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Interview with the Assassin

Director: Neil Burger

A playwright, theater director and first-rank character actor, Raymond J. Barry has given rich, honest performances in dozens of movies and tv programs, including Year of the Dragon, Dead Man Walking,  Born on the Fourth of July (as Ron Kovic’s dad). This is a rare star turn for him, and he never strikes a false note. His workingman’s intensity and lean physique make him credible as a killing machine that never lost his predatory confidence. In every scene Barry plays, you sense Walter’s volatile mix of emotions–pride, fear, anger, dread, guilt, disgust–yet Barry never italicizes any of them, and a few flicker across his face so quickly that you might have to see the movie a second time to catch them. In a just world, he’d get an Oscar nomination as Best Actor.  New York Press

Ohlinger is played by Raymond J. Barry, who inhabits this formidable, dead-eyed operative — think Clint Eastwood meets Jack Kevorkian — with an untheatrical conviction that makes him seem exactly what he says he is: a sociopathic military cipher who was hired to kill the president and did so without flinching. Entertainment Weekly

In Mr. Barry, a hardworking character actor whose résumé includes “Training Day” and “Dead Man Walking,” Mr. Burger has a performer who can dart between stentorian self-assurance and cringing pathos, maintaining his character’s ambiguity until the final sequence of this resourceful and ingenious entertainment. New York Times.

Interview with the Assassin

The smartest move Neil Burger makes is to keep his sights tightly focused on Barry’s bristling paranoia. Whether softening his military cadences with a touch of the South or shimmying down the outside wall of a motel, the veteran character actor goes a long way toward padding what is a clever conceit. His homespun menace keeps you watching. Los Angeles Times

After striving in vain to cast an unknown in the role of the laconic assassin, Burger went with Barry, a veteran New York stage and film actor. This proves to be a stroke of luck. His deadpan expression and steely, matter-of-fact voice project the chilling demeanor of a man torn by his claim to fame: Pride in a difficult job well done mingles with the shame that an ex-Marine would gun down the country’s chief executive. The Hollywood Reporter

Raymond Barry gives a brilliant performance as Walter Ohlinger, the smoldering, bizarrely unpredictable — yet calculating ex-Marine who burns to tell the tale of how he was the real killer of John F. Kennedy. Variety

“It’s not only fun, but masterful from a purely technical standpoint. Still, the key lies in the performances. Not once did I catch anyone “acting;” all of the actors are wonderful, especially Raymond J. Barry (as Walter the “assassin”), who deserves, but stands no chance of receiving, an Oscar nomination.” Denver Film Festival

 

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