Review – The Killer Elite

Somewhere in here, wrapped deeply in a lot of Sam Peckinpah nonsense, might have been a good movie. A mercenary (James Caan) is double-crossed by a buddy (Robert Duvall) who kills a man they’re supposed to be protecting. So we start with a good cast and a solid premise. But then we have to watch while our hero undergoes a lengthy rehab. On the one hand, this gives the audience a thorough appreciation of just how desperately the guy wants to recover so he can go after his duplicitous friend. On the other hand, it’s hellishly boring (especially for an action movie). However, once he recovers the ability to walk, the gunfights resume. As an added bonus, the new client he has to protect from his old nemesis is the head of a Japanese ninja clan. The martial arts are stiff by 21st-century standards, but I can remember being quite impressed with them back in 1973. The climax of the picture takes place in a mothballed fleet of old Navy ships, a location that has little direct relevance to the plot but is still kind of a cool place to shoot a sequence. Mildly amusing