It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

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.

There are numerous movies that begin slowly and then pick up the pace as they move along. Strangely, "The Killer Elite" does the opposite as its best action, humour and surprises are all in the first act which brilliantly sets the scene for its story of betrayal, double crosses and revenge. Its main characters are all amoral, their outlook is nihilistic and there's also plenty of cynicism. The type of cynicism that's a reaction to the amount of treachery that they all encounter on a daily basis as well as general feelings of cynicism about all political "power systems", none of which really care about their "civilians".Best friends and partners, Mike Locken (James Caan) and George Hansen (Robert Duvall) are a couple of operatives who work for "Com Teg", a private company that does contract work for the CIA. Their specialities are carrying out assassinations and providing personal protection for important clients. The two men are protecting an East European defector in a safe-house on the outskirts of San Francisco when Hansen, (out of sight of his partner) suddenly shoots and kills the defector before approaching Mike and shooting him in his elbow and left knee. Mike, who's in considerable pain, is shocked by his friend's betrayal but also recognises that he must have been bought off by another organisation.When Mike starts to undergo treatment for his injuries, he's advised that he won't ever be able to achieve much improvement and his bosses at Com Teg want him to retire immediately. Mike, however, is determined to return to his old job and embarks on a long and challenging period of rehabilitation during which he also learns some new martial arts skills.One day, it comes as a great surprise when he's invited to return to work for Com Teg to provide protection for an Asian politician called Yuen Chung (Mako) who'd recently escaped an attempt on his life by a group of assassins at San Francisco airport. Mike's interest in the job then suddenly increases when he discovers that Hansen was working with the assassins and recognises the opportunity that this will give him to take revenge on his old buddy.Despite its chases, gunfights and some well-staged action sequences, this violent thriller never fully hits top gear because of the way in which it loses its impetus so dramatically during the period in which Mike is working on his rehabilitation. This is a shame because its story is interesting, good use is made of San Francisco locations and some of the dialogue is quite amusing. An example of this comes when Mike's bosses are trying to encourage him to accept the retirement package he's being offered and say "That leg of yours will never be anything but a wet noodle. You're Humpty-Dumped Mike. Face it".James Caan's convincing as a tough guy and a ladies man and is absolutely great in the scenes that he shares with Robert Duvall. Bo Hopkins, Burt Young and Gig Young also do well in their above average supporting performances that add some sparkle to the whole proceedings.

By the mid-1970s, the career of director Sam Peckinpah had basically hit the skids. He had seen one more film of his (PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID) butchered by a studio (MGM) in 1973; then, in 1974, his most overtly personal film, the admittedly ghoulish-sounding BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA, was roundly trashed by audiences and critics alike. And on top of that, the excesses that had been plaguing him on and off for years were starting to dominate his life. Yet through all of this, he somehow managed to pull off the good when he was sober. A case in point was the action thriller THE KILLER ELITE, released near the end of 1975.In this film, James Caan portrays an employee for a CIA-sponsored offshoot group called ComTeg (Communications Integrity) who, in protecting a German political figure (Helmut Dantine), is maliciously wounded by his partner (Robert Duvall) in the leg and arm. Though his superiors in ComTeg (Arthur Hill; Gig Young) tell him that those injuries are so severe that he may never be able to walk fully again, Caan vows to get back into the game, exposing himself to strenuous rehabilitation and martial arts exercises. When Hill gives him the chance, via protecting a Japanese politician (Mako) until he can be gotten out of the country, Caan immediately grabs onto it, especially with the fringe benefit of knowing Duvall has resurfaced and is gunning for Mako on his own. The whole operation turns out to be part of an internecine battle of wills inside ComTeg between their two superiors, first resulting in a fatal confrontation at the Bethlehem Steel shipyard, and then a high-energy showdown aboard a mothballed World War II vessel in Suisun Bay involving Japanese kung-fu masters.It is easy to simply dismiss THE KILLER ELITE (which, however, shouldn't be confused with the similarly-titled, but unrelated and much more violent, 2011 film of the same name) as lesser Peckinpah, but he should still be given credit for having taken a strictly commercial property (much like his big 1972 hit THE GETAWAY), and turning it into a solid action film with some bursts of sardonic humor, plus points being made about the dirty business of the CIA at a time when the agency was being battered in the press for its foreign shenanigans and domestic spying, plus its role in covering up Watergate. He would return to this theme in his last film, 1983's THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND.Under Peckinpah's direction, both Caan and Duvall, who had appeared together before in THE GODFATHER, do solid work as the two friends set up against one another; and Hill and Gig Young (the latter of whom made for a dispassionate killer in ALFREDO GARCIA) are equally good in their bureaucratic roles. Burt Young and Bo Hopkins do good solid turns as Caan's two partners in the protection of Mako's ambitious Oriental political figure. As is typical with Peckinpah, the action scenes are shot and edited in that characteristic Peckinpah style; and the on-location cinematography by Philip Lathrop, whose credits include 1965's THE CINCINNATI KID (from which Peckinpah was unceremoniously fired), is also superb. And finally, Jerry Fielding, working with Peckinpah one final time, comes up with another iconoclastic music score that combines jazz, dissonance, and Far Eastern music elements.The end result may not have been "classic Peckinpah" (it is certainly less bloody than THE WILD BUNCH, STRAW DOGS, or ALFREDO GARCIA), but THE KILLER ELITE is still far superior to most of the ultra-violent action flicks that would follow in Peckinpah's wake.

"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.