The Professionals Blu-ray delivers great video and solid audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
A wealthy rancher, Frank Carter (Ralph Bellamy), hires four tough gunslingers to rescue his wife (Claudia Cardinale) who is being held captive by Captain Rasa (Jack Palance), one of Pancho Villa's most desperate revolutionaries, in this dynamic and hard-hitting Western set against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution of 1917. The wild West commando team consists of a dynamite expert (Burt Lancaster), an ex-revolutionary and munitions expert (Lee Marvin), a horse specialist (Robert Ryan), and a tracker (Woody Strode). On their mission to return Carter's highly prized wife, they track the Mexican revolutionaries through rough and rugged desert terrain, determined to outsmart, outshoot, and outride anyone they come across--until they meet the the charismatic Rasa and discover that Carter's seductive wife is in love with the Mexican outlaw and has no intention of returning with the band of "professionals."
'Jesus.' What a name for the bloodiest cutthroat in Mexico.
If your tastes in movies tend to gravitate towards the revered "guy" movie, a genre in and of
itself that encompasses the Western, Action, or Sports movie, you're bound to enjoy 1966's
The Professionals. Starring one of "Guy Movie's" biggest names, Lee Marvin (The Dirty Dozen),
alongside the venerable Burt Lancaster (Run Silent, Run Deep), Robert Ryan (The Longest Day),
Woody Strode (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance), the legendary Jack Palance (Young Guns), and
the seductive Italian actress Claudia Cardinale (The Pink Panther), The
Professionals is a movie that isn't all
about the action. Trust me, it is there, in large and regular doses, but this movie is deeper than
superficial violence and action; there is a meaningful plot with a fantastic twist, completely
human characters (as opposed to two-dimensional figures that spout random lines and look
good shooting a gun or riding a horse), and a story that is easy to get lost in, all to be found in a
wonderfully acted, beautifully shot and handsome-to-look-at picture. A true classic in the
Western genre, The Professionals is the ultimate guy movie for an audience that doesn't
mind a bit of thought and intelligence amidst their action.
A good cigar and a dependable rifle -- what more could a guy want?
The Professionals are a group of four rough and tumble men hired by one Mr. Grant
(Ralph Bellamy, Pretty Woman) to rescue his wife Maria (Cardinale). The group, which
consists of its leader and machine gun instructor Rico Fardan (Marvin), a demolition expert
named Bill Dolworth (Lancaster), an expert tracker and marksman with bow and arrow, Jack
Sharp (Strode), and an ex-cavalryman and wrangler, Hans Ehrengard (Ryan), will be paid a
then-handsome sum of $10,000 each ($1,000 now, $9,000 upon the safe return of Maria to
her
husband) for their troubles. Maria's been kidnapped by a Mexican rebel leader by the name of
Jesus Raza (Palance), a ruthless leader of more than 150 men. She's being held in a heavily
fortified encampment. How do four men assault such a position and make it out alive (without
the help of John Matrix, anyway)? Easy:
create such a diversion as to make Raza's men believe they're under attack from the Mexican
Federales. When things don't go according to plan (and not as you might expect), our
quartet of heroes must not only escape with their lives, but listen to their consciences as a
wrinkle
in the rescue brings out the importance of that age-old question of just what it means to love.
Here is another Western with remarkable cinematography and dozens of well-composed and
meaningful shots. Like Broken Trail some 40
years later, The Professionals is a nonstop showcase for what first-rate cinematography is
all about. Only a master craftsman (Conrad L. Hall, in this instance) behind the camera filming a
Western can make dusty, dead
terrain look as good as it does here. The Professionals and Broken
Trail offer two distinct shooting locations, both of which are a testament to the epic-quality of
the Western. While Broken Trail took place in mostly bright, sunny
meadows, fields of fertile grass, flowers, streams, and countryside as far as the eye can see,
The
Professionals is filmed in mostly dusty, dry, perhaps best described as "dead" environments
where only the occasional weed is to be found amidst the red clay and dirt of the Mexican terrain
that we see depicted in the movie. Each film showcases the beauty and vastness of the
American West -- testaments to the greatness of the genre that is perhaps the most storied in
Hollywood history.
One thing I love about movies like The Professionals and The Great Raid is that
they assume the audience is intelligent and let us in on the finer details of mission planning and
the tediousness of waiting for the right moment to strike, rather than going into a situation
blindly with guns blazing from the get-go. There is nothing at all wrong with the guns blazing
approach (after all, I did love Commando), but a change of pace in a film like this is most
welcome as well. Another thing this movie has going for it is the solid acting. While none of the
performances will stir the soul and become the icon of the Western like Gary Cooper in High
Noon, Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven or John Wayne in The Searchers, the
performances in The Professionals are honest and true. Jack Palance is completely
convincing as the Mexican rebel leader and gives one of the finer, yet decidedly more
understated, performances of his career. Marvin and Lancaster are, well, Marvin and Lancaster,
and audiences take away from their machismo performances exactly what's to be expected of
them in a film like this one.
The Professionals brings it's decidedly professional cinematic look and feel to a beautifully
rendered 2.35:1, 1080p high definition Blu-ray presentation. This vintage picture holds up very
well. The charming, old-time look and feel of the movie translates very well to high definition.
Colors are, in a word, astounding, and the film's technicolor process looks fantastic. Much of the
film takes place in harsh desert locales with red, tan, and orange rock faces, dirt, clay and other
various chunks of debris with some naturally green weeds scattered here and there providing
only one of two contrasts to the earthy tones of the land, with the bright, clear, and clean blue
sky representing the other. Detail is excellent. Dirty faces, worn clothing, and ridges and crevices
in rocks all offer visual reality. We can even see every bead of sweat as it glistens on
each actor's face under the hot Mexican sun (see chapter 4). Grain is present over the entire
film, and once again, it adds a truly wonderful cinematic feel to the picture. There are a few
random hairs on the print, but it's otherwise remarkably clean and free of any other major
blemishes. Flesh tones look great in technicolor, and black levels hold up remarkably well. For as
good as Blu-ray is to the modern, slicker movies, for my money it does wonders with, and maybe
even benefits more, the classic pictures of yore, and The Professionals is another classic
film that truly stands out and shines on Blu-ray high definition.
Although the film's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack doesn't sound quite as good as the image that
accompanies it, The Professionals still sounds fantastic on Blu-ray, and this track brings
out
the best of the film's classic score and sound effects. With a good old-fashioned, "classical" score
that might
very well be the quintessential Western theme, The Professionals makes its presence
heard from the film's opening seconds. Many of the elements are
a bit harsh and dated (especially the gunshots, explosions, and the like), but this is exactly how
we expect a western from the mid-1960s to sound. Gunshots ring loud but, like I mentioned
earlier, have a decidedly harsh and somewhat undefined tone. However, there is a nice ricochet
and "bang" that accompanies many gun shots, and it seems that, as one would naturally expect,
the more chaotic the battle (and they get progressively more exciting as the film moves along)
the
more opportunity the sounds of a classically staged shootout have to shine. The film's score
(courtesy of Maurice Jarre, The Longest Day) blends into the rear channels
for a pleasing, all-encompassing experience, but the first gunfight of the movie didn't offer up
much in the way of surround presence or heavy bass. The second battle, which is much more
sustained and heavy, fares better sonically, with some fine sound placement across the front
soundstage, and a slightly undefined but more noticeable rear presence. Then again, this
soundtrack is more than 40 years old, and it sounds terrific for what it is, and in the context of its
era. This one won't blow the roof off or rattle the fillings out of your teeth, but it's an exciting,
authentic listen nevertheless.
The Professionals won't have you riding off into the sunset after the credits roll without
offering the opportunity to view a few bonus materials. 'The Professionals' - A Classic
(480p, 6:27) takes a short look at the critical reception of the film and the reasons why the movie
works. Burt Lancaster: A Portrait (480p, 12:39) is next, and is, obviously, a look at the
life and times of the famed movie star. Memories From 'The Professionals' (480p, 23:21)
features interviews with actress Claudia Cardinale, who recalls her memories of working on the film
and with the various cast and crew. The film's director of photography, Conrad Hall, actress Marie
Gomez, and Lancaster biographer Kate Buford also chime in from time to time. Rounding out the
supplemental features are 1080p trailers for First Sunday, 21, and Starship Troopers 3:
Marauder.
Director Richard Brooks' (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) The Professionals is another of the
true classics in the Western genre, a genre with perhaps more than its fair share of timeless films,
but then again, I ask which genre has captured the heart and spirit of Americana since the
inception of film more so than the Western? The very first movie, in fact, was 1903's The Great
Train Robbery, and
the Western hasn't looked back since. With a video quality that is excellent considering the age of
the film, an adequate audio mix that sounds as good as you'll ever hear it, and a few interesting
supplements, The Professionals is a hard-to-resist Blu-ray disc, and it, along with
Broken Trail, will make a fantastic one-two-punch Father's Day gift to go along with that
snazzy new Blu-ray player you're (hopefully!) buying your Western-loving dad for Father's Day.
Recommended.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has announced that a trio western films are being released on Blu-ray, all due to hit store shelves on June 10th, just in time for Father's Day. First up is the 1966 Burt Lancaster film 'The Professionals'. Video will be presented ...
