The Killer Elite

Like Clint Eastwood's The Eiger Sanction, Sam Peckinpah's The Killer Elite is considered a minor work of a legendary director. Both were released in 1975 to little acclaim and remain buried near the bottom of each filmmaker's oeuvre. That said, I recently watched the Peckinpah film for the first time via Twilight Time's Blu-ray and found myself enjoying it for the same reasons I so enjoyed The Eiger Sanction when I watched it for the first time a few years back. Both are espionage thrillers whose pleasures have little to do with the intricacies of their main plots and everything to do with their defiantly politically incorrect attitudes, offbeat characters, said characters' interpersonal relationships, and the subsidiary story lines contained within their lengthy running times.Given the complicated package that was Peckinpah's personal and political beliefs, it comes as little surprise that within the first ten minutes, The Killer Elite offers examples of his much-discussed skepticism of the government and his troubled and troubling relationship with women. Onscreen text introduces us to COMTEG, the shadowy organization that agents Mike Locken (James Caan) and George Hansen (Robert Duvall) work for. COMTEG may or may not be based on reality, counts the C.I.A. as a client, and deals in the protection and / or elimination of individuals who are of special interest to foreign governments as well as our own. Locken and Hansen are partners in work and have a very close relationship outside of it, marked by both hetero competitiveness and homoerotic tension. This is very effectively encapsulated at the start: after a successful job, Locken and Hansen enjoy a small party in their bachelor pad, which includes casually topless women, Caan impressing one of the women with his push-up prowess, and, of course, Caan bedding down said woman.In the morning, on their way to the next part of their work assignment, Duvall taunts Caan about finding a gynecologist's note in the "chick's" pocketbook, indicating a "vaginal infection." By way of Duvall's cackling--which turns out to be more mean-spirited than first indicated--Peckinpah appears to be poking fun at Caan's well-known reputation as an overly confident ladies man with permanent residence at the Playboy Mansion. After a rather surprising twist, Caan becomes crippled: at close range gunshots turn his left leg into a "wet noodle" and his left arm only slightly less gimpy. It's here, in the film's best section, that Caan loses his standing as "numero uno" in the organization, becomes the property of his nurse (Van Heflin's daughter Kate), and, in documentary-like fashion, is shown rehabbing his way back to top dog status. Whether intentional or not, it is this digression into the seemingly quotidian, mostly removed from the film's requisite C.I.A. mumbo jumbo, where the film is at its most satisfying. It's much the same way that Eastwood's Eiger Sanction is at its best when Clint is learning how to scale mountains with George Kennedy rather than engaging with C.I.A. spooks in the interest of spy thriller conventions.Once this happens, the film goes into men-on-a-mission mode and becomes less interesting, despite the considerably enjoyable dual presence of Bo Hopkins (Midnight Express) as Locken's permanently Vietnam War-damaged gunman and Burt Young (Paulie in the Rocky series) as his surprisingly philosophical and soft-spoken wheelman. It is interesting that at this point in the film, as Caan gets his mojo back and loses his vulnerability, he becomes more of a type-A guy again. Of course, because he's Caan and this is the persona that made him a star, I like him anyway. You'd be hard-pressed to find a Caan equivalent in today's Hollywood, certainly no one as hirsute and probably no one willing to be as willfully unlikable and non-cerebral--i.e. an unrepentant meathead--as Caan, as when he cooly tells dissident Mako's twenty-ish daughter (Master Gini Lau) that he "really doesn't give a s***" after she admits to being a virgin in a failed attempt at intimacy.Given less inspired roles as the COMTEG bosses are Arthur Hill, who was previously seen to great effect in another San Francisco film of the era, Petulia, and Gig Young (Peckinpah's Alfredo Garcia), rightfully seeming disinterested and, more sadly, quite visibly and audibly slowed by his debilitating alcoholism. In addition to the aforementioned appearance of Van Heflin's daughter in one of the key female roles, Sondra Blake, ex-wife of Robert, appears as Young's disturbingly shell-shocked girlfriend.Peckinpah and legendary d.p. Philip Lathrop (Touch of Evil) offer numerous scenic looks at '70s San Francisco and like '70s New York films, The Killer Elite gives viewers a valuable look at an American metropolis in a now-yearned for pre-gentrified, pre-chain store form. Perhaps my favorite sequence in the the film has Caan participating in an outdoor martial arts class in Chinatown overseen by an elderly instructor and including men and women of various ages, colors, and body types. It's one of those casually egalitarian and unpretentious scenes that appears seemingly un-staged and which belongs firmly to that moment in time.In keeping with that '70s thing, this is another of those archetypal '70s PG films, so it contains: a little casual nudity (just because), some off-the-cuff drug references, an attempt at some serious political commentary, a few four-letter words and some docu-real violence and blood (if you don't cringe a little during the ER scene at the beginning of the film, you've got ice water in your veins). And, since it was the '70s, it was violence, not the nudity, that had to be cut in order to achieve a PG rating. The Killer Elite cannot pass without a mention of the fact that it was the last collaboration between Peckinpah and Jerry Fielding (The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs) who died way too young at 57 and who remains unheralded outside of film score aficionado circles. Happily, since this is a Twilight Time release, his varied score, which is at different times muscular, soaring, haunting, and dissonant, appears in isolated form on one of the audio tracks. Also, equally noteworthy is the fact that the great Monte Hellman, in between directing gigs, edited The Killer Elite, in what was, I'm pretty sure, his final collaboration with Peckinpah. (Peckinpah had a role in the Hellman curio, China 9, Liberty 7). The disc contains a transfer that looks to be pretty recent and that has not, thankfully, been digitally scrubbed, as well as a number of lovingly-curated bonus features, most notable of which is Peckinpah's rarely seen 1966 telefilm Noon Wine, unwatched by me.The Killer Elite contains one of the more unorthodox director title cards that I've ever seen. The "Directed by" text appears over some blown-up-from-16mm nature footage of a bird feeding its young--a reference to the "Peck" in the director's name? This is followed by several more shots of the main characters carrying out their mission and then a return to the unrelated bird footage, this time with the "Sam Peckinpah" title card.

Not to be confused with "Killer Elite," the other film with the same meaningless, forgettable title minus the definite article ("The"), "The Killer Elite," is a smoothly directly, tastefully implemented, attention-holding if suspenseful script (until the film's last 20 minutes, when a convoy of gigantic battle ships is upstaged by two Ninja warriors having at each other with sticks (much like the one James Caan is forced to rely upon after former buddy Robert Duvall "retires" him with 2 carefully aimed bullets. The film is superbly directed by Sam Peckinpah, as Queen of American critics Pauline Kael maintains in her positive review of the film. But the mix of serious expionage drama with comic Ninja excess is part of the script for which Sam deserves neither credit nor blame--he's merely doing his job, and he does it well.The less esteemed, more popular, critics Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times) and Gene Siskel (Chicago Tribute) agreed to disagree with Kael's assessment in their sour take on the film. Ebert wrote that the film "puts us through so many convolutions of the plot that finally we just don't care." I'd respectfully disagree. It's not the plot but the mix of styles that throws the film (and its viewer) off balance. Siskel apparently missed the comedy by taking the Ninja business seriously and consequently criticizing the "moralizing dialog" as well as the "half-hearted martial arts battles." Thank goodness Peckinpal treated the martial arts battle (singular, not plural) as a side-show rather than a nail-biting climax or the film really would have been laughable.Peckinpah limits the violence. No member of the police is wasted and the casualties are limited to Caan's traitorous friend (Duvall) and to Caan's sharp-shooting defender Jerome (Bo Hopkins). The film is probably best viewed as a "deep state" thriller, though it's emphasis on dirty politics (political affiliation means nothing compared to power and wealth) makes the film equally relevant to its Watergate Era and to our present top-down leadership by the family in the WH. But at the end, Caan and the magnificent character actor Burt Young sail away to a place where bananas are abundant. (The last line, by Caan, references a "Mr. Davis." You'd have to be a very attentive spectator to recall that Burt Young's wife calls everyone, incl. Burt, "Mr. Davis." Caan is simply making it easier for Burt to join him on a nice 2-man cruise to a happy ending and a long holiday from relativist political amorality. Peckinpah does the same for the spectator.

I have seen this, I guess 2 times before. It is slow, but then there's a lot of movies out there that are drawn out. But, I do enjoy the antics of the players and the determination to get revenge within the group.It isn't your usual suspected moves, which makes it more interesting.Worth watching!

I found it a little flat in regards to the pace, but the stars, as always, were top notch.

A Sam Peckinpah directed slow moving action movie starring the late James Caan and Bo Hopkins. Robert Duval has a part to play and is in his usual outstanding under played role. The story line is about a for hire protection contractor firm for whom Caan and Duval work. A major complication occurs forcing Caan, after a major setback, to make a comeback and prove his value to the company.Not a great story line with a somewhat confusing back and forth on whether this has comedic elements or is a serious action film.Not the best of Sam Peckinpah or James Caan.Some female nudity and reflective of the time period filmed.

This is one weird movie. It starts off normal enough, and then it drags for a while for plot reasons, before finally ramping up about halfway through. What's strange is it flips from being a somewhat tense thriller to a sort of buddy comedy, including comical cops and even ninjas. Despite that, it turned out to be much better than I expected during the slow start. Robert Duvall and James Caan are what make the film though. Definitely not a classic, although it stands as one of those quirky 70s movies that probably influenced Quentin Tarantino.

Not one of Bloody Sam's best works by a long way but even his flops are interesting to his followers which includes me.Can't recommend this work unless you're interested in an action flic with the following negatives : a bit disjointed, fitful script, action choreography that doesn't always gel (especially the martial arts fights), a plot that is all over the place and seems to be merely the excuse to attempt a thriller without a definitive identity.Loved the opening with Duvall and Caan genuinely showing how much they were a team. It might have worked as a 'buddy' film but then came betrayal, rehabilitation, assassinations, kung-fu fighting etc., and the film dodged about into so many different areas that I lost belief, something that so many of Peckinpah's producers suffered from and who often became his adversaries.I know that several of his films exist not only in their theatrical version but also have a director's cut, a vision that Peckinpah preferred but might not always work commercially. I'm thinking of 'The Osterman Weekend' for one.I liked this film and have given it four stars but it is really is a period piece from the 1970's showcasing the confused state of Bloody Sam at that time with glimpses of his unconventional genius.English subtitles for the hard of hearing, no bonus features. I don't think I need too much else with this film.

"I know who the bad guys are. Anybody that tries to hurt me."Reuniting James Caan and Robert Duvall three years after The Godfather in an action movie directed by Sam Peckinpah, The Killer Elite is the kind of movie that on paper at least looks like it has everything going for it: a decent cast (rounded out by Gig Young, Mako, Bo Hopkins, Burt Young and Arthur Hill), some great locations and a decent thriller premise but it's sunk by some terrible execution. From the opening sequence of hands planting explosives to the accompaniment of Jerry Fielding's martial main titles while unseen children play and a bird feeds its young you even get a brief hint of The Wild Bunch's opening shots, but it's a false impression: if anything, the whole film is a childish game that the grownups can't be bothered to take seriously. Even that could have made for an interesting approach to a paranoid 70s thriller if only Sam Peckinpah, then graduating from alcohol to cocaine at the suggestion of one of the cast, could take the material seriously, but it's obvious almost from the beginning that it's a payday job he's too often clumsily lampooning to try to keep himself interested.The plot is serviceable: James Caan and Robert Duvall work for a private company who do the CIA's dirty work for them until Duvall kills the political refugee they're guarding and shoots Caan in the leg and arm, telling him "You just retired. Enjoy it." Naturally Caan has no intention of retiring, even with an insanely generous pension plan ($1500 a week in 1975!), painfully working his way back to health to get back on the company's active books and have his revenge on Duvall. Naturally both opportunities present themselves when the CIA want to keep Mako's political activist alive for the brief period he's in the USA. Which is a decent enough setup for a disillusioned action thriller, yet the result is one of Peckinpah's very worst films.It's the kind of thing you could see a less talented director pulling off much more successfully, but in Peckinpah's hands it never really coheres, either on a plot level or an action level. Part of the problems are thematic: there's next to nothing at stake, and what little there is is poorly defined, with the plotline with Caan and an underused Duvall drearily resolved long before the all-but-pointless finale on San Francisco's Mothball Fleet. Even their early friendship is messily sketched in an early, presumably badly improvised car scene that overindulges both actors' worst instincts, the first of many scenes that are surprisingly painful to watch. And most painful of all are two key action scenes, which are exceptionally poor by anyone's standards.Indeed, the airport sequence may well be the worst thing Peckinpah ever did thanks to a combination of martial artists with no screen experience whose wildly different kung fu styles never mesh in the uncoordinated fight scenes, a misjudged use of slow motion that just shows up how appallingly bad the martial arts are and highlights every mistake as each badly blocked and even more badly executed fumbled move is drawn out, and a bizarre bit of throwaway business with a flasher. It's even badly edited, the crosscutting largely arbitrary in an attempt to salvage two dull scenes that didn't work only to turn them into one dull scene that didn't work either. Nor is the final fight between Caan's crew and a small army of ninjas on a decommissioned destroyer any better since almost every character in the film proves the title a lie by constantly displaying their ineptitude in combat. It's bad enough that Duvall's supposedly deadly sniper keeps on missing throughout the film or that Caan fires huge amounts of bullets without hitting anyone in the film's most mildly competent shootout in the middle of the film, but these ninjas are so inept that even Burt Young can beat them up without breaking a sweat while Caan and Bo Hopkins pick them off like sitting ducks. By this point Peckinpah's clearly treating the whole thing as a joke, adding cutaways of Caan and Young contemptuously laughing in a way that seems aimed more at the audience for buying a ticket for this sort of thing than their adversaries.Yet when Peckinpah treats it seriously, he can still deliver something modestly effective like the underplayed duck house `retirement' scene, while the scenes dealing with Caan's physical rehabilitation are excellent and feature some of the best work the star has ever done as an actor. The sort of thing most action movies skip over in an age where action stars barely even notice the kind of injuries that takes years of physiotherapy to recover from, here Peckinpah makes you feel every twinge when Caan has his cast or stitches removed. It's not a long sequence, but it's so perfectly and deliberately paced that it feels like a gruelling journey back to something like health. It's the best part of the picture and the only one that feels like it's coming from personal experience, something lived rather than scripted.Not that Peckinpah doesn't try, admittedly half-heartedly, to personalise the material, be it Gig Young's throwaway comment about his father being a minister (Peckinpah was raised by a strict religious mother) or Arthur Hill's bemused "Would you believe that heroism has become old fashioned?", but they feel clumsily grafted on while only the rehabilitation scenes feel a genuinely organic part of the plot. It's no great stretch to see Peckinpah's obvious commitment to this aspect of the film as a reflection of his own relationship with the corporate suits (or at least his own perception of it): the more he's told what he's doing is impossible, the more driven he is to do it to prove them wrong. But while Peckinpah often felt the need to create conflict even where none existed as artistic fuel, rather than self-righteous anger and open defiance it's a series of emasculating humiliations that embarrass Caan in front of his girlfriend and make him drive away his remaining friends until he can learn to turn his disabilities to his advantage. The latter is the film's most interesting conceit as he develops a fighting style built around the cane and elbow brace he now has to use, something that's sadly underexploited thanks to the confused fight choreography.The real tragedy of The Killer Elite is that for all the incompetence of its action scenes and laziness of its plotting, you can occasionally get a glimpse of a decent and at times very good film trying to escape from the debris. Maybe if Peckinpah hadn't discovered cocaine during the shoot, maybe if he took it more seriously, maybe if he wasn't contractually saddled with a leading lady everyone hated in a nothing role but who was forced on the film by screenwriter Stirling Silliphant (not coincidentally her husband), maybe if it had a better script with better dialogue, maybe if he got on with Robert Duvall and gave him something to actually do in the film... But there are more missed opportunities than ones that are taken, and there are things that are wrong here that you can't blame on the script or the studio and have to put the blame fairly and squarely on the director.On the plus side, Bo Hopkins and Kate (daughter of Van) Heflin are both better than their material and Fielding's last score for Peckinpah is good. The MGM/UA DVD offers an unexceptional transfer with a trailer the only extra, but the French and US Blu-rays are a much better bet.Wild Side's French Region B-locked Blu-ray includes both the full theatrical version and a shorter version released in France, both with English language options, but it's the extras that shine: a lengthy extract from Mike Siegel's documentary about Sam Peckinpah  Passion & Poetry: The Ballad Of Sam Peckinpah - 2 disc special edition , trailer, TV spots and radio spots and stills and poster galleries. But Twilight Time's region-free US limited edition Blu-ray goes even better, not only including all of those (though only the longest cut of the film) but including a frank audio commentary by Peckinpah historians Garner Simmons, Paul Seydor and Nick Redman that explores the film's problems and troubled production with surprising honesty and, best of all, Peckinpah's legendary one-hour TV drama Noon Wine.Starring Jason Robards, Olivia de Havilland and Per Oscarsson and never repeated after it's one broadcast in 1966 as part of ABC'S Studio 67 anthology series, and was long only available in a black and white viewing copy at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York. While not Blu-ray quality, this is a recently discovered colour copy of the shot-on-tape Western drama that both played a hugely important part in rehabilitating Peckinpah's career after the debacles of Major Dundee and being fired from The Cincinnati Kid saw him effectively blacklisted by all the studios - it was on the strength of this that Warner Bros. head Ken Hyman gave him a two-picture deal for The Wild Bunch and The Ballad of Cable Hogue - and holds up as a genuinely powerful character drama that's well worth the price of the disc on its own. So much so that I prefer to think of it as the Noon Wine Blu-ray with The Killer Elite as one of the extras! Passion & Poetry: The Ballad Of Sam Peckinpah - 2 disc special edition

I like Pekinpah’s work and bought this disc sight unseen. A friend had an insert poster on his walls in the 1980’s and it always caught my eye since I like a good 70’s action film. I had no idea of the plot but the art work suggested it.As it seems to be the norm now, gag...., the inevitable reboot with the only balding actor that can pull off that look, Jason Statham came with a bang and left with a usual whimper. I was going to see it “cause I was bored” but decided to buy this disc instead.I love the WILD BUNCH... but not the much exalted slo-mo blood soaked ending, I like everything else leading up to it instead. The GETAWAY is a cool shoot-em-up. This film started out good, slow pace as was the norm back in the 70’s, but towards the end it just felt like stuff was tossed in to keep the action and the film going. I found the finally confrontation at the end long and drawn out with its slo-mo fight sequences. I’m glad I saw it but feel like the film could have been a lot better story and pace-wise. Caan does his best with what he is given within the script. Duval does his usual good work and it’s fun to see them teamed up again fresh from their GODFATHER triumph.

Fabulous Blu Ray by Twilight Time.Great picture quality with good commentary.Also nice input from Bo Hopkins and others remembering their experiences,but disappointing there's nothing new from James Caan the legend himself.Heard he doesn't rate this movie too highly so perhaps that explains his absence!The 1970s, going into the early 80s, was definitely James Caan's best period where he gave top notch performances-check out Thief which was titled 'Violent Streets' here in the UK-best James Caan performance ever where he also gives one of the best commentaries available out there.Hear he's a decent bloke too.

Apparently I have to write something here about this dull talent waster, otherwise my star rating won't register. :)