Scorpio

Rating:
Summary: A Rare Masterpiece For The Spy Genre.
Review: Burt Lancaster plays an aging CIA agent who's finally had enough of the spy life and wants to quit the business so he can spend more time with his family. But his trecherous Bosses don't want him to quit so they assign Alain Delon A.K.A SCORPIO to eliimate him. Fantastic script Delon's performance in the film is one of his best even if his english is sometimes off a bit. the highlight of the film is the chase sequence between Lancaster & Delon throughout the Streets and Alleyways Of Venice. It's a captivating spy film done with the right amount of action and suspense. Most Of Today's spy films don't even come to this masterpiece. And even if they could they would still fail. This film was a true gem for it's time and cannot and will not ever be replaced or duplicated.

Rating:
Summary: What was this film about?
Review: I saw this film twice, and I STILL don't know what it was about. Plot is so convoluted, with so many minor characters and twists and turns. I guess some people think this is "clever cat-and-mouse," but after two viewings over the course of several years, I still had no clear idea who the characters were, or why they did what they did.

There's something about me and Burt Lancaster films. I found his MIDNIGHT MAN equally confusing, and his ATLANTIC CITY tedious and pointless.

I can't think of a single Burt Lancaster film that I even liked.

Rating:
Summary: Solid 70s Espionage/Crime Movie
Review: Not in the same league as The Day of the Jackal, The Manchurian Candidate or French Connection. It was still an enjoyable movie. Lots of great "on location" scenes, good action, excellent suspense with lots of double-crosses.

Burt Lancaster's friendship with his cold war nemesis in Vienna was a neat part of the story - two cold warriors who became trusted friends after years of playing cat and mouse together.

Rating:
Summary: Solid 70s Espionage/Crime Movie
Review: Not in the same league as The Day of the Jackal, The Manchurian Candidate or French Connection. It was still an enjoyable movie. Lots of great "on location" scenes, good action, excellent suspense with lots of double-crosses.

Burt Lancaster's friendship with his cold war nemesis in Vienna was a neat part of the story - two cold warriors who became trusted friends after years of playing cat and mouse together.

Rating:
Summary: Underrated Spy Classic...
Review: SCORPIO is Alain Delon's code name. He is a Black OPX's agent (assassinations and "head hunting" meyhem) recruited surreptiously by The CIA to carry out missions the American secret intelligence service is expressly forbidden to engage in by its Congressional charter. Burt Lancaster is old timer Super-spy Cross. He is Delon's recruiter, mentor and...predictably?...Scorpio's ultimate target as the CIA decides to clean house by killing-off its overly knowledgeable old Timers. Cross, of course, does not fancy this form of Short Timer treatment. He goes on-the-run with every intention of dish-served-cold vengeance against the Agency's new breed of FNG computer-brat/ Ivy league educated "punk"; and in particular Deputy Director and Operations Chief McLeod. McLeod (John Colicos) is played with icy, charismatic menace. He is the consummate fascist employed to "safeguard" Democracy by undermining its fundamental tenets and most bovine Sacred Cow ideals. Employing the spy network's Underground Railroad, Cross links with his opposite number in the KGB played by Paul Scofield. Russkie ace agent Scofield has great respect and sympathy for Cross (but none for CIA/American duplicity) and he respectfully encourages Cross to "double-cross" the nation that has betrayed him (incidently killing his wife) with a pricey, very public defection. The acting...the spy by-play between Lanchester and Scofield is excellent. This is what lifts a "burn" the burnt-out case revenge thriller into a dramatic study of men who have been soldiers being sold-out by their respective Coca Cola/Vodka- driven pop power political cultures. The Yuppie spies "who love themselves" have not quite made the scene but SCORPIO/ Delon is a bloody eager beaver ready to do a buddy in to GET INSIDE. The end of the movie is satisfyingly "righteous". The Surprise End tacked-on to The End is a wicked winner that supplies sufficient jolt and immoral moral to a predatory game where all become victims of Will-to-Power; and that the only good guy-spies are DEAD ONES. (4 and 1/2 Stars for a film of John Le Carre character...)

Rating:
Summary: Underrated Spy Classic...
Review: SCORPIO is Alain Delon's code name. He is a Black OPX's agent (assassinations and "head hunting" meyhem) recruited surreptiously by The CIA to carry out missions the American secret intelligence service is expressly forbidden to engage in by its Congressional charter. Burt Lancaster is old timer Super-spy Cross. He is Delon's recruiter, mentor and...predictably?...Scorpio's ultimate target as the CIA decides to clean house by killing-off its overly knowledgeable old Timers. Cross, of course, does not fancy this form of Short Timer treatment. He goes on-the-run with every intention of dish-served-cold vengeance against the Agency's new breed of FNG computer-brat/ Ivy league educated "punk"; and in particular Deputy Director and Operations Chief McLeod. McLeod (John Colicos) is played with icy, charismatic menace. He is the consummate fascist employed to "safeguard" Democracy by undermining its fundamental tenets and most bovine Sacred Cow ideals. Employing the spy network's Underground Railroad, Cross links with his opposite number in the KGB played by Paul Scofield. Russkie ace agent Scofield has great respect and sympathy for Cross (but none for CIA/American duplicity) and he respectfully encourages Cross to "double-cross" the nation that has betrayed him (incidently killing his wife) with a pricey, very public defection. The acting...the spy by-play between Lanchester and Scofield is excellent. This is what lifts a "burn" the burnt-out case revenge thriller into a dramatic study of men who have been soldiers being sold-out by their respective Coca Cola/Vodka- driven pop power political cultures. The Yuppie spies "who love themselves" have not quite made the scene but SCORPIO/ Delon is a bloody eager beaver ready to do a buddy in to GET INSIDE. The end of the movie is satisfyingly "righteous". The Surprise End tacked-on to The End is a wicked winner that supplies sufficient jolt and immoral moral to a predatory game where all become victims of Will-to-Power; and that the only good guy-spies are DEAD ONES. (4 and 1/2 Stars for a film of John Le Carre character...)

Rating:
Summary: SOLID THRILLER OF THE 70's
Review: Ten years after their encounter in Luchino Visconti's THE LEOPARD, Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon starred together in Michael Winner's SCORPIO, a solid spy thriller released in 1973. And the alchemy between the fine French actor and the imposing American star worked one more time.

SCORPIO is a good example of this peculiar period that produced such masterpieces as Pollack's THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR or Pakula's THE PARALLAX VIEW and KLUTE, all paranoiac movies featuring government subgroups which are able to kill innocent people with an harrowing impunity.

But Michael Winner isn't an author of the same caliber of Sydney Pollack, John Huston or Alan J. Pakula, hence SCORPIO is nothing more than a good spy thriller which doesn't offer additional food to the mind of the curious movie lover.

A DVD zone stars of the past.

Rating:
Summary: a "must see" for Delon fans
Review: Though the plot is somewhat muddled, locations change at a dizzying speed between Washington, Vienna, and Paris, has some improbable situations, and occasionally stilted dialogue, it's highly entertaining, and has an excellent cast, especially Alain Delon.
He's fabulous as "code name: Scorpio", conveying so much meaning with the subtlest of gestures. He's also superb in the action scenes, so lithe and fast, and seems to be doing all his own stunt work...and he certainly must be one of the most spectacularly gorgeous actors to have ever graced the screen.
To top it off, Scorpio has a sensitive side: He likes flowers, and most of all, cats...enough to make a woman's heart flutter !

Lancaster is very good as Cross, the spy who wants to get "out of the game", Paul Scofield is great as always as his Russian cohort, and Joanne Linville lovely as Cross' wife.
The cinematography (Robert Paytner) is exceptional, and Jerry Fielding's marvelous score is atmospheric and at times almost symphonic.

You may have to see it several times to make any sense of the plot, but this is a very watchable film, has a lot going for it in many ways, and it has to be Delon's finest English speaking performance, which is a good enough reason to make this one a keeper.