Director: Sam Peckinpah
Starring: James Caan, Robert Duvall, Arthur Hill, Burt Young, Bo Hopkins, Mako, Gig Young
Running Time: 122 minutes
Synopsis: In San Francisco, Mike and George (James Caan and Robert Duvall) work for a CIA-affiliated private company providing protection for foreign political opposition leaders. George goes rogue, assassinating a client and badly wounding Mike but choosing not to kill him. Mike's bosses Collis and Weybourne (Arthur Hill and Gig Young) want him to retire, but after recuperating he is assigned to protect a Japanese leader (Mako). Assisted by his buddies Mac and Miller (Burt Young and Bo Hopkins), Mike's mission uncovers a malicious conspiracy and leads to renewed hostilities with George.
What Works Well: A quality cast elevates this uneven conspiracy thriller, combining two popular mid-1970's cinematic themes: shadowy government machinations and martial arts. James Caan and Robert Duvall ride out the clunky parts with aplomb, the script increasingly relying on sardonic humour as the final act approaches. The investment in Mike's recuperation ordeal is worthwhile, and the climax is well-staged within a unique mothball fleet setting.
What Does Not Work As Well: Other than a basic pursuit of greed to set everyone against everyone, the motivations of the master manipulators are next to incoherent. Director Sam Peckinpah suppresses his blooder tendencies, but the resulting action scenes are clunky, with the ninjas-against-guns confrontations played for laughs in an attempt to mask the mismatched idiocy.
Key Quote:
Mac: Damn it, Mike, you're so busy doin' their dirty work, you can't tell who the bad guys are!
All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
No comments:
Post a Comment
We welcome reader comments about this post.