The Killer Elite (1975)

As someone who is a big fan of Peckinpah's films like "The Wild Bunch" or "Convoy", I was very excited when I read the plot for 1975's "The Killer Elite". However, although it was not the worst film I ever saw, it became clear that it was not the greatest one either. The film stars James Caan and Robert Duvall as CIA contractors Mike Locken and George Hansen respectively, who take on the jobs the government doesn't want you to know about. The two are the best of friends until George betrays Mike by killing a man they were supposed to protect and shooting Mike in the knee. Broken, both physically and mentally, Mike soon sets his sights on revenge by going at it in physical rehab and martial arts. Soon he gets his chance when the people he works for learn that George is back in town to assassinate a client they've been hired to protect. Naturally, there's only one man who can do it and won't pass it up.The film works better in the first half, where George betrays Mike and Mike does everything in his power to get well and in the process shacks up with a pretty nurse. And it's also fun when we meet Mike's two helpers for the job, expert but cowboy killer Jerome Miller (Bo Hopkins) and street smart but world weary operative Mac (Burt Young). However when we get to the second half of the film, all of suddenly high stunt Kung Fu is introduced when it's learned that the man Mike and his team are supposed to protect is Oriental politician Yuen Chung (Mako) and his entourage that includes his daughter, Tiana (Tiana Alexandra). This might sound cool and it would have been if .........SPOILER....... Robert Duvall's character didn't die too early in the film. The sole purpose for Mike to take this job is of course his desire for revenge on George. The movie's plot made it look like the whole movie was going to be a cat and mouse game between Caan and Duvall. Once Duvall dies though, there's very little reason for the movie to continue. Yet it does for another forty-five minutes and as a result, it feels a little too long. END OF SPOILER........Now the martial arts that follows is done very well and impressive to watch; however, it just doesn't feel like Peckinpah's heart is in it. Case in point, at the final fight scene between Yuen and the head ninja occurs, Mike and his comrades seem content to watch, and rather dispassionately I might add. The film also suffers from disjointed editing, particularly the scene with the two heads of the company going over papers while one of them is bidding his time to make an important phone call (if you watch the film, you'll know it when you see it). "The Killer Elite" just doesn't seem to have the feeling of Peckinpah's other work. With that said, the film is not all bad. All the actors give great performances, be it the underrated James Caan as Mike, Robert Duvall as the treacherous George, Burt Young as Mac (who curiously, does a good job fighting ninjas), and Bo Hopkins as Jerome Miller. There's even a little bit of rare comedy from Peckinpah here concerning a cop and a bomb. And of course the idea of the CIA hiring unofficial heavies to do their dirty is by no means far-fetched. Plus, one has to keep in mind that there may very well have been studio tampering involved here, something that Peckinpah had to constantly deal with in his career. Who knows, perhaps he had a very different story in mind and it was shot down. For what it is though, if you are a big Peckinpah fan, "The Killer Elite" would not be a bad way to spend your time. After all, as someone else on this site said, watered down Peckinpah is still Peckinpah.

There are two items of note at the film's beginning. The first point is "An interview with Laurence Weyburn of ComTeg . . . September 31, 1975." September has 31 days? Really? Maybe in Caesar's day, but Emperor Augustus altered his calendar. The other item is "There is no company called Community Integrity NOR ComTeg and the thought that the CIA might employ such an organization for any purpose is, of course, preposterous." Thus states Director Sam Peckinpah. Of course he is tugging our chains.In the opening scene of the film several men barely escape a building that they rigged to explode; we are never told why they did so. But we learn early on that ComTeg is a private intelligence agency hired by the CIA to protect certain individuals and to conduct nebulous operations. ComTeg, which earns 11% its gross from the CIA, is run by Laurence Weyburn (Gig Young). Belonging to ComTeg are agents Mike Locken (James Caan) and George Hansen (Robert Duvall). They bring a bearded fellow named Vorodny to a hideout for safekeeping. Within a few minutes Hansen pulls out his pistol and blows out Vorodny's brains; right after he shoots Locken in his left elbow and in his left knee. "You just retired, Mike. Enjoy it," utters Hansen. So ends the first part: the double-cross. The next piece, about a half-hour or so, focuses on Locken's emergency hospital operations and recuperation, and also during that recovery his budding attachment with a nurse. Locken has vowed to get well enough to return to his old job; his bosses have doubts. During his convalescence he discovers the martial arts. While this state of affairs is going there is an intercut. We see a separate, failed ninja attempt to assassinate an Asian dissident at San Francisco International Airport.Along the way we are introduced to Cap Collis (Arthur Hill), a perfidious figure who is the field boss of top honcho Weyburn. Collis approaches the reasonably recovered Locken to get him back to ComTeg business. Locken eagerly agrees. Plus he is itching to track down and get even with his former buddy, Hansen. Weyburn tells Collis that Locken has permission to assemble his own team as a subcontractor to ComTeg. Meanwhile the CIA wants to protect Chinese dissident Yuen Chung (Mako) while he is in the USA. Once Chung leaves America, then he is on his own. Weyburn then gets the contract for ComTeg from the CIA, and gives the assignment to Locken. Locken gathers two former compatriots, Mac (Burt Young) and Miller (Bo Hopkins); the former is described as retired, the latter, as crazy.Now the story takes a serpentine turn, to say the least. In a strip joint, Cap Collis meets with both the leading Asian ninja, Tao Yi (Woo) and with Hansen to take out Chung. Yes, you read that correctly. Not only does Hansen still work for ComTeg, but ComTeg has been contracted to assassinate Chung. And to protect him at the same time! Whew!!! The director seems to recognize this dichotomy, for he has Hansen utter to Collis, "That's your style, Cap, setting people against each other." Maybe Collis has sold out to the same high bidder that lured Hansen. But how can Hansen still work for ComTeg? And why does ComTeg obviously spend big money for both assignments? Convoluted? You bet! Anyway, there is a Chinatown shootout where Locken, Mac, Miller, and Chung in Mac's hopped-up fake taxi escape from assassins, including Hansen and a false cop. After that there is a bomb removal scene from underneath the taxi that is nothing less than pretentious. Does anyone believe that a cop will readily accept a greasy, ticking time bomb in his hand from a stranger? This segment may be atypical Peckinpah, but it is ludicrous. In the last part the adversaries are martial arts fighting on the decks of the large US Navy Mothball Fleet that lies in Suisun Bay. But it is not Locken's bullet that finds its way to Hansen.San Francisco locations are used to good advantage, like the Golden Gate Bridge, Embarcadero Waterfront, Chinatown, and Bethlehem Steel Pier. James Caan and Robert Duvall are reunited from their "Godfather" days. Then, Caan as Sonny Corleone and Duvall as Tom Hagen were on the same side. Overall the acting is generally passable, while the violence is a bit toned down for Peckinpah. But the movie is good only in parts, and is way too long. Frankly the feature is just too complicated for many, and the betrayals are overdone. And yet the movie is watchable.

It's official; James Caan plays my favorite spy-hero with a limp and a cane. It certainly is a unique twist to have a physically-disabled fellow as the action guy, but of course it is the betrayal and shooting--in the knee and elbow--of Mike Locken, played wonderfully by Caan, that fuels the rest of the movie. Locken, who tends to joke his way through dangerous jobs and doesn't seem to believe in anything even as he serves his country (albeit as freelancer), wants revenge...but is physically unable to go after it.At least, that's the prediction. Caan's two bosses, played by Gig Young and Arthur Hill, take the doctor's gloomy prognosis as writ, and Caan is to be forced into retirement, even as our hero insists that he will not be shelved. Soon after this, an Asian politician whose life is under threat in his native country arrives in San Francisco, but given what erupts before he and his entourage (including feisty daughter) are barely off the plane, it's clear that ninja assassins have followed him on his little visit. When the intended hit goes pear-shaped, the man who shot up Caan is brought in as back-up--and suddenly Caan is the flavor of the month again. Though Revenge and Bodyguard lines blur as Caan resorts to using the targets as bait to flush out the old friend who bushwacked him.This strange film is one I have grown to like more than I ever did upon first viewing, when I went "enh, izz okay". I think what has happened with me and repeated viewings is that I am now well-distanced from the film I thought I was going to see, and am quite fond of what THE KILLER ELITE is actually doing...and doing quite well, mostly. This happened to me recently with the film starring Gene Hackman called THE CONVERSATION, which I was forced to reevaluate after a second perusal, and it's the exact same thing: expectations not met, but expectations were unfair. Part of it is the obvious: wanting more action, a faster pace, wanting a James Bond spy movie, or Bourne, more action, the modern pacing, maybe even more glitz and pyrotechnics. And even when the action scenes come in a 70s film, how can they compete with what gets cooked up for these thrill-rides we get today? They can't.Caan is perfect as the "crippled" hero (his bosses use that word, so I repeat it), who, maybe, can think about walking in a year. His acting of frustrating body-pain is very convincing, which you already know if you've seen him in the great film MISERY. Earlier, I said Caan has many scenes showing a gradual physical rehabilitation, and I deliberately didn't say "and mental rehabilitation" because there is no mental rehabilitation. That is not a slight on Caan's acting--far from it. The character of Mike Locken never crumbles, mentally. He wants to walk again. He tries too hard to walk again. He is trapped in a body that was superbly conditioned for covert action, and he can't stand lying around hearing how it won't ever get much better. Once his tender nurse, Amy--who devotes all her time to helping this wise- cracking bear of a man get at least to crutches level--begins to fall for him, they go for dinner and Caan tries too hard, too soon, to prove he can move about like anyone without leg and arm braces. It's a fiasco. And by this time, Peckinpah and Caan have shown, expertly, that the action can wait while character is shown and romance blooms.Anyway, once the crutches are tossed in the river and replaced by a cane that can be wielded in combat as well as just being used to walk about on dates with a loyal woman, we know that the film is slowly shifting gears, and the Peckinpah action, hiding for a while after the bloody start, is coming back. There could be another traitorous rat. There will be swordplay, gunplay, a bomb under a car, payoffs, and death drops. The lead-in to all that may seem a little ponderous, but for me it gives the film soul. And thank ruddy goodness that Caan's limp doesn't just dissolve into thin air when the carnage erupts!In my review of THE NATURAL, I was a bit disparaging when it comes to icon Robert Duvall, but with THE KILLER ELITE, I must rebound a bit, and say that Duvall really delivers. As a guy with a lot on his mind at the start, he really nails that brooding concentration just sort of slipping out from his wise-guy antics and dialogue and hinting what he's really about. Then, when he comes back into the story, the menace is palpable but not overdone. No, if anyone gets on my nerves in this film, it's Burt Young; bless him, but if I ever have to see a guy muck with his hat, and finger point, and wave his hand up around his head for no reason, and generally fidget his way through a performance, I'm going to go out of my mind. The ending has been criticized as a "throwaway". Well, things do get a bit weird at the finish. Serious mood, gravitas, gets trashed as characters joke about some violence going on around them. But...we knew these characters were jaded, cynical, disillusioned, only half-believing in what they fought for the whole time. I don't love it; but I don't hate it. I sort of zone out on the martial arts free-for-all that erupts and zone in on the sudden death of a character, and the closure for Caan when it comes to settling up with the final betrayer.Something different, and refreshing.

Sam Peckinpah is considered the father of today's violent movies. Although, one comment I have heard is that at least he always did it with a morality. This was very evident in this film, and made one think. I like it when Burt Young's character says 'with all these public disturbance violations, you'll get 100 years'. That is refreshing and insightful. No modern filmmaker thinks about how ridiculous it is for some characters to be destroying everything in their way to get to the "bad guys". Later on, Burt Young's character says 'no modern government cares about the security of it's people'. Absolutely correct on that one! This movie was very realistic and had a lot of great scenery of the San Francisco area. It also shows how so many in the espionage business get tired of being used by all sides for money and power. The only drawback was the ending. Showing the ninjas slowly moving out of the shadows of the ship's hull was silly. I did like the scene where James Caan's character shot is boss enough so he would live, but be injured. He wanted to show his boss how lightly he treated human life, and what it really was like being disabled by service in espionage.