A Marca da Brutalidade

Mr. Marvin is his usual cut-to-the-chase, laconic bad guy in a so-so film with a minimal plot line and lots of action sequences. The fact that most of this melodrama is set somewhere in a Kansas farm region automatically makes this movie a bit different from others of this genre, rather than being filmed in the usual urban settings. Although this is a nice touch and the villains are also a bit different from what we are normally accustomed to, the movie tends to drag a little due in large part to the over emphasis on the visceral and under emphasis on plot and character development. Of course, this movie may have been intended to be shown in this manner, but I (a no-name part-time movie critic!) prefer more plot involvement, a la "Point Blank".

Great acting by the principals (Lee, Gene H., Sissy) helps redeem the film, especially a very young Sissy S. as one of Gene H.'s abducted sex slaves. But it's bad guy Lee doing a heroic turnabout by going on a rescue mission to save the "girls" from the really bad guy, Gene H., who already is in "Dutch" with Lee because of past transgressions.

At any rate, check it out and see for yourself: it's still fun!

Classic period hoodlum flick. Lee Marvin at his laconic best with minimal amounts of dialogue from him, and that which is there is monosyllabic. But it is the action that speaks for itself in this film. Admittedly disjointed in plot, the content nonetheless is indicative of the stereotype of the "good ole boy" hoodlum fraternity, and in this respect it does not disappoint. The plot is simplistic, if a little over-produced in places, but the feeling of menace from the key characters never lets up. Marvin is magnificently understated, and the overall effect of this film [if you are into the genre] leaves you satiated. Some excellent performances, particularly from Marvin and surprisingly from Gregory Walcott [Pope in the Eiger Sanction]. Its a good, understated Mob flick for those who enjoy the genre. Those who don't will find it slow, cumbersome and at times self-indulgent, but then that is what makes us all different.....

It helps if you are a big Lee Marvin fan to enjoy this movie - but even if you're not especially, there's still enough in here to raise it above run-of-the-mill.

The cinematography is first-rate; lots of use of natural light and dingy locations of the city contrasted with the golden Kansas sunshine. Both Marvin and Gene Hackman are terrific and each exude good screen presence as gangsters at odds with each other, culminating in the shoot-out in the sunflower field and cattle house.

The film is slightly let down by the sentimental and unnecessary last scene at the orphanage, which feels grafted on, although the very final shot of the children running into the countryside hints at some kind of hope for the future (post Vietnam), not least between Nick Devlin (Marvin) and his new girl Sissy Spacek.

Worth watching

So what if 'Dog Day', made a decade later, repeats the threshing machine chase. It only underscores the success of the original, in which the 'teeth' of the threshing machine seem almost human. Watching them grind up the limo makes you feel almost sorry for the car. There are other scenes and themes I doubt that you will ever see in another movie: the packing house expose of what that meat you eat really goes through as it goes from the moo-cow to the sausage, for one. At least we don't see the guy actually made into the sausage the brother keeps eating!!

Hackman plays his evil best as an all-American who 'gives the public what they want' from meat to dope to virgins raised in an orphanage quite unlike the one in 'Cider House Rules'. Sissy Spacek does a good job in her first onscreen role, but come on!!! No one could be so stupid as to be unaware that they are wearing a completely transparent gown!! A few other holes in the film exist, but it is certainly a unique experience.

What a bonkers movie this is: gangsters turned into sausages, naked teenage virgins sold at cattle markets, a hard man called Mary Ann, car-eating combine harvesters, sausage-wielding hit-men - this one's got them all. It's also got Lee Marvin acting very cool as a dapper fixer for the Irish mob in Chicago who's dispatched to the mid-west to secure payment from a defaulting Gene Hackman who literally turned their last enforcer into sausage-meat. This one has a real 70s feel to it even though it's not generally recognised as a classic - which, of course, it isn't: character development is zero and the bad guys are like something out of a 1940's comic strip. Despite that, it's great fun - and Sissy Spacek, who isn't generally regarded as a classic beauty, looks gorgeous.