Rating: 
Summary: The Professionals
Review: If you are looking for a classic western, this is it. You get good guys, bad guys, burning sun, tequila, and the Mexican Revolution for the backdrop. It also contains one of the best closing lines in the movies.
Rating:
Summary: The Way It Should Have Been
Review: If you like adventure stories with well developed characters, then this is a great flick for you. I have seen this one probably 100 times since it was first released and I still love it. It is right up there with the Magnificent Seven, Tombstone, The Wild Bunch, and The Long Riders. The comradery of Lancaster and Marvin is subtle and satisfying. Woody does a better than average negro bounty hunter and Ryan is the guy you want to punch for being such a sissy through most of the damn film. Palance's speech about the Revolution is truly inspired and let's not forget C.C. who "never says no." There are enough witty lines, gun battles and chase scenes to satisfy even the most hardcore adventurer and last but not least, the final line from Lee Marvin to Mr. Grant. That alone is worth the cost of the film. So put on your old campaign hat and a bandana.... then sit back and enjoy
Rating:
Summary: CLINT ' S SHADOW
Review: In the sixties, Howard Hawks, Richard Brooks, Sam Peckinpah and a few other american directors tried to challenge the -spaghetti- westerns filmmakers who were following the steps of an inspired Sergio Leone. Richard Brooks's THE PROFESSIONALS is, in my opinion, one of the last masterpieces Hollywood has produced in this very peculiar genre : the Western.With a legend of the screen, Burt Lancaster, three first-class actors of the Dream Factory's golden era, Robert Ryan, Jack Palance and Lee Marvin and, at last, an italian star, Claudia Cardinale, Richard Brooks had all the living material to build a solid western. And he did it. THE PROFESSIONALS is not a lyric movie nor a nostalgic one. Robert Ryan and Lee Marvin don't regret their past, they only try to survive with their particular skills in the 1915-1920 America. They don't feel outcasted by the new century because they have something to believe in : friendship, respect and compassion. The pathetic couple Jack Palance-Claudia Cardinale has the terrible task to symbolize the ineluctable destiny of all revolutions ; pure in their beginnings, they become soon the whore of all human lowest vices and passions. In this perspective, THE PROFESSIONALS is one of the most realistic movies I've had the opportunity to see. It's also clearly a very personal movie of director Richard Brooks, a director who should absolutely be rediscovered one of these days. The choice between the wide-screen and the standard (beurk !) version, a trailer, different subtitles and rather extended filmographies as bonus features. Perfect sound and above-average images, even in the multiple night scenes. A DVD for your library.
Rating:
Summary: The Dirty Who?
Review: Look...let me cut right to the chase on this film.
It's an ignored classic.
Why...?...I do not know.
I even looked up Lee Marvin under Ask Jeeves and there was a Bio... very detailed... that I pulled up that did not even mention this film.
I think it to be Marvin's best.
Yes...better that the Dirty Dozen which has become a Mantra title for some Marvin fans.
The performances of Marvin and Lancaster are impeccable and charged with a timeless charisma that is also exhibited by Woody Strode and Robert Ryan as well.
I have seen this movie now several times now and could sit down and watch it again and still enjoy it.
Everything about this movie works at just the right time and in just the right way.
This is one of the great films to ever come out of the 1960's and certainly a "have to own" item for any Lancaster, Marvin, Strode or Ryan fan.
Oddly...few people, who love westerns, admire Marvin, Lancaster, Strode or Ryan...have ever heard of it.
Pass the word.....
Rating: 
Summary: Great movie but the color is fading.
Review: One of my all time favorite westerns. Still a great action flick with some good humor tossed in. However, the color has faded on the most recent release of this film. It needs to be remastered. I would rate it higher except for the print quality.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of action; a thinking man's Western; great ending
Review: One of my all-time favorite Westerns. Good script, great action, wonderful honor-among-thieves story. Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Jack Palance ... and who better than Claudia Cardinale to get their blood boiling!? You want to cheer even when the 'bad guys' pull off a great ploy to get the upper hand. Right up there with "Magnificent 7" and "Comancheros" .. You'll love it, IF you can find it.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Great
Review: One of my favorites, Apart from being the title, "The Professionals" could just as easily refer to the cast and crew. It has all the elements of a great movie of any genre. Great actors - well written script with some surprises - good action scenes - a complementry musical score - good direction and cinematography - one could not ask for more from a genuinely entertaining movie. Even the viewers that do not like Westerns will enjoy this film.
Note: Lee Marvin's closing line is a classic example of Marvin at his best. In a few simple words it conveys a wide range of emotions and confirms the character's personna.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, but little known, western
Review: The Professionals is a very entertaining western that does not receive the same hype as many other westerns made during the same time period. It is an excellent story with an even better cast. The story is about the efforts of four men to rescue a railroad tycoon's wife from the Mexican revolutionaries she was kidnapped by. They must travel deep into Mexico to rescue her battling bandits, the weather, and themselves all the way. The film is very good at dealing with the friendships between the men as the time and the land changes much as the Wild Bunch or Big Jake did. How can these men change their lives as the world around them changes? These men won't go along quietly is all I can say. Burt Lancaster gives another excellent performance as the explosives expert, Lee Marvin as the leader of the men and also a munitions expert, Robert Ryan as the horse wrangler who cares so much for his horses, and Woody Strode as the adept tracker who dispatches his enemy with bow and arrow. All four give great performances. How could you go wrong with such a cast. Jack Palance is very good as Raza, the leader of the revolutionaries\bandits. Ralph Bellamy plays the husband who desperately wants his wife back, played by Claudia Cardinale who looks beautiful. The DVD is very good with widescreen and fullscreen presentations offered, theatrical trailer, and rather extensive filmographies of the cast. Check out this western if you haven't seen it before! The Professionals is an excellent western with a perfect twist at the end. Do not miss! Also, if you like the movie check out the novel by Frank O'Rourke, also called a Mule for the Marquesa.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, but little known, western
Review: The Professionals is a very entertaining western that does not receive the same hype as many other westerns made during the same time period. It is an excellent story with an even better cast. The story is about the efforts of four men to rescue a railroad tycoon's wife from the Mexican revolutionaries she was kidnapped by. They must travel deep into Mexico to rescue her battling bandits, the weather, and themselves all the way. The film is very good at dealing with the friendships between the men as the time and the land changes much as the Wild Bunch or Big Jake did. How can these men change their lives as the world around them changes? These men won't go along quietly is all I can say. Burt Lancaster gives another excellent performance as the explosives expert, Lee Marvin as the leader of the men and also a munitions expert, Robert Ryan as the horse wrangler who cares so much for his horses, and Woody Strode as the adept tracker who dispatches his enemy with bow and arrow. All four give great performances. How could you go wrong with such a cast. Jack Palance is very good as Raza, the leader of the revolutionaries\bandits. Ralph Bellamy plays the husband who desperately wants his wife back, played by Claudia Cardinale who looks beautiful. The DVD is very good with widescreen and fullscreen presentations offered, theatrical trailer, and rather extensive filmographies of the cast. Check out this western if you haven't seen it before! The Professionals is an excellent western with a perfect twist at the end. Do not miss! Also, if you like the movie check out the novel by Frank O'Rourke, also called a Mule for the Marquesa.
Rating:
Summary: goold ole fashin westen
Review: this film was always a favoriite of mine due to the fact it's storey is around world war 1, and the introduction of the horsless carraige and the introduction of modern weapons such as the water cooled machine gun. lee marvin, and burt lancaster are great, always standing in as a support character is skinny robet ryan, whose schedule should have been busy, as most of these actors were doing other films as well. jack palance, get special mention as well. not a academy award winner, but a darn good action packed movie.
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