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MOVIE FEATURE

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A Sam Peckinpah classic leads this month's Blu-ray bundle, and Imprint enters the 4K arena with an old favourite. Words Bob Jones & Scott Hocking

firmly establish the intimate and implicit bond of the two friends' relationship. However, the next scene – shot in slow motion – delivers a shock. Hansen suddenly turns rogue, casually killing their political refugee and then betraying Locken by shooting him in the knee and elbow, virtually maiming him as he calmly declares, "You have just been retired Mike, enjoy it.” ComTeg chiefs' initial reaction is fairly cold hearted; simply offering Mike a retirement plan. He swiftly turns it down, determined instead to return to the organisation and bring in his double-crossing former partner. But first Locken faces months of painful physical rehabilitation, undertaking rigorous training via martial arts and jogging to regain the special skills he once commanded, and learning to wield a walking cane as a lethal weapon. He eventually aligns himself with two former ComTeg employees – the seriously messed up "psycho" gunman Jerome Miller (played by the brilliant Bo Hopkins), and Mac (Burt Young) as their wheelman. Locken and his new team now set out to track down Hansen, only to find that betrayal and treachery extends much further than just his ex-partner. Peckinpah was strictly forbidden by the studio producers to make any changes whatsoever to the script, which naturally infuriated him. This resulted in a few scenes that could have been better paced and just seem to lack Sam's sardonic humour. But the main action set pieces – a Chinatown shootout, a dockland siege, and the excellent US Navy ship graveyard finale – are amongst the best Peckinpah ever shot. His fast cutting and slow motion montages of sword wielding ninjas falling from great heights are further glimpses of the director’s unconventional genius, which makes The Killer Elite essential viewing for his multitude of fans. Imprint brings The Killer Elite to Blu-ray in a deluxe limited two-disc hardbox edition that includes both the Original Version and Alternative Theatrical Cut, along with a wealth of bonus content: audio commentaries, interviews, featurettes, and image galleries. Bob J

The Killer Elite (1975)

F ollowing the critical and box-office failures of both Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), director Sam Peckinpah desperately needed a hit to get his career back on track. It was United Artists who offered him an espionage potboiler with umpteen shootouts, a high body count, and various interesting characters. Titled The Killer Elite , the movie is essentially a political thriller that exploited the post Watergate climate when the American population became extremely suspicious of their government and the CIA. The movie features a first-rate cast headed by James Caan and Robert Duvall, who portray elite contract assassins Mike Locken and George Hansen, respectively. They both work for ComTeg, a privately run secret service based in San Francisco, which undertakes the black ops that the CIA won’t touch.

The explosive opening scene – in which they destroy a building as they escort one of their political charges to safety – is pure Peckinpah, with critically revered subsequent scenes that

22 DECEMBER 2022

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