The Killer Elite

PG

Released Dec 19, 1975

2 hr. 2 min.

Action

List

60%

15 Reviews

Tomatometer

33%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Friends George Hansen (Robert Duvall) and Mike Locken (James Caan) are hit men who do contract jobs for a company called Com-Teg, associated with the CIA. Bu, when George gets a better offer from the competition, he turns on Mike, breaking his elbow and shoulder. It takes Mike a long time and a lot of physical therapy to get back on the job, but he does -- and coincidentally finds himself protecting a client whom Hansen and his gang are simultaneously being paid to assassinate.

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Jelisije J

The movie starts off strong, but once Robert Duvall leaves the rest of the movie is just a drag.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

08/19/23

Full Review

Red T

I have no idea what I just watched or what the point of this was. The acting was just ok, Caan had some moments when it was focused on his recovery but than once it goes to the actual mystery everyone just disappears into the convoluted story that has subpar dialogue that's boring to listen too and honestly misleads more than anything. The music isn't that good because its either boring, barely used in the middle, and tries mixing in Japanese music that feels completely out of place and doesn't mix well with everything else. The pacing is the worst problem, it is horrifically bad. The longer this movie goes on for the slower it get, it's a thriller that never builds tension because it's not focused because of the bad editing, convoluted plot that never goes anywhere, has plenty of anticlimactic moments, and the stupid ninja fight at the end which is so out of place. You think this is going to be a revenge movie for Caan getting revenge on Duvall and the organization and uncovering what happened. What we get is his road to recovery which drags out, no background on his employer, barely any interaction between Duvall & Caan, some bizarre reason he goes back to work on a job for them, and some weird double cross with a sleeper cell in the organization for reasons never made clear and none of it ever flows. The closest we get is the rooftop shootout/chase which was decent but than ends with that stupid cop/car bomb joke. It feels like the first half is about his recovery and the second trying to explain a boring convoluted stupid plot. This is a terrible Thriller. No on should watch this. Easily Sam P.'s worst film just because its over 2 hours of nothing.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

05/10/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This movie has some significant pacing problems. There are long stretches of scenes in darkened warehouses or boat wharves, which are supposed to build tension which don't. Long scenes of philosophic discussions which are flat and uninspiring. Long scenes of a physical recovery from trauma, which does little to build up Caan's character. The Duvall-Caan pairing is wasted. Except for a couple of shootouts, it's just a boring movie.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

01/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The poor reviews are bewildering. This is one of Peckinpah's best films and one of the best 'covert ops' films I've seen. His style is all over it, the flow is great... again, really don't understand the reviews on this one.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

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.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This is a mind-bogglingly bad movie. Helmed by master Sam Peckinpah but feels as if it were directed by some knucklehead who chugs whiskey 23 hours a day with only an hour to spare.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

Full Review

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Sam Peckinpah

Director

James Caan

Mike Locken

Robert Duvall

George Hansen

Gig Young

Lawrence Weyburn

Arthur Hill

Cap Collis

Mako

Yuen Chung

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Pauline Kael

New Yorker

The images in The Killer Elite are charged, and you have the feeling that not one is wasted.

Oct 25, 2023

Full Review

Richard Combs

Sight & Sound

The result is a strangely dissonant and compelling entertainment, an unsettling criss-cross of Chinatown Nights' fantasy and dyspeptic meditation on figures set firmly in their contemporary landscape.

Jan 27, 2020

Full Review

Richard Eder

New York Times

Sam Peckinpah knows how to make movies but perhaps he has forgotten why.

Rated: 1.5/5

May 9, 2005

Full Review

Eddie Harrison

film-authority.com

…Perhaps this isn’t Peckinpah’s best, but The Killer Elite’s conspiracy theories still give it the hard edge that a crime thriller requires…

Rated: 3/5

Mar 9, 2023

Full Review

Bernard Drew

Gannett News Service

It is not as violent as usual, simply boring, confused and interminable.

Oct 21, 2019

Full Review

Jesús Fernández Santos

El Pais (Spain)

Unfortunately, once the aggression is unleashed, it ends up devouring its protagonists just like life itself. [Full Review in Spanish]

Jul 17, 2019

Full Review

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Synopsis

Friends George Hansen (Robert Duvall) and Mike Locken (James Caan) are hit men who do contract jobs for a company called Com-Teg, associated with the CIA. Bu, when George gets a better offer from the competition, he turns on Mike, breaking his elbow and shoulder. It takes Mike a long time and a lot of physical therapy to get back on the job, but he does -- and coincidentally finds himself protecting a client whom Hansen and his gang are simultaneously being paid to assassinate.

Director: Sam Peckinpah
Screenwriter: Marc Norman, Stirling Silliphant
Distributor: United Artists
Production Co: Persky-Bright Productions
Rating: PG
Genre: Action
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 19, 1975, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 12, 2017

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