Scorpio

Whereas Ian Fleming and Robert Ludlum tended toward the super-hero approach to international espionage, John Le Carre preferred it's more-realistic side: the tawdry shadow-world of betrayal, futility, and the brutal exploitation of human weakness. It looks like screenwriters Daniel W. Rintels and Gerald Wilson and director Michael Winner took a page from the Le Carre playbook when crafting this 1973 thriller.

Scorpio ranks with The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and The Looking Glass War as one of the best espionage flicks ever made. Burt Lancaster displays subtle depth as a veteran CIA agent who might be turning to the other side. Alain Delon excels as the young French assassin tasked with the liquidation of his old friend and mentor. Paul Scofield, John Colicos, and a young James Sikking all turn in fine supporting performances.

Scorpio is a lesser-known yet very satisfying classic from the Anti-Hero/Anti-Establishment era of the 1970's.

"Scorpio" is a pretty good spy drama, though it's not for everyone. Before I explain that qualifying remark, a brief mention of the movie's positive attributes. Unlike a lot of other movies involving spies, the plot for "Scorpio" is pretty easy to follow. The movie also portrays the world of spies in a more realistic fashion; spying for the most part isn't action- packed, but instead involves a lot of humdrum stuff. The movie also has a very un-Hollywood-like ending that I thought was pretty refreshing. Those last two positive attributes, however, are two that will turn many people (mainly young viewers) off this movie. The lack of action will probably bore them, and the ending will probably infuriate them. But if you are a fan of older movies and their particular kind of storytelling, the movie is a good way to spend 114 minutes of your time.

The thing about spys and espionage is that there is a difference >between good guys and bad guys. Burt Lancaster portrays aging C.I.A agent Cross who wants to leave the C.I.A to spend more time with his wife (Joanne Linville). However he has been training another mentor Jean code name "Scorpio"(Alain Delon) who is just been learning the tricks of the trade as a C.I.A assasin. C.I.A boss (John Colicos) feels that Cross knows too much and that he should be killed. He soons asks Scorpio to do the job, but he refuses. Scorpio is later arrested on phony narcotics rap and is blackmailed to do the job of eliminating Cross, so he accepts it. Cross however catches on that he is being by the watched C.I.A and the game of cat and mouse between him and Scorpio begins. He later takes refuge in with on old colleague (Paul Scofield) in Venice. Yet the question remains. Who is doublecrossing who? Who will survive the game? Who is good and who is bad? This a great film. Burt Lancaster was 59 years old and he had the ability to perform his running scenes as he is being pursued by Delon and another C.I.A hitman. He is proven to be a good actor who attributed the physical-athletic attributes in the film. Alain Delon gives a marvelous performance the man forced to hunt down and kill Lancaster. I give this film 10 out of 10**********.

This is a convoluted espionage thriller with shades of John Le Carre. Unfortunately Michael Winner directs it like an early 1970s Europudding with most of the main actors sound like they have been dubbed.

Burt Lancaster is veteran CIA spook Cross who wants to retire and live in peace with his wife. He has accumulated a nice nest egg.

However Cross is now branded by his employers as a double agent. It helps them to know that Cross has leftist sympathies during the Spanish civil war. His protege codenamed Scorpio (Alain Delon) has been tasked to wipe Cross out, a task he has been forced to do.

Both play a cat and mouse game across various cities. Scorpio is not sure if Cross is a double agent or has merely been framed.

Winner has adopted a cynical look at spies. Both Cross and his Soviet counterpart Zharkov (Paul Scofield) are disillusioned old men, both of live and their countries.

There is plenty of good action but it is a muddled story and with a disappointing ending.

In the 1960s, disenchantment among the Western populations led to the hippie movement and a new questioning of authority. Combining this with the Watergate scandal and you set the context for movies like SCORPIO and THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR. Both films view our own government with great suspicion--particularly the CIA. Such films probably would NOT have been accepted by the public just a decade earlier, but in the 70s paranoia of this type was fashionable. So was the moral relativism that implied that the US and Soviet governments were pretty much the same.

In some ways, the plot to SCORPIO is pretty interesting--a CIA agent (Burt Lancaster) is perceived to be a double agent and is ordered to be killed. Oddly, Alain Delon, a Frenchman, is given this task but Lancaster seems too slippery and skilled to be easily taken. Unfortunately, after a while the film both becomes rather dull and is rather hard to believe. As one reviewer pointed out, the way that Lancaster and Scofield knew each other didn't really make sense, as an American serving with the Spanish Republicans would have been seen as an extreme leftist--not exactly a person you'd expect to later be in the CIA. Of course, this DID help the moral relativism being pushed in the film.

Aside from watching the acrobatic Lancaster do his own stunts and Scofield overact (in a fun way), this is a very low energy film--and you'd not expect this would be the case for an espionage thriller. It just seemed very detached and uninvolving. Overall, it's a passable film, but not one you should go out of your way to see.