Author Topic: "The Professionals"  (Read 9876 times)

Offline PJ Hardtack

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"The Professionals"
« on: November 08, 2015, 10:40:37 AM »
Watched this flick on the tube recently. One of the best of the Mexican Revolution genre. Worth seeing for the performances of Burt Lancaster and Lee Marvin. Two memorable lines:

- "There is only one revolution - the good guys against the bad guys. The question is, who are the good guys?"  Burt Lancaster to Robert Ryan.

At the end of the movie, Lee Marvin was called a bastard by the husband of the woman he was sent to rescue. Marvin's response:

-  "Yes, Sir. In my case it was an accident of birth. In your's, you're a self-made man."

Lee Marvin set the high water mark for looking like a Soldier of Fortune. He was totally at home with the Springfield '03, M97, 1911 and Colt revolvers. Not to forget the Colt/Marlin "potato digger" at the start of the movie and the Lewis gun he carried at the end.

The whole movie was a morality play about civil war in general. The Mexican Revolution and the Spanish Civil War were similar in that there was so much international involvement that the lines became blurred and it was difficult to tell the good guys from the bad.
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to others and I require the same from them."  John Wayne

Offline The Elderly Kid

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Re: "The Professionals"
« Reply #1 on: November 11, 2015, 11:38:49 AM »
My favorite line in this film:
Lancaster and Marvin infiltrate Palance's compound and make their way to the room where the rancher's wife is being held, supposedly against her will. They are about to get her when Palance comes into the bedroom, apparently with the intention of raping her, but what ensues reveals that these two are very willing and long-time lovers. The two "rescuers" look at each other and Lancaster says:
"Amigo, we've been had!"

Offline Trooper Hook

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Re: "The Professionals"
« Reply #2 on: November 12, 2015, 07:31:51 AM »
No surprise that Lee Marvin looked like a soldier of fortune and was comfortable with weapons. He was a WW2 Marine combat vet of the Pacific. I have read that on some of his military films the producers and directors also came to him for technical advice.

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Re: "The Professionals"
« Reply #3 on: Today at 09:37:45 PM »

Offline PJ Hardtack

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Re: "The Professionals"
« Reply #3 on: November 12, 2015, 10:02:21 AM »
Yes, Marvin always looked comfortable in a uniform. I'm ex-Army and I can spot a re-enactor who was not a soldier just like a real Cowboy can spot a wanna-be.

In the Paul Gross movie "Passchendaele", he utilized members of the CAF as extras. Sam Peckinpah did the same for "The Wild Bunch", hiring a Mexican Army unit. Actors don't move or have the same body language.

In "Saving Private Ryan", I tried to pick out the ex-soldiers from the actors, but there were too many to make any distinctions.
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to others and I require the same from them."  John Wayne

Offline nagantino

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Re: "The Professionals"
« Reply #4 on: November 12, 2015, 03:25:34 PM »
I think Sam Peckinpah had the beginnings of the Wild Bunch from the Professionals. The look of the film, the guns and gear all are an early warning of what was to come.

Offline PJ Hardtack

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Re: "The Professionals"
« Reply #5 on: November 12, 2015, 05:09:30 PM »
Yabbut ... "The Wild Bunch" beginning was a wholesale blood bath (as was the finale) whereas "The Professionals" was a love story centred on the effects of the Mexican Revolution on a few individuals.

Having said that, there was the incident in the movie where the "Coronados" were summarily executed and their Officers hanged, so "The Professionals" only had blood up to their ankles as opposed to their armpits .... ;>)
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to others and I require the same from them."  John Wayne

Offline nagantino

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Re: "The Professionals"
« Reply #6 on: November 13, 2015, 05:09:57 AM »
The beginning of "The Wild Bunch" was a bloody ballet of graphic opening titles, tension, choreographed death and visual splendour. I'm a fan. At the time The Professionals was made, 1966, I do not believe it could have shown such scenes. I think Peckinpah looked at it and decided to take the idea to its extreme.

Offline PJ Hardtack

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Re: "The Professionals"
« Reply #7 on: November 13, 2015, 10:44:26 AM »
Yeah, how innocent and naïve we were. Now you see more deaths in TV episodes.
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to others and I require the same from them."  John Wayne

Offline The Elderly Kid

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Re: "The Professionals"
« Reply #8 on: November 14, 2015, 03:23:32 PM »
By the late '60s Hollywood was feeling the competition from the Spaghetti Westerns coming in from Europe. The front office was actually encouraging Peckinpah t pour on the blood when he was making "The Wild Bunch."

Offline Doug.38PR

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Re: "The Professionals"
« Reply #9 on: January 18, 2017, 12:09:21 AM »
"If the leader takes his hat off and covers his gun hand, let go quick"

That was a great scene. 

Online Baltimore Ed

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Re: "The Professionals"
« Reply #10 on: February 06, 2017, 07:25:12 PM »
Definitely one of my favorites. I once created a monthly cowboy match with the movie as the theme. We said all the great lines and I even built a Lewis gun out of my wife's round bbl Marlin .45 carbine that was used by the shooters in a stage or two. Just a pvc shroud to cover the bbl and mag tube with access to the loading gate and lever and a Lewis magazine on top. As a WASA club I usually carry my 1911 strongside and my .45 new service as a crossdraw ala Lee Marvin at our monthly shoots. Like the look of the 2 gun belts. I always wondered though where he reloaded his pistols from. I just hope that we don't have to say Lancaster's great line "Amigos, we've been had."
"Give'em hell, Pike"
 There is no horse so dead that you cannot continue to beat it.

Offline PJ Hardtack

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Re: "The Professionals"
« Reply #11 on: February 11, 2017, 12:51:23 PM »
I liked the opening scene where Lee Marvin is demonstrating a Colt/Marlin "potato digger" machinegun. It sure looks like he was firing real ammo and not movie blanks.
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to others and I require the same from them."  John Wayne

Offline Zip Wyatt

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Re: "The Professionals"
« Reply #12 on: May 13, 2017, 09:23:39 PM »
On the my all time favorites.  I only wish I could wear a campaign hat like Lee Marvin.  It really did look like the most natural thing in the world.  Marvin and Lancaster were the stars but Robert Ryan, Woody Strode and Jack Palance were terrific too.  And Claudia Cardinale, well, changing her shirt in front of ole Burt around the campfire ?  Enough said.

Zip
So what else is on your mind besides hundred-proof women, 'n' ninety-proof whiskey, 'n' fourteen-carat gold?

Offline PJ Hardtack

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Re: "The Professionals"
« Reply #13 on: May 15, 2017, 11:55:30 AM »
Jack Palance was in that movie .... ?
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to others and I require the same from them."  John Wayne

Offline Scattered Thumbs

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Re: "The Professionals"
« Reply #14 on: May 15, 2017, 12:25:14 PM »
Jack Palance was in that movie .... ?


Oh yes. He was the rebel leader.

Offline Mean Bob Mean

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Re: "The Professionals"
« Reply #15 on: May 15, 2017, 01:55:17 PM »
Great film.
"We tried a desperate game and lost. But we are rough men used to rough ways, and we will abide by the consequences."
- Cole Younger

Offline PJ Hardtack

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Re: "The Professionals"
« Reply #16 on: May 15, 2017, 03:26:43 PM »
Yeah - "Raza". I dun forgot.

I hope this one is never remade. It would never compare.
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to others and I require the same from them."  John Wayne

Online Baltimore Ed

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Re: "The Professionals"
« Reply #17 on: May 15, 2017, 03:32:37 PM »
Where did the bullet bite you, my friend?
"Give'em hell, Pike"
 There is no horse so dead that you cannot continue to beat it.

Offline Galen

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Re: "The Professionals"
« Reply #18 on: May 15, 2017, 04:26:06 PM »
The original is the best. No computer generated special effects.

Offline PJ Hardtack

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Re: "The Professionals"
« Reply #19 on: May 28, 2017, 08:47:58 PM »
Watched the Mag 7 again for the umpteenth time. Never gets old. No CGI to louse it up.
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to others and I require the same from them."  John Wayne

 

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