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DVD The Professionals (Special Edition)
Before The Wild Bunch, there was The Professionals, Richard Brooks's marvelous ode to friendship, loyalty, and disillusionment. It may not have the stylistic bravado or fatalistic doom of the legendary Sam Peckinpah film, but Brooks's storytelling is simple and steady and just as insightful. The difference is Brooks is a lot more optimistic. Lee Marvin and Burt Lancaster are buddies who have drifted into oblivion after fighting together in the Mexican Revolution. Marvin, the principled loyalist and munitions expert, lost his wife and his heart. Lancaster, the dynamite expert and unprincipled adventurer, keeps losing his pants. They team up with wrangler Robert Ryan and archer Woody Strode to rescue the beguiling Claudia Cardinale, who has been kidnapped by their old revolutionary buddie Jack Palance. So it's back into bloody Mexico they go on a "mission of mercy" for railroad tycoon Ralph Bellamy, who's paying handsomely for the return of his wife.
But nothing is what it seems in this exciting, existential adventure, which was beautifully shot by Conrad Hall. Sarcastic quips, philosophical musings, and heart-rending reversals underlie Brooks's humanistic sentiments. These are tired, world-weary men who somehow find the strength and the will to pull together for the sake of love and commitment. Through it all, Brooks seems to be lamenting a decline in professionalism much deeper than his story. He's decrying Hollywood and the society at large, anticipating Peckinpah's later strategy. --Bill Desowitz
Review(s): DVD The Professionals (Special Edition)
"In my cas, an accident of birth..."
The success of "The Magnificent Seven" in 1960 spawned a number of Westerns that packed in as many stars together as possible on a big task. Think of "Major Dundee" in 1965, "The Professionals" in 1966, "The War Wagon" in 1967, and "The Wild Bunch" in 1969, to name a few. This movie is Tough Guy Central: Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Woody Strode and Robert Ryan! It's Texas around the year 1910, and they've been hired by railroad baron Ralph Bellamy to rescue his beautiful young wife (played by Claudia Cardinale) from Jack Palance, the Mexican revolutionary who's kidnapped her. Each of them has an area of expertise: Marvin weapons, Lancaster dynamite, Ryan horses, and Strode tracking. This is a non-stop action movie with great lines: "You bastard!" "Yes, sir, in my case an accident; but you, sir, you're a self-made man!" Along the way, they find out that things weren't exactly the way that Bellamy painted them. I won't give away the plot, but I will recommend this movie very highly. Lots of action, great lines, and some of your favorite action stars of the sixties!
One Of My Favorite Films, And I don't Even Like Westerns
I have never been a huge fan of westerns. Occasionally, a film like "Unforgiven", for example, will earn a lot of respect and critical praise, prompting me to watch. But these rare occasions are also tempered by terrible wastes of time like "Wyatt Earp". Because I am a huge fan of Burt Lancaster's, I watched "The Professionals", the 1966 film by director Richard Brooks, many years ago and the impression has been indelible. Easily one of my favorite films, I think I enjoy it so much because it transcends the genre.
Recently, Ebert and Roeper did a piece on their show about a number of Lee Marvin films making their debut on DVD. Not a huge fan of Lee Marvin either, but I watched a few of these films and was struck by how good they were. Reviews will be forthcoming.
Both of these factors contributed to my recent revisit of "The Professionals". A local theater which frequently runs repertory films on Saturday and Sunday morning ran a series of Westerns including "The Professionals". I happily paid $10 to watch a bad print of the film at 11 am on a Sunday. And boy, it was fun. The audience was really into it as well, enjoying the great screenplay by Richard Brooks.
A new DVD transfer has been recently released and the print is simply beautiful.
Oil tycoon Joe Grant (Ralph Bellamy) hires a rag tag group of mercenaries to rescue his kidnapped wife, Maria (Claudia Cardinale), from the hands of Raza (Jack Palance), a Mexican mercenary. Grant asks Henry `Rico' Fardan (Lee Marvin) to lead the crusade. Fardan used to be a mercenary working with Raza, but now demonstrates munitions for potential buyers. Grant has also assembled Ehrengard (Robert Ryan, "Odds Against Tomorrow"), a horse expert and Jake Sharp (Woody Strode), a bounty hunter who is also an expert tracker. Fardan is reluctant to lead the group into the desert, after a man he knows and who is adept at living in the harsh environment. Grant offers them each $10,000 to rescue his wife, instead of paying Raza the $100,000 ransom. Fardan reluctantly accepts on the condition that they include Dolworth (Burt Lancaster), his former co-hort and an explosives expert, currently in prison. After Grant pays his bail, they head off.
From the opening credits, in which each character is introduced doing what they do best, you know you are in for a slightly different take on the traditional Western. Marvin, Ryan and Strode are all introduced first, demonstrating their skills in their current work environment. Then Lancaster is introduced doing what Dolworth does best, romancing women. A man bursts into the room of Dolworth's latest "romance" and he rushes out wearing only his long johns. Even though there is a serious tone throughout the film, occasional bursts of humor help to lighten the mood and make it all the more enjoyable.
One of the major reasons the film transcends the genre is the screenplay. Brooks has crafted the story with care and given each character some of the best dialogue ever. At one point, Dolworth (Lancaster) says to Fardan (Marvin): My word to Grant isn't worth a thing. Fardan responds: Yes, but you didn't give your word to him, you gave it to me. At which point, Dolworth considers this, shrugs and gets back to the task at hand. This line of dialogue is well-written but it also helps to establish the relationship between the two characters. Another great line, which could serve as a bit of foreshadowing; "In this desert, nothing's harmless unless it's dead." At the end of the film, Grant calls Fardan a bastard. Fardan responds: "In my case, an accident of birth. In your case, you've worked at it."
In addition to the great dialogue, Brooks takes great pain to build the characters and their relationships. Ehrengard, the horse handler, is introduced beating up a wrangler who savagely tries to break a horse. During their ride into the desert, the hired mercenaries come across horses which may have been with Raza at one point. Dolworth insists that they should be put down or they will return to Raza and alert him of their whereabouts. Ehrengard makes the case that they will search for the nearest water. Fardan agrees to release them. Later, when the horses return with Raza's men, Ehrengard realizes he was wrong and that the horses should be put down, but he'll do it. Dolworth, as played by Lancaster, has a similar trait in that he loves women, all women. In a climatic scene, he has a standoff with one of Raza's mercenaries, a woman named Chiquita, whom he had an affair with when he worked with Raza. It is a strange, multifaceted scene that strengthens our feelings towards Dolworth's character. At one point, he says "I think I just realized what makes a woman worth $100,000." Great stuff.
Even Marvin, whom I am growing more appreciative of, does great work here. As Fardan, he is quite and intense, much like he is in most of his work, but Marvin brings intelligence to the role aiding the character a great deal. Granted, much of this can be contributed to the screenplay, but his portrayal effectively brings Fardan to life.
There are a couple of problems with the film, looking back at a project made in 1966 from the year 2005. First and foremost, the performance by Woody Strode is good and quite possibly accurate for the time in which the film was set, but it still makes you cringe when he refers to everyone as "Mr. Fardan" and "Mr. Dolworth", when they refer to him as simply, Jake. Brooks does quietly and effectively introduce the issue of race very early on. As Grant brings them together, he asks Fardan "You don't have a problem working with Negroes I trust?" Fardan simply ignores the question, because it is beneath him to even consider the race of a man who is qualified to do the job. If the film were remade today (God, what a thought! The horror!), the role would have to be more of an equal. The role would, in all likelihood, be cast for comic relief.
The other problem is that both of the Mexican lead characters are played by non-Mexicans. In the case of Jack Palance, the character still works. In the case of Claudia Cardinale, the role doesn't. Her accent is atrocious, laughable and dumb. She is very voluptuous, but you don't ever believe she is a Mexican. During the 60s, the studios seemed to realize that their films had to appeal to international audiences to make money. Television was robbing them of many ticket buyers and they were searching for revenue from every corner of the globe. One of their solutions was to cast people like Cardinale in roles in American films. Sometimes it worked ("The Pink Panther"), others it didn't. Lancaster even made a number of films oversees; perhaps the most famous are "The Leopard" and "1900". Watching "The Leopard" is a truly bizarre experience. If you watch it in Italian with English subtitles, Lancaster is actually speaking his lines. If you watch a dubbed version, you see Lancaster's mouth moving, and you hear him speaking English, but the two don't mesh.
One of the nicest touches about "The Professionals" is that it is set in the early twentieth century; I'm going to guess between 1915 and 1919. Cars are around, and make an appearance, but many parts of the country are still most easily accessible by train or horse. Because the story is set in this period, there is a feeling that these characters are taking the job for a "last hurrah" before modern times take over, before they have to settle down and take that job demonstrating new munitions full time. This adds to the devil may care attitude they exhibit throughout.
"The Professionals" is a great film buoyed by great writing, performances and directing. Even if you don't like "Westerns", you will probably enjoy this film. Give it a try. You won't be disappointed.
Not my style of Western. But, a good movie nonetheless.
Others have already talked about the plot. Here is a different view: I've never been a big fan of Burt Lancaster. He always seemed a little too mechanical, like an android. He's pretty much the same in this movie, too. Regardless, this is a very good, action-packed movie. It keeps your interest. Lee Marvin is very good... as always. Along with Jack Palance, he carries the movie. It has a story line that you don't see every day and an ending that is a little bit of a surprise. Not one of my all-time favorite Westerns. But, it's a well-made Western that's worth a watch.
Here's how director Sam Peckinpah described his motivation behind The Wild Bunch at the time of the film's 1969 release: "I was trying to tell a simple story about bad men in changing times. The Wild Bunch is simply what happens when killers go to Mexico. The strange thing is you feel a great sense of loss when these killers reach the end of the line." All of these statements are true, but they don't begin to cover the impact that Peckinpah's film had on the evolution of American movies. Now the film is most widely recognized as a milestone event in the escalation of screen violence, but that's a label of limited perspective. Of course, Peckinpah's bloody climactic gunfight became a masterfully directed, photographed, and edited ballet of graphic violence that transcended... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): William Holden - Ernest Borgnine - Robert Ryan Director(s): Sam Peckinpah DVD Release Date: Released the 27 August 1997 Usually ships in 6 to 8 days
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This restoration of Sam Peckinpah's 1965 western Major Dundee is nothing short of magnificent, a noble attempt at restoring a famously wrecked masterpiece. When Peckinpah went over budget and over schedule during the Mexico shoot, unshot scenes were canceled and the footage rudely cut by the studio. The director disowned the results. In 2005, surviving footage was patched back in, and a new musical soundtrack commissioned to replace the score Peckinpah hated. This raises some legitimate questions about interpreting a director's intentions, and about messing with film history, but Major Dundee--The Extended Version is such a rousing, mysterious experience, one feels grateful.
Major Dundee (Charlton Heston) is a vainglorious officer busted to the decidedly inglorious job... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Charlton Heston - Richard Harris Director(s): Sam Peckinpah DVD Release Date: Released the 20 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Walker (Lee Marvin) strides through Los Angeles with the steel-eyed stare of a stone-cold killer, or perhaps a ghost. Betrayed by his wife and best friend, who gun him down point-blank and leave him for dead after a successful heist, Walker blasts his way up the criminal food chain in a quest for revenge. Did he survive the shooting or return from the grave, or is it all a dying dream? The question is left in the air in John Boorman's modern film noir, a brutal revenge thriller based on Richard Stark's novel The Hunter (remade by Brian Helgeland as Payback), set in the impersonal concrete and steel canyons of Los Angeles and eerily empty cells of Alcatraz. Walker kills without remorse, guided by shadowy "informant" Keenan Wynn, whose own agenda is carefully concealed, and... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Lee Marvin - Angie Dickinson Director(s): John Boorman DVD Release Date: Released the 05 July 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This silky smooth film noir pits gruff police detective Dana Andrews, stiff and blunt in his street-bred manners, against a cultured columnist and acidic wit (Clifton Webb at his prissiest) in a battle of wits during a murder investigation. The cop is a romantic hiding under a hard-boiled exterior who falls in love with the beautiful victim through the portrait that hangs in her apartment. Gene Tierney, whose heart-shaped face mixes the exotic with the girl next door, brings the poise and calm of a model to her role as the object of every man's gaze and the target of a killer. Laura, handsomely shot in dreamy black and white, is the first and best of Otto Preminger's cool, controlled murder mysteries. In the gritty world of film noir it remains the most refined and elegant example... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gene Tierney - Dana Andrews Director(s): Rouben Mamoulian - Otto Preminger DVD Release Date: Released the 15 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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"Warlock" is a great classic western with an amazing cast. I am sad to see Dolores Michaels not get billing on the DVD, as she did on the original moive posters. While she retired early from acting, she not only was beautiful, but a very solid actress. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Richard Widmark - Henry Fonda Director(s): Edward Dmytryk DVD Release Date: Released the 24 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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