MovieChat Forums > The Killer Elite (1975) Discussion > Even a ninja-fighting James Caan can't s...

Even a ninja-fighting James Caan can't save this one!

posted 15 years ago by mail-2775
6 replies | jump to latest

******SPOILERS BELOW SO KEEP READING AND YOU WON'T HAVE TO WATCH THIS TRASH******

This movie is actually fairly well made from a production standpoint, and has great shootouts, chase scenes, and shots of San Francisco in the 70s, but the script and editing and pacing of the script is totally nonsensical.

There are many, many, many long scenes of dialog, and 95% of that dialog doesn't advance the story. You could cut 75% of the lines out of this film without losing any of the meaning. In fact, that would make it more clear and less convoluted. You could put half the scenes in another order without affecting the plot. That spells trouble for a movie.

This movie starts with a guy getting seriously injured, then it shows him day by day by day doing surgery, casts, recovery, physical therapy, exercise, martial arts, etc., they literally don't leave out a single moment of his long recovery, and none of it is important to the story!

Not only is it not important, but the injury and the guy himself are unimportant, because we knew nothing about him other than that he was a cold-blooded killer, the movie just started and then he got kneecapped and elbowed by his partner.

I do hope this served as a spoiler to save you two hours of your life.

[–] laszlozoltan 15 years ago

they used to show this a lot on tv when I was a kid; didn't really understand it until I got the dvd- I like the way the characters were able to assess their tactics while driving around a location, and the scene where the cop got shot- "now you made me an accessory" how many times have we heard our protagonist action hero care about that in a movie ? I think this movie isn't for everyone, and I am not going to call it a great movie, but it is in my opinion a worthy action flick from the 70s. A must see for fans of the genre.

[–] omega_pinion 15 years ago

this is a cool flick from the 70's, agreed that some dialogue could have been cut(not much, just some of the scenes with James Caan & the girl). I wonder if the remake goes through, would we get an uncut version of the original on DVD?

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[–] FANatic-10 11 years ago

There are several spots where this rather grungy 70's action thriller threatens to become entertaining, if never among Peckinpah's best, but then it always gets undone by the crummy script. Ultimately, its pretty negligible.

[–] dalbrech 10 years ago

Hard to believe the guy who made "The Wild Bunch" and "Straw Dogs" made this weak,weak, movie.

Rumor has it that Peckinpah discovered Cocaine shortly before filming begun and he was coked out of his mind during much of the filming.That might explain the total lack of logic for much of the film.
Even the actions scenes,which if nothing else should be good considering Packinpah's directing,are very dissapointing.

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[–] heelmaster2000 9 years ago

No, no it really couldn't, but at least it was still a cool scene.

[–] skat1140 9 years ago

The only logic to including all that footage is to reinforce just how much of a grudge James Caan is going to have when he finally does meet Duvall again.

Yet, when they do meet, there is no scene where Caan vents his anger. eg, "You were supposed to be my partner-- and you put me through -this-."

Then, when Bo Hopkins guns down Duvall, Caan actually gets angry at Hopkins. (That whole thing made no sense: was Caan going to let Duvall actually kill the Chinese clients, because of his "friendship"?

Very flawed movie, with very confused motivations for all characters involved.