Lack of good storyline.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Lesser Sam Peckinpah film is still solid entertainment, even if it's nowhere close to his artful masterpieces of "The Wild Bunch," "Straw Dogs," or "Ride the High Country." James Caan plays an off-the-books CIA/black ops type who's double crossed by his partner, Robert Duvall, and left crippled. Caan goes through arduous physical therapy and learns martial arts and how to fight with his new cane in order to enact his revenge on Duvall and the organization that's abandoned him. Although this film does have it's defenders, "The Killer Elite" is pure surface level entertainment. When Peckinpah was asked how he prepared for this film, he said he watched a bunch of Bruce Lee movies, which is a pretty good indication he wasn't focused on his usual themes of men-out-of-time, masculinity, and violence. However, Sam Peckinpah knows his way around an action sequence better than most and he delivers a number of exiting shootouts. The martial arts sequences are admittedly not as good as his shootouts, but Peckinpah's use of slow potion and montage during those scenes is interesting none-the-less. The shootouts though are, as you would expect, a knockout! Overall, this story isn't all that clever or interesting, but thanks to the talents of the director, the action here was more than enough to hold my interest. FUN FACT! Monte Hellman is credited as casting the film.

"The Killer Elite" is a rather uneven film that contains some of the typical Peckinpah magic but the plot is the big drawback here. It seems to take a while for James Caan to catch up with Robert Duvall after what happens at the beginning. Then the plot includes unnecessary distractions that have nothing to do with anything. The action scenes compensate a lot and I do like the Kung Fu moments (though not in the league of Bruce Lee). The setting in being that of San Francisco, is a good idea. It makes from it being either New York or Los Angeles.

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.

"The Wild Bunch" director Sam Peckinpah's urban espionage shoot'em up "The Killer Elite" qualifies as his most autobiographical as well as metaphorical thriller. Like the duck show that the two COMTEG agents refer to near the beginning, "The Killer Elite" is good Peckinpah, but not great Peckinpah. Several things separate "The Killer Elite" from Peckinpah's best movies, such as "Ride the High Country," "The Wild Bunch," "The Getaway," "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia," "Cross of Iron" and "Straw Dogs," are these are the cynicism, the subject matter, and the oddball humor. Peckinpah admirers probably have a softer spot for "The Killer Elite" than non-Peckinpah admirers. The Marc Norman & Stirling Silliphant screenplay doesn't amount to anything memorable. This is your standard issue revenge melodrama about two friends who turn on each other and everybody else who gets caught in the middle. Ostensibly, "The Killer Elite" is a Cold War era thriller without a reference to the Soviets. Peckinpah makes this affair worth looking watching because he alludes to his best films and some of the Norman & Silliphant dialogue stand out. Nevertheless, Peckinpah seemed to know what he was up against when he made this thriller. Like its redoubtable hero, "The Killer Elite" is handicapped from the start. You know a Peckinpah movie is unusual when the violence is as muted as it is in "The Killer Elite" and the most interesting sequence occurs in the middle when our protagonist rehabs himself."The Killer Elite" opens with this disclaimer: This film is a work of fiction. There is no company called Communication Integrity NOR Comteg and the thought the C.I.A. might employ such an organization for any purpose is, of course, preposterous. The cynicism evident here and later shows a world weary Peckinpah who rarely rises to the occasion. Everything in "The Killer Elite" is rather matter of fact as if Peckinpah were going through the motions. After a terrific opening sequence with George Hansen (Robert Duvall of "The Godfather") betraying his old buddy Mike Locken (James Caan of "The Godfather") and killing the defector that they were charged with guarding, the film settles into an extended rehabilitation plot. Surprisingly, the emergency room scene, with the dispassionate doctors talking over the surgery of our hero, surpasses the sterile violence in "The Killer Elite." Later, Peckinpah sends in a believable, plain Jane therapist to supervise Locken's recovery. As inspired as these scenes are, they all but halt the forward momentum of the movie. The news that Hansen sold out to the opposition drives Locken to rebuild himself that starts the fuse burning. The restaurant scene where Locken crashes ignominiously into the floor and has to be helped up makes our hero look like an alter-ego for Peckinpah. Like Locken, Peckinpah was betrayed by film producers (remember "Major Dundee") and he had to pull himself up by the bootstraps.The most obvious example of cynicism in "The Killer Elite" is the violence. Peckinpah soft-pedals the violence. Hansen's murder of the defector is as bloody as this thriller gets and the bloody explosion is momentary. Afterward, fusillades may erupt, but blood rarely materializes in puddles. Indeed, United Artists may have toned this down to acquire at mild PG-rating, but die-hard Peckinpah will point to this as the missing link in "The Killer Elite." Peckinpah glosses over many issues. Cap Collis (Arthur Hill of "Harper") is Lawrence Weyburn's right-hand man, but he is also a traitor. The revelation that Collis is undermining Comteg comes as no surprise. Peckinpah shuns any kind of mystery and just show Collis in a strip bar with Hansen planning their next move. There is no nobility (except between Hansen and Locken) in the spy business. Collis and Weyburn are bureaucrats and Weyburn is prepared to replace Collis with Locken without skipping a beat. Ultimately, "The Killer Elite" has no fire in its bowels. Peckinpah denies Locken that moment of catharsis to exact his vengeance on Hansen. Instead, Jerome knocks Hansen off and Locken decks Jerome with a John Wayne haymaker. Furthermore, Hansen's death comes between acts three and five and seems to belittle him. Ostensibly, "The Killer Elite" is like the mothballed navy fleet where the film concludes with a kung-fu showdown straight out of the mythical western.Despite the cynicism and the idiotic humor (the guy at the airport who flashes the cop and the imbecilic cop with the bomb), "The Killer Elite" has some vintage Peckinpah touches that make it rewarding to Peckinpah admirers. The broken relationship between the two principals is traditional Peckinpah material hearkening back to "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid," "The Wild Bunch," and "Ride the High Country." The anti-climax to the relationship between Locken and Hansen is more surprising. Peckinpah does an excellent job of encapsulating their friendship in a handful of scenes before Hansen retires him from service. The scene in front of the building in Chinatown when Locken spirits Yuen Chung (Mako of "Never So Few") out to the cab while Hansen and his sidekick lay down a barrage of machine gun fire from a rooftop across the street is straight out of the opening scene in "The Wild Bunch." Jerome (Bo Hopkins) is basically Crazy Lee, but he lives longer. Peckinpah was the only director who could recycle his own material and make it work in any situation. Earlier, the scene where trigger-happy Jerome shoots the cop on the stairs is a replay of the moment Billy the Kid shot Bell in "Pat Garrett." Peckinpah shows nothing but contempt for the kung fu scenes, but his editors and he do an exemplary job cross-cutting when the airport incident and the C.I.A. briefing about Yuen Chung.The performances are all top-notch. Caan excels as the handicapped hero and Hill is unruffled until the end as the villain. Duvall is good as the treacherous Hansen. The San Francisco locale is scenic. Altogether, "The Killer Elite" is a misfire, but nobody makes a misfire like Peckinpah.