The Professionals (1966)
When Ralph Bellamy hires Lee Marvin, Woody Strode, Robert Ryan and Burt Lancaster to retrieve his kidnapped wife, Claudia Cardinale, you know you’re in for a very macho western adventure. There’s rousing music from Maurice Jarre, lots of gunfire, and the only purpose for the women in the cast is to titillate the men with their cleavage.
I gave it a valiant effort, but The Professionals just didn’t hold my interest. Everything about it felt very tired and overdone. There was nothing unique about a bunch of bad boy misfits who work together to rescue someone who doesn’t want to be rescued. Burt Lancaster’s grinning, winking, and endless talk about women had been done so often in his movies, you could practically see the subtitles below his close-ups: “Do I really have to keep grinning and winking?” Robert Ryan’s health hadn’t started to fail him yet, but he was very low-energy and nearly frail. Woody Strode wasn’t given anything to do, and the amount of lines he spoke was so few, it was amazing he even remembered he was on camera and had to talk. Claudia Cardinale’s tough act hardly distinguished her from Raquel Welch, Virna Lisi, or anyone else who could have taken the role. Lee Marvin had great lines, but he threw them away with a “macho”, flat delivery. When he explained the initial job to Burt, who recently escaped from a married woman’s bedroom with only his underwear, he said, “You won’t lose your pants. Your life, maybe, but what’s that?” Continually, he was given punchy lines, but he never took advantage of them. Everyone acted tired, and even Maurice Jarre’s music was a copy of Elmer Bernstein’s classic western themes. And for goodness’ sake, didn’t Jack Palance get tired of playing the stock “ethnic villain”?
If you’re a man’s man and like macho movies, I would absolutely recommend it. Along with The Magnificent Seven, it has nothing but testosterone running through the script. I’ve just seen too many movies, so I wasn’t able to see this one through fresh eyes.
Want to watch it? Click here to see it on ok.ru and thanks "Jack" for posting!
More Burt Lancaster movies here!
I gave it a valiant effort, but The Professionals just didn’t hold my interest. Everything about it felt very tired and overdone. There was nothing unique about a bunch of bad boy misfits who work together to rescue someone who doesn’t want to be rescued. Burt Lancaster’s grinning, winking, and endless talk about women had been done so often in his movies, you could practically see the subtitles below his close-ups: “Do I really have to keep grinning and winking?” Robert Ryan’s health hadn’t started to fail him yet, but he was very low-energy and nearly frail. Woody Strode wasn’t given anything to do, and the amount of lines he spoke was so few, it was amazing he even remembered he was on camera and had to talk. Claudia Cardinale’s tough act hardly distinguished her from Raquel Welch, Virna Lisi, or anyone else who could have taken the role. Lee Marvin had great lines, but he threw them away with a “macho”, flat delivery. When he explained the initial job to Burt, who recently escaped from a married woman’s bedroom with only his underwear, he said, “You won’t lose your pants. Your life, maybe, but what’s that?” Continually, he was given punchy lines, but he never took advantage of them. Everyone acted tired, and even Maurice Jarre’s music was a copy of Elmer Bernstein’s classic western themes. And for goodness’ sake, didn’t Jack Palance get tired of playing the stock “ethnic villain”?
If you’re a man’s man and like macho movies, I would absolutely recommend it. Along with The Magnificent Seven, it has nothing but testosterone running through the script. I’ve just seen too many movies, so I wasn’t able to see this one through fresh eyes.
Want to watch it? Click here to see it on ok.ru and thanks "Jack" for posting!
More Burt Lancaster movies here!