The Professionals

The Professionals (1966)

Runtime: 117 minutes

Directed by: Richard Brooks

Starring: Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Woody Strode, Claudia Cardinale, Jack Palance

From: Columbia

Thank goodness that this film of all films has been on Netflix for years. This was back when they rarely had movies of this age and now in recent times, the platform cycles different vintage pictures in & out on a regular basis. The presumption is that someone high in the hierarchy of Netflix is a giant fan.

To me, that’s understandable; there is plenty to like. While not a masterpiece like some Westerns of old, what was then the new trend (Spaghetti Western) or ones that would come later like The Wild Bunch, this seemed like a nice bridge between them. The setting is the Mexican Revolution; the particulars of that don’t need to be known beforehand, except that the setting was the late 1910’s… both the dying days of the Revolution & the Wild West.

Ralph Bellamy hires Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, and Woody Strode for a daring mission to Mexico to rescue his kidnapped wife from Jack Palance-of course I’d enjoy such a motion picture. Yeah, Palance is in brownface but of course that was still common back then; at least it was a quality performance from him. As the wife was Claudia Cardinale, no wonder Bellamy wanted her back so badly! Of course, this scenario is more complicated than expected, they can’t trust everyone they meet on this trek, and not everyone on the team agrees with each other.

There is quality action throughout (mainly shootouts but the raid on Palance’s camp was great in a different way) between the great actors interacting w/ each other, the inherent drama of this dangerous journey, and the added dynamic once Cardinale starts interacting with our leads. The print Netflix has both looks and sounds great-a boon for the stunning cinematography of the desert landscapes and natural rocky features-filmed in the deserts of California and Nevada-which proved to be the biggest foe for everyone.

As there’s also a Maurie Jarre score that’s emotional-always fitting to the on-screen action-this is a movie well worth seeing, especially if you’re a Western connoisseur. This is far better than much of the gruel, the tripe that Netflix has on their platform. I’m sure most of those movies don’t have the amazing final bit of dialogue that this does.