The Outfit 
                                 
Director: Joe Flynn
Year: 1973
Rating: 7.5
There is something about crime films made in the 1970s that make them distinctive. Gritty, realistic, thoughtful, character driven and before films were stuffed with CGI and excess. There were also a great group of male actors who were cast in these films such as Duvall, Hackman, Gould, Boyle, Caan, Scheider, Pacino, Marvin, Sutherland, Oates, Nolte that gave them weight and quiet charisma. Nothing like that exists today. This one is driven down a straight serious route by Robert Duvall who never wastes a word, an expression or a bullet. He is all business. This is another adaptation of a Parker novel of Richard Stark. It doesn't take long to realize you have entered the world of Parker (Point Blank, Payback. Parker, The Split) which revolves around betrayal and revenge among criminals. Parker is part of that world but even so he is the "hero" of the books. The hero because he plays by the rules and is in his own way an honorable man.




Duvall is the Parker character though called Macklin. The opening scene sets the mood for the film. Two men in a taxi out in the country stop at a gas station to ask directions. When they get there they pull out guns and go in search of their target. He is in the backyard working, sees them and knows his time is up. No begging. No trying to get away. He realizes the two men are professionals and knows why they are here. They kill him and drive away. Not a word is exchanged. It is near poetry.




The dead man is Macklin's brother and he is just getting out of jail. His girlfriend (a wonderfully vulnerable Karen Black) picks him up and takes him to a motel. She has fingered him. Five cigarette burns on her arm helped persuade her. She tells him though and he waits for the killer. This is where it gets interesting. He captures the guy and gets information from him but doesn't kill him. Lets him go. Takes his gun. He plays by the rules. The killer was just doing his job. Nothing personal. You don't kill someone for doing their job and as he tracks the man who ordered it through others, he sticks to that. One link in the chain says it, I was hired to hire a killer. Nothing personal. Same with his girlfriend. She did what she had to do and the two of them drive off together, Black looking like Faye Dunaway as Bonnie Parker.




The brothers' sin was that they unknowingly robbed a bank that was owned by The Outfit, a criminal syndicate headed by Robert Ryan. The rules are that they have to punish the men who did it. You don't show mercy or weakness. Macklin understands this and plans only to steal money from the Outfit, not to kill the head. He picks up an old friend (Joe Don Baker) to help him and the three of them go on a road trip. Along the way is a string of noir legend with cameos by Elisha Cook, Jane Greer and Marie Windsor. Sticking to the rules with a series of well executed thefts with no one getting hurt but when the rules are broken by Ryan, it is payback time. This is directed by Joe Flynn who never made anything as good again. Ryan was one of the great noir actors back in the 40s and 50s and this was nearly his last film and he along with everyone else just play it straight. There is no flash in the film. Just  tough men who follow the rules.