By the 1960s, the Western was no longer merely about good guys and bad guys, the triumphant conquering of the West, or the ultra-patriotic stirrings of John Wayne. Thanks in part to the weary-eyed cynicism of John Ford's final ventures into the genre, followed by the radical reshaping made towards the middle part of the decade by Sergio Leone's violent spaghetti westerns and the elegiac offerings of Sam Peckinpah, the Westerns of the 1960s took on a grittier, tougher, and, in the end, more violent look to them. One such film that served as something of a bridge between the old-world masterpieces of John Ford and the twin masterpieces of 1969 (THE WILD BUNCH; ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST) was THE PROFESSIONALS, a film packed with action, character, world-weary cynicism, and several twists and turns that would help shape the Western well into the 1970s.
Set along the US/Mexico border at the time of the Mexican revolution, the film stars Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, and Woody Strode as four highly skilled mercenaries who are hired on by a railroad tycoon (Ralph Bellamy) to rescue his wife (Claudia Cardinale) from the hands of a Mexican bandit (Jack Palance) who has taken her across the border into Mexico. The deal is for these "professionals" to get paid $10,000, although Palance is demanding $100,000 from Bellamy. The four men are very expert at what they do: Marvin himself was well-acquainted with Palance, having fought alongside him in the early years of the revolution; Lancaster is a munitions genius; Ryan handles the horse-wrangling assignments; and Strode applies his trade at weaponry, both firearms and archery. As they make their way towards the hideout where Palance and his well-armed militia, plus Cardinale, are holed up, they often wax philosophically on the mission they're on, their lives, and the coming end of the era of professionals like them.
In an explosive sequence, they decimate Palance's hideout and force Cardinale to come with them, all the while knowing that Palance and his gang will be coming after them. But the twist comes in them learning a rather inconvenient fact about Cardinale: she may already have been kidnapped...by Bellamy.
Although he wasn't known for being a specialist in the Western genre like Ford or Peckinpah were, writer/director Richard Brooks, who directed ELMER GANTRY (for which Lancaster won a Best Actor Oscar in 1960) and CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, managed to make a consistently interesting entry into the genre here. He was certainly cognizant of how the genre was changing as the 1960s progressed, and knew not only of Ford's traditionalist methods, but also the more unconventional ones being parlayed by Leone and Peckinpah. It also helped that he knew how to stage action scenes that were consistently motivated by character (a trait that Peckinpah would echo, though it would too often and too unfairly be obscured by the violence of that director's films), and that he had four great actors in them. Marvin, Lancaster, Ryan, and Strode acquaint themselves quite well under Brooks' concise direction; and even Palance does a good turn as the Mexican bandit. Cardinale, in only her second America film (after 1964's THE PINK PANTHER), is also fairly convincing as the Mexican-born damsel in distress.
Blessed with world-class cinematography by the legendary Conrad Hall, much of it done on location in the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada and portions of Death Valley National Monument in California, THE PROFESSIONALS is a consistently interesting entry into the Western, and is most deserving of a revival in the 21st century as one of the best of the 1960s.
Set along the US/Mexico border at the time of the Mexican revolution, the film stars Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, and Woody Strode as four highly skilled mercenaries who are hired on by a railroad tycoon (Ralph Bellamy) to rescue his wife (Claudia Cardinale) from the hands of a Mexican bandit (Jack Palance) who has taken her across the border into Mexico. The deal is for these "professionals" to get paid $10,000, although Palance is demanding $100,000 from Bellamy. The four men are very expert at what they do: Marvin himself was well-acquainted with Palance, having fought alongside him in the early years of the revolution; Lancaster is a munitions genius; Ryan handles the horse-wrangling assignments; and Strode applies his trade at weaponry, both firearms and archery. As they make their way towards the hideout where Palance and his well-armed militia, plus Cardinale, are holed up, they often wax philosophically on the mission they're on, their lives, and the coming end of the era of professionals like them.
In an explosive sequence, they decimate Palance's hideout and force Cardinale to come with them, all the while knowing that Palance and his gang will be coming after them. But the twist comes in them learning a rather inconvenient fact about Cardinale: she may already have been kidnapped...by Bellamy.
Although he wasn't known for being a specialist in the Western genre like Ford or Peckinpah were, writer/director Richard Brooks, who directed ELMER GANTRY (for which Lancaster won a Best Actor Oscar in 1960) and CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, managed to make a consistently interesting entry into the genre here. He was certainly cognizant of how the genre was changing as the 1960s progressed, and knew not only of Ford's traditionalist methods, but also the more unconventional ones being parlayed by Leone and Peckinpah. It also helped that he knew how to stage action scenes that were consistently motivated by character (a trait that Peckinpah would echo, though it would too often and too unfairly be obscured by the violence of that director's films), and that he had four great actors in them. Marvin, Lancaster, Ryan, and Strode acquaint themselves quite well under Brooks' concise direction; and even Palance does a good turn as the Mexican bandit. Cardinale, in only her second America film (after 1964's THE PINK PANTHER), is also fairly convincing as the Mexican-born damsel in distress.
Blessed with world-class cinematography by the legendary Conrad Hall, much of it done on location in the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada and portions of Death Valley National Monument in California, THE PROFESSIONALS is a consistently interesting entry into the Western, and is most deserving of a revival in the 21st century as one of the best of the 1960s.