{"id":11077,"date":"2025-02-13T17:40:42","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T22:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=11077"},"modified":"2025-02-13T17:40:42","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T22:40:42","slug":"the-killer-elite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/02\/13\/the-killer-elite\/","title":{"rendered":"The Killer Elite"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Killer Elite <\/strong>(1975)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 United Artists\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 123 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (violence and language, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Sam Peckinpah\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Marc Norman and Stirling Silliphant\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jerry Fielding\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Philip Lathrop\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 17, 1975 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: James Caan, Robert Duvall, Arthur Hill, Bo Hopkins, Mako, Burt Young, Tom Clancy, Gig Young, Tiana Alexandra (as \u201cTiana\u201d), Kate Heflin, Sondra Blake, Walter Kelley, Billy J. Scott, Hank Hamilton, Helmut Dantine, Takayuki Kubota, Victor Sen Yung, Carole Mallory, James Wing Woo, George Kee Chung.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0In the hands of any other director, The Killer Elite<\/strong> might have been a pretty good action picture. In the hands of Sam Peckinpah, it should have been great. This is the same man who gave us the classic revisionist westerns The Wild Bunch (1969) and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), the cool Steve McQueen actioner The Getaway (1972) and the highly underrated gritty action piece Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974). The Killer Elite<\/strong>, featuring Godfather co-stars James Caan and Robert Duvall, should have been a slam dunk. Instead, it\u2019s a mildly diverting action piece that doesn\u2019t quite come together like it should.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Caan and Duvall play Mike Locken and George Hansen, agents of a clandestine government agency known (or NOT known) as ComTeg, short for Communications Integrity. They handle covert assignments for the CIA. They\u2019re friends as well as partners. That is, until George goes rogue and kills the guy they\u2019re supposed to protecting. Then he shoots Mike in the elbow and knee, effectively retiring him from active duty, before disappearing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0So begins a long sequence that depicts Mike\u2019s rehabilitation which includes learning martial arts. He becomes quite adept even learning to use his cane for more than just a walking aid. He also starts a relationship with Amy (Heflin, Mr. Billion), the nurse who took care of him while he was in hospital. Mike wants to get back out in the field, not out of a sense of duty to his country but to find George so he can exact his revenge. The agency director Collis (Hill, The Amateur) balks at the idea saying he\u2019s only fit for desk duty.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Things change when CIA agent O\u2019Leary (Clancy, NOT the author) drops an assignment in their lap. A Taiwanese politician (Mako, Conan the Barbarian) is in town and needs protection. Somebody has it out for him. Guess who\u2019s involved with the bad guys? Why, none other than Mike\u2019s old friend George. Collis gives Mike the assignment. He, in turn, assembles his old team which consists of unhinged gun nut Miller (Hopkins, The Getaway) and driver Mac (Young, the Rocky movies). Together, they try to keep their client alive until he can safely leave the country. George and his team won\u2019t make it easy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Killer Elite <\/strong>sounds pretty good on paper, but its execution is flawed big time. The screenplay by Marc Norman and Stirling Silliphant is convoluted. There\u2019s some business about a power struggle between Collis and his supervisor Weybourne (Young, Game of Death) that the writers fail to develop beyond a few scenes. It should have been more integral to the plot. The narrative is flabby with too much time devoted to Mike\u2019s rehab. Other scenes go on longer than they need to. They slow down the film\u2019s momentum and make it drag. The whole thing with Amy is superfluous and amounts to nothing. It\u2019s dropped and forgotten once Mike has his old job back.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There’s no problem with the two lead performances. Caan makes a great tough guy and Duvall is perfect as the arrogant turncoat even though he\u2019s absent for a long stretch. When he is present, The Killer Elite<\/strong> picks up. His scenes with Caan are good. They have decent chemistry throughout. Mike\u2019s hatred of his former pal is palpable. Hopkins and Young lend solid support as does Mako and Tiana Alexandra (aka Mrs. Stirling Silliphant) as the politician\u2019s daughter. Really, there are no bad performances here, just underdeveloped characters.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The action scenes are well executed, the centerpiece being an ambush by George and company as Mike and his guys escort their charge and his people to a waiting taxi (with special features). Oh, did I mention there are ninjas? Well, there are. Just one problem, I thought these guys were trained to avoid bullets. Is that true or have I seen too many Sho Kosugi movies?<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Killer Elite<\/strong> is far from the worst action movie that I’ve ever seen, but it certainly should have been a lot better with Peckinpah at the helm. It\u2019s a bit of a letdown really. I’m not exactly sure what happened here. Maybe it’s the constraints of the PG rating? He couldn’t include his customary graphic violence. Then again, one could make the same argument about The Getaway which was also PG. It’s frustrating to watch a movie you know could have been great, but isn\u2019t because of some poor choices. It\u2019ll keep the viewer’s attention but won\u2019t follow through with anything truly great. It’s like a light afternoon snack. It satisfies one’s craving, but it’s not as fulfilling as a full meal.<\/p>\n

\u00a0BTW, play close attention to the movie\u2019s opening tiles; specifically, the \u201cinterview\u201d with Weybourne. It says it was conducted on September 31, 1975. Do you see the mistake? How did that one get by the editors?\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Killer Elite (1975)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 United Artists\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 123 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (violence and language, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Sam Peckinpah\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Marc Norman and Stirling Silliphant\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jerry Fielding\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Philip Lathrop\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 17, 1975 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: James Caan, Robert Duvall, Arthur Hill, Bo Hopkins, Mako, Burt Young, Tom Clancy, Gig Young, Tiana Alexandra […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/The-Killer-Elite-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11077"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11143,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11077\/revisions\/11143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}