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Best movie ever!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The title could refer to any of the cast or crew of this hugely enjoyable western though "The Professionals" of the title are actually Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Woody Strode and Robert Ryan who are hired by Ralph Bellamy to rescue his wife, Claudia Cardinale, from kidnapper Jack Palance. It's a handsome, exciting picture and it earned director Richard Brooks an Oscar nomination, (Cinematographer Conrad Hall was also one of the film's three nominees), but it's the cast who carry it, not, of course, that they have to do any 'real' acting. This is a movie that depends on star power and by the time this was made, (1966), Marvin, Lancaster, Strode and Ryan were already approaching 'old-timer' status; certainly their stars had been in the ascendant for awhile.As the wife, Cardinale is more of a guest star and while the film did not launch her in America I wonder if Leone saw her in this before he cast "Once Upon a Time in the West". Palance is Palance which is all you want him to be while Bellamy seems grateful just to get a decent part at this stage of his career. It may not be a classic but it certainly stands up to repeated viewings.

anyone else see the link between this film and Spielberg's Indiana Jones movies ??? or is it just my imagination ? this film is one of those that you seen when you were a kid and remember bits of it..lovely cinematography , and has that timeless feel to it .. Burt Lancaster is the perfect lead man with a rather beautiful female to boot.. anyone else see the link between this film and Spielberg's Indiana Jones movies ??? or is it just my imagination ? this film is one of those that you seen when you were a kid and remember bits of it..lovely cinematography , and has that timeless feel to it .. Burt Lancaster is the perfect lead man with a rather beautiful ..

"The Professionals" is one of those westerns made when the genre was getting a little tired, but before it was okay to completely throw out the old rules. The story is simple enough: a wealthy land baron hires four professionals, who are each the best at what they do, to go on a daring mission deep into Mexico, amid a faltering revolution, to bring back his kidnapped wife. Lee Marvin leads the band, playing a grizzled veteran of that revolution, with Burt Lancaster receiving top-billing and playing a dynamite expert who is easily tempted by women and adventure. The crew is rounded out by a bow-and-arrow and tracking expert (Woody Strode) and a veteran horseman (Robert Ryan). This is definitely a movie that hangs its hat on action, with shootouts spaced periodically through the movie to keep the audience awake and a signature raid on the Mexican revolutionaries/kidnappers camp at mid- film that was only a notch or two below similar scenes in more modern films, and was thus very enjoyable. These scenes were fine, albeit a little silly with the Lancaster's bottomless supply of amazing TNT. However, the rest of the movie plods on predictably. There are definitely attempts at character development but perhaps the wooden Lee Marvin as a central character makes the whole thing hard to enjoy except when the bullets (and TNT-laden arrows) are flying. I was definitely disappointed when the spectacular camp raid scene ended too quickly and I realized there were still over 30 minutes of film left with the best scene in the rear-view mirror.I would watch about 20 or 30 other classic westerns before getting to this one. It's not bad, the action sequences were certainly worth the price of admission in 1966, but it shows why the traditional western as a dominant genre was living on borrowed time.

Though not as perceptively grim in tone and style as Sam Peckinpah's epitaph The Wild Bunch, Richard Brook's The Professionals almost certainly inspired the former and was also one of the last great westerns Hollywood ever produced. Made at a time when the 'classical' era was waning, Brooks went entirely nostalgic, creating a story about John Wayne-like characters completely loyal to their cause but also flawed in many ways.The cast is superb. The exotic beauty of Claudia Cardinale is great fodder for the main cast of Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan and Woody Strode. Although Ryan and Strode have considerably less screen time, the relationship between Lancaster and Marvin is terrifically fleshed out along with Brooks' steady hand guiding the entire process of four men on the hunt to rescue a millionaire's kidnapped wife only to realize all is not as it seems. Despite the fact that this film will forever be compared to the ones it inspired like The Wild Bunch or The Dirty Dozen, it should be admired on its own terms. It is a very entertaining and satisfying film with solid writing, acting, directing and editing along with some stunning cinematography of the American southwest. Compared to today's films, who could ask for anything more?