Earl Macklin (Robert Duvall, Apocalypse Now) gets out of prison only to discover someone wants him and his brother severely punished. A bank they once robbed contained the money for an underworld organization known as “The Outfit,” and now the gang’s boss, Mailer (Robert Ryan, The Wild Bunch), and his enforcer Jake Menner (Timothy Carey, The Killing) want Earl eliminated for the heist. Earl refuses to go into hiding with his girlfriend Bett (Karen Black, Easy Rider) and instead hooks up with his old friend Cody (Joe Don Baker, Walking Tall) to raid The Outfit’s various rackets. But the longer Earl and Cody strike back, the closer the criminal organization comes to closing in. The movie features a cast from the golden age of noir including Marie Windsor (The Narrow Margin), Elisha Cook Jr. (The Maltese Falcon), and Jane Greer (Out of the Past).
What We Thought:
The Outfit is a Robert Duvall film I hadn’t seen before. His character is loosely based on the Parker character from Richard Stark novels. Duvall is great as always and I also liked Joe Don Baker who was always solid whether the lead or supporting like this.
Duvall plays a man who gets out of prison and finds out his brother was killed. He soon pieces it together that a crime organization, The Outfit, is behind it all. They want him dead because he robbed one of their banks with his brother before he wound up in jail. Duvall’s Earl Macklin is out for revenge and will do whatever it takes to get it.
Duvall and Baker are perfect for these crime caper type movies. Both are believable tough guys especially Joe Don Baker. There’s a love interest and others from the past that know Earl won’t stop until everyone is dead. I don’t know what kind of following the film has, but I can see it being beloved by its fans.
We get super complicated crime dramas today or big over-the-top shoot’em ups. The Outfit feels like something we don’t get too often now and that’s a shame. I can easily compare it to Hell or High Water or The Place Beyond the Pines and could see it being remade in their type of tone. Duvall’s performance definitely feels like something Chris Pine or Ryan Gosling would do today. If you are a fan of the movie, the Blu-ray comes with some fantastic bonus features especially if you like the Parker character.
Special features include High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation with original and alternate ending options available via seamless branching; original lossless mono audio; optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing; a brand new audio commentary; a brand new appreciation of author Donald E. Westlake (aka Richard Stark); a brand new appreciation of the film; a brand new featurette on The Outfit and the Parker novels; an archival interview with filmmaker Walter Hill on director John Flynn; the theatrical trailer; image galleries; and a collectors’ booklet.
The Nerds Templar 