Watched: 02/22/2025
Format: DVD
Viewing: Second
Director: John Flynn
I'd watched The Outfit (1973) back in 2016. But recently I re-read the book it's based on - an early Parker novel by Richard Stark - and decided it was time to watch the film again.
Most of what I say in my original write-up from 9 years ago is true. The movie is a pulp-crime movie fan's movie. It's based on a famed series of books, and features appearances from 50's-era noir mainstays like Robert Ryan, Timothy Carey, Marie Windsor, Jane Greer, Elisha Cook Jr. - and even singer Anita O'Day. This generation is paired with the 1970's stars like Robert Duvall in the Parker-role, Karen Black as his galpal, Joe Don Baker his buddy, Richard Jaeckel as a supplier, and Joanna Cassidy as Ryan's trophy wife. And, of course, more. Army Archerd even has a walk-on as a butler.
The story does loosely follow *parts* of the novel, but The Outfit is the third novel in a series (of something like 24 books), and the story wraps up the events of the first two books. So, pulling it out and making it it's own thing is kind of an odd choice. Further, the point of the novel is to show the world of thieves versus the world of the overly organized mob. Spoilers on a 60 year old novel - Parker directs all his heist-buddies to start hitting all the Outfit-owned places at once, essentially draining the mob of resources overnight and not letting them know where to direct their attention. It's pretty good, fun stuff.
This isn't what the movie does. To keep things simple and linear, the movie foregoes a lot of what would become Richard Stark staples in shifting POV's - all in third person, but caring a great deal about who we were now tracking. We're sticking with Duvall through most of the film, giving he and Joe Don Baker all the heists instead of introducing a flock of crooks, thieves and heist-men who would appear across the Parker novels for the next thirty years.
Nor does it contain the passionless inner workings of a mob that feels like it was designed by an MBA, where the boss's removal can be negotiated - this isn't the Corleones. And I kinda wish it had. Stark has a sense for what it takes to actually find closure, and this movie supposes everything is over with the murder of a single guy. Stark would know - no, that's bad for business for the mob. They're going to keep going at you - and it eventually does come to a head in the novel Butcher's Moon, that is kind of the opposite of the happy ending of The Outfit as both novel and movie.
I like the movie in its way. It's cool to see all these faces on the same screen. In general, I like seeing the book to screen, but the pacing is a little deadly at times, and since its just our Parker stand-in and Cody, it seems less likely they'd pull all of this off. I dig the back-roads feel of the movie, and that Duvall seems to get that his character is maybe wired unlike more sympathetic characters. But I just don't think it's easy to love this movie. It's absolutely a product of 1970's filmmaking, but it's also not making connections for the audience as well as it could - and feels meandering.
No comments:
Post a Comment