The Professionals (Special Edition)

"Blackboard Jungle" director Richard Brooks produced one of the mostexciting, well-made western actioneers of the 1960s with his epicshoot'em up "The Professionals." Lee Marvin and Burt Lancaster headed atop-notch cast in this Columbia Pictures' release that co-starred JackPalance, Woody Strode, Claudia Cardinale, Robert Ryan, and RalphBellamy. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science nominated "TheProfessionals" for three Oscars. Although he had already received anOscar for Best Direction for his 1960 melodrama "Elmer Gantry," Brooksreceived bids for Best Direction and Best Screen writing, adapted fromanother medium, principally Frank O'Rourke's novel, while ace lenserConrad Hall got the nod for Best Cinematography.This atmospheric oater takes place in the early twentieth century andranks as one of the best soldier-of-fortune sagas ever filmed.Primarily, Hollywood filmmakers preferred to confine their westerns tothe late nineteenth century between the end of the American Civil Warand the official closing of the frontier in 1890. As early as1934,however, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced a biographical opus aboutthe infamous exploits of rebel leader Pancho Villa called "Viva, Villa"with Wallace Beery. Indeed, many B-westerns, some with John Wayne andBob Steele respectively, shifted their settings back and forth from theold frontier to contemporary times, but Hollywood rarely made a westernset between 1900 and 1920 until the 1950s. Some of the most prestigiousincluded Eli Kazan's "Viva, Zapata!" with Marlon Brando, GeorgeSherman's "The Treasure of Pancho Villa" with Rory Calhoun and GilbertRoland, Richard Fleischer's "Bandido" with Robert Mitchum, and RobertRossen's "They Came to Cordura" with Gary Cooper."The Professionals" occurs before America's entry into World War I. Bythe time that "The Professionals" came out, European filmmakers likeSergio Corbucci and Sergio Leone had discovered the narrativeadvantages of these twentieth century adventures. Chiefly, the level ofviolence escalated because water-cooled machine guns were available aswell as larger artillery pieces, automatic firearms, and hand grenades.Sam Peckinpah made probably the greatest post-frontier western with"The Wild Bunch" (1969) starring William Holden and Robert Ryan.Oil baron and railroad tycoon J.W. Grant (Ralph Bellamy of "His GirlFriday") hires three men: Henry 'Rico' Fardan (Lee Marvin of "CatBallou"), Hans Ehrengard (Robert Ryan of "The Tall Men") and JacobSharp (Woody Strode of "Spartacus") for $10-thousand dollars each torescue his trophy wife Maria (Claudia Cardinale of "The Pink Panther")from a despicable Mexican bandit Jesus Raza (Jack Palance of "Shane")who had kidnapped and taken her deep into Mexico to a remote strongholdin the desert. Each of soldier-of-fortune possesses a specific talent.Fardan is a weapons expert and tactician. Jacob Sharp is a first-ratetracker and a master with rifle and long-bow. Hans Ehrengard is a packmaster. When Grant describes their adversary as "the bloodiestcutthroat in Mexico," Fardan is surprised because he has "the utmostrespect" for Raza.Grant shows Fardan the ransom note and Grant's Hispanic liaison informsFardan that Raza has mobilized about 150 men. Fardan suggests Grant paythe ransom, but Grant doesn't think that he will get his wife back evenafter he pays up. "It would take a battalion of men a month to get inthere," Grant explains to Fardan and company, "but a few men couldstrike." Fardan shakes his head. "What we need is an equalizer," Fardanpoints out. "Name him," Grant demands, and Fardan shows Grant a messagethat he received from one of his closest pals, Bill Dolworth (BurtLancaster of "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral"), who is currently in jail.Dolworth is a wizard with explosives who is able "to blow out a candlewithout putting a dent in the candle holder." "Eight hundred dollarswill bail him," Fardan observed.Grant bails out Dolworth and Dolworth appreciates Fardan'sintervention. "What's the proposition," he inquires as Fardan hands hima bottle of whiskey. "You won't lose your pants, your life maybe, butwhat's that worth." Dolworth gulps some whiskey, "Hardly anything atall." Dolworth is surprised that Raza kidnapped Grant's wife and thatthe ransom demand is a $100-thousand dollars. Dolworth asks, "Whatmakes a wife worth a hundred thousand dollars?" Fardan muses, "Somewomen can turn men into boys and boys into men." Dolworth grins,"That's a woman worth saving."Suspicious things begin to happen no sooner than our heroes leaveGrant's headquarters. They encounter a group of bandits and have toshoot it out with them. Dolworth wants to shoot the horses that thebandits rode. Ehrengard objects. Fardan explains that the horses willhead back to the camp, but Ehrengard opines that they will head northto the river. Fardan lets them go and they finish burying the bandits.Dolworth rides ahead to scout and runs into more bandits who know abouthim and his colleagues because the horses came back with empty saddles.Fardan and company rescue Dolworth just before the bandits carve him upand find the fortress that Raza and his small army have occupied.Raza's men are assembling machine guns that they took from a Mexicanarmy train. Fardan lays out his plan. Dolworth will plant explosivecharges that will simulate a French howitzer barrage and Jacob willunleash dynamite laden arrows. When the bandits rush to defend thewalls, Fardan and company will slip in "and rescue little red RidingHood." Diversion is their only option because they cannot shoot theirway into Raza's fortress.When our heroes do make their move on Raza's stronghold, they get thesurprise of their lives. Nevertheless, between Dolworth's dynamite thatblows a water tower to smithereens and Jacob's dynamite laden arrows,our heroes manage to escape and hit the trail back to the border.Richard Brooks doesn't waste a moment in this splendidly staged,concisely written western that bristles with memorable dialogue andfeisty performances. "Doctor Zhivago" composer Maurice Jarre furnishesa flavorful orchestral score. The Blu-Ray looks impeccable.

Given the credentials of the people involved in bringing The Professionals (1966) to the screen, written and directed by Richard Brooks, who also did The Killers (1946), Key Largo (1948), Elmer Gantry (1967), and In Cold Blood (1967), starring Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Woody Strode, and Jack Palance (Believe it....or not!), you would have thought I would have heard about it before now, but I didn't, and there you go...Anyway, the film begins with the assemblage of four men by a rich, Texas cattleman named Joe Grant, played by Ralph Bellamy (the old dude who wasn't Don Ameche in the John Landis/Eddie Murphy/Dan Aykroyd movie Trading Places), for the purpose of rescuing his young wife Maria, played by the voluptuous Claudia Cardinale, from the clutches of her kidnapper, a Mexican rebel bandit named Jesus Raza (Palance). Seems Raza has made off with the woman and is now demanding $100,000 for her safe return, an amount Mr. Grant would be willing to pay, except he fears that even after he pays the monies, Raza would still harm his wife. As the men come together with the offer of $10,000 apiece if they're successful, we learn of their particular talents. First there's Henry 'Rico' Fardan (Marvin), a master tactician and someone who actually knows Raza as they served together in the Mexican revolution, followed by Bill Dolworth (Lancaster), who also served with Fardan and Raza, and is an expert with explosives, Hans Ehrengard (Ryan), whose skills involve horse wrangling, and finally Jake Sharp (Strode), an expert with weapons, specifically guns and the bow and arrow, and also an experienced tracker. Given that Raza has a good number of men at his disposal, I'd say maybe close to 200, the task would seem highly unlikely, but the men also must deal with first getting to the camp, which involves trekking through the Mexican desert, where temperatures during the day could fry your face off, while the cold night after the sun drops is nearly enough to freeze your blood, but $10,000 is a lot of money, and the group, being men of honor, did give their word, fully aware of the dangers involved, and the probability of success.While the story may not be highly original, the elements that make it up work very well to make this a highly enjoyable movie. Marvin is great as the brains behind the operation, carefully planning everything, knowing exactly what he has to work with and also having the confidence in the men to perform their tasks, keeping things simple, and avoiding complexities that would normally foul things up. He pulls off his character well, an intelligent man would understands the value in proper preparation especially when the odds are high. Lancaster is also wonderful, presenting a highly likeable character with color, one whose priorities seem simple enough in money and women, but who also exhibits more depth as the film unfolds. Ryan (a highly under-rated actor, in my opinion) and Strode are also quite good, despite the lack of character development given to Marvin and Lancaster, which isn't a negative as we are given just enough to endear the characters to the audience, but not so much to bog the film down, and all four displayed a level of credibility respective to the skills each possessed. Claudia Cardinale was certainly nice to look at, and she was capable, but if I had to choose a weak link in the film, it would probably be her, but given how well all the other elements of the film worked, this was entirely a minor issue. Now when I heard Jack Palance was going to be playing a Mexican, I had my doubts as I just couldn't see it, but he pulled it off. We didn't see much of him in the first half, but in the last half his character really came to life, giving us more than just a character motivated by greed, but one driven by his ideology, in doing what he has to to survive and further his cause. The expansive desert scenes throughout the film are really beautiful, giving a wonderful backdrop to the story, providing a realism you just can't get shooting on a studio backlot. There were a number of twists and turns within the story, as very little is as it seems, and while some of it was predictable, this did little to take away from the film. I also enjoyed the study of the motivations of the various characters, their questioning of the moralism in past and present actions. The film could have gotten mired within this element, but, as with other elements of the movie, there was just enough present to keep things interesting and add a bit of welcome diversity while not taking away from the overall story. The movie does run just under 2 hours, but rarely slows down, as the excellent direction by Brooks keeps things fairly balanced and moving along at a good pace.The digitally remastered picture here looks amazing, available in both wide screen and full screen formats, and I thought the audio was also very good, being very crisp and clear. With regards to special features, there is any number of subtitles (including English) available, along with an original theatrical trailer and somewhat comprehensive, yet concise, biographies of the talent, including selected filmographies. Also included on the insert in the DVD case are production notes which detail the people involved, the locations the film was shot, along with information about the original release date and the various awards nominations the film received. All in all an excellent film, maybe not the quintessential western of Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (1969), but certainly required viewing for fans of western films and certainly worth looking into for anyone just interested in a good film in general.Cookieman108

CD appears to be in great shape.Timely shipping is always a plus

Super spannend der Film und ungeschnitten! Lohnt sich echt für einen Herbstabend! Im TV läuft nix besonderes!

ce film que j'adore à pris encore plus d'attrait en blueray!...images et sons sont au top!....un bon achat que je recommande à tout amateurs de westerns et de bons films en général.

Wem "Spiel mir das Lied vom Tod" zu langatmig und aktionsarm war, wird "the professionals" genießen. Ein reicher Texaner heuert vier stoppelbärtige Abenteurer (Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Woody Strode) an, um seine Frau Maria zu befreien, die von einem mexikanischen Revolutionär Raza (Jack Palance) gekidnapt wurde. Die Suche ist logisch und spannend inszeniert. Die flirrende Hitze und das trockene Klima machen dem Zuschauer eine durstige Kehle. Ein Six-Pack gekühltes Bier im Sessel-Sattel ist zu empfehlen, wenn die Spannung vom Trab in den Galopp übergeht.

Ein wunderschöner äusserst spannender Film, den ich vor vielen Jahren gesehen habe und unbedingt wiedersehen wollte. Leider noch nicht in BlueRay zu erhalen.

LEIDER NUR IN ENGLISCH WAR NICHT ERKENNBAR UND MUSSTE LEIDER ZURÜCKSCHICKEN