinemax, is a taut thriller with a twist at the end. What it lacks in humor and excitement, it makes up for with solid performances and an abundance of lost highway atmosphere. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews

Sutherland Shines in Triplecross Indie Gem!
Desert Saints is a surprisingly good 'hitman with a twist' tale by first time writer/director Richard Greenberg. He takes the standard 'assassin's last hit' formula, and shakes it up by introducing FBI agents with their own agendas, a 'plant' who may or may not be falling for the gunman, and, in Kiefer Sutherland, a hero/villain who is ruthless, sexy, and, ultimately, sympathetic. His performance is remarkable, and is matched by Melora Walters, as the latest of his string of doomed accomplices, who is keeping even more secrets than he is! She shows a remarkable range in her role, at times ditzy, at times mysterious and sexy, and, by the film's climax, intelligent and self-sufficient.

For an indie, the cast is first-rate all the way, with the always reliable Jamey Sheridan as a veteran FBI agent, as dedicated to his job as Sutherland is to his; Leslie Stefanson as Sheridan's second-in-command, and the wild card of the operation; and, in a very sexy cameo, Rachel Ticotin, who smolders as a waitress and occasional bedmate for Sutherland.

Greenberg cleverly uses flashbacks and flashforwards to lull the viewer into believing they know how the story will end, then springs a surprise that works extremely well, and will have you paying VERY close attention to detail during the last five minutes! While the ambiguous ending may disappoint some viewers, it offers a clever 'capper' to this tale of betrayal, and works for me!

If you are a fan of Sutherland, or stories with a twist and enough sensuality to raise your heartbeat a few notches, 'Desert Saints' is the film for you!

Excellent
This is a superb movie in regards to portraying a contract killer. It's almost just like a -How-To- manual from Rex Feral's controversial book Hit Man with the way the story goes. I'm pretty sure the writer and director who made this movie were strongly influenced by that book. What I really appreciated from the flick was that it tried to be as realistic as possible. Sutherland's character constantly forging IDs, being invisible using common creative methods, as well as the movie used common weapons seen today rather than James Bond like gadgets, or giant machine guns so commonly seen today in many dimwitted Hollywood blockbuster style movies.

To me Banks is more of a regular person instead of the James Bond/Rambo type or mafia assassin which may exist but however those people are extremely rare. Because of this it gives a new twist to these types of stories. It's realistic and shows how people are who do this type of work for a living...as bizarre as that seems. Although Sutherland's character is a very ordinary like man to me he's truly playing a realistic professional. Some people who seem to be interviewed about being in this type of work such as "The Iceman"/Richard Kuklinsky seen on HBO whose type is always caught because these type of people aren't concerned with their freedom/life causing them to get into the trade because of that, as well as wanting to be a infamous tough guy often easily seen by true criminals like him or John Gotti type personalities, etc.

Anywayzzz....to stay on topic anyone enjoying this there are two more classics to go with it in my opinion. They're -The Day of the Jackal- (73' Version of course) and -The Mechanic- with Charles Bronson. The Mechanic isn't very popular I guess because it's not simple minded Steven Seagal BS like so many of his movies were.

I highly recommend this movie to people who like to see the mental aspects of subjects like this. It's not going to be the best movie you've ever seen for most people but if you like movies like this then you'll enjoy.

It's all Kiefer Sutherland!
Desert Saints brings to the screen the story of a hit man who teams up with a young woman in order to drive down to Mexico and assassinate a Mexican politician who is waging war on the drug cartels. All the while the FBI is after them. It's going to be a bumpy, and yet interesting ride indeed...
The major setback is in relation to the supporting cast who are not that great!
Kiefer Sutherland does a great job on his own in trying to keep this film afloat, and his performance is AMAZING!
In a nutshell, it's probably not a movie you would want to add to your collection, but it will surely provide for an evening's entertainment.