When you have a legendary action director working on a script involving ninjas, what could possibly go wrong? Well, a lot, at least judging by The Killer Elite, the 1975 action thriller directed by Sam Peckinpah.
The protagonist, played by James Caan, is Mike Locken, an employee of Communication Integrity (ComTreg), a private company that conducts “wet work” and similar delicate missions for the CIA. Mike works in San Francisco with his best friend George Hansen (played by Robert Duvall), but their friendship comes to an abrupt end during their last mission, when it turns out that Hansen has switched loyalties. Hansen shoots Mike, but, being considerate, doesn’t kill his friend and instead simply “retires” him with well-aimed shots to the shoulder and knee. Mike is crippled, but nevertheless goes through a long, painful and difficult recovery, determined to make Hansen pay; this includes martial arts lessons that would allow him to use a cane as a weapon. His bosses at the company aren’t impressed and would like to give him an undemanding office job, but they change their minds when the CIA demands ComTreg’s services at short notice. A Taiwanese politician, Yuen Chung (played by Mako), has arrived in San Francisco, but someone wants him dead and has sent a small army of Japanese ninjas to kill him. Mike is given the job of protecting him for the next 24 hours, and, in order to do so, he brings in his old associates – driver Mac (played by Burt Young) and mentally unstable sniper Jerome Miller (played by Bo Hopkins).
Contemporary critics didn’t greet The Killer Elite with much enthusiasm, and some even accused Peckinpah, a film-maker known for his uncompromising artistic vision, of being a “sell-out”. The film, at least on the surface, looked less like the genuine work of a Hollywood maverick and more like a typical big-studio attempt to exploit some of the genre trends popular at the time – government conspiracy thrillers like Three Days of the Condor and martial arts films. Peckinpah indeed toned down the violence compared to his earlier films, but some of his trademarks, including the use of slow motion in action scenes, remained. His direction was mostly solid, however, especially in a major action scene that takes place midway through, including a shoot-out in Chinatown, and his work with actors is good. That includes James Caan, then at the height of his stardom, who convincingly plays a man forced to rediscover his lost macho identity through gallows humour. Great character actors, including Peckinpah’s old associate Bo Hopkins, also add a lot to the mix, which couldn’t be said for Tianna Alexandra, wife of screenwriter Stirling Silliphant, in the annoying and poorly written role of Yuen Chung’s daughter, Tommie.
The script, based on the novel Monkey in the Middle by Robert Syd Hopkins, tries but never finds a proper balance between a serious spy thriller and a sillier martial arts film. Scenes featuring cynical government bureaucrats and their greedy private-sector cronies look somewhat amusing and disturbing at the same time – especially now, in the age of Blackwater and Wagner, when the idea of governments outsourcing “dirty work” to corporations doesn’t look as preposterous as it did to audiences in the mid-1970s. But they are difficult to connect with the silliness that starts when ninjas begin a massive brawl at San Francisco Airport and ends with the final showdown at the US Navy’s mothballed ships, where dozens of black-clad ninjas in broad daylight charge with swords and bare hands at protagonists well-armed with automatic weapons, leading to a quite predictable and anti-climactic result. Peckinpah can’t be absolved of responsibility for the relative failure of this film. He forgot the importance of pace, and the first half of The Killer Elite – with long scenes featuring Mike and Hansen partying with prostitutes or Mike undergoing lengthy treatment and recovery – has little connection with the much tighter and faster second half. Not as messy as many critics claimed, and entertaining enough for the undemanding casual viewer, The Killer Elite nevertheless represents a disappointment for all those whose expectations were based on Sam Peckinpah’s reputation.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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