Prime Cut
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Movie Reviews of Prime Cut
Movie Review: A MUST SEE ...
Summary: 5 Stars
Just do yourself a favor and buy this DVD when it comes out,..everything you've read in these other reviews is true,..a hyped up almost comic book style version of a 70's noir-crime thriller that is not above some shameless exploitive elements, it makes for some truly jaw dropping entertainment,..and although it is not quite perfect,..it's still a treat for someone who thinks they've seen everything from the era. The macho verbal jousting between cool-headed badass Lee Marvin and dope-n-flesh peddling Gene Hackman is priceless. It's one of my personal all time favorite films, and is a perfect example of something you cannot believe was made by Hollywood in 1972 - but there it is.
Freakin' awesome!
Movie Review: Prime Cut as Prime Viewing
Summary: 5 Stars
Given that this movie is - in 2011 - four decades old, it is stilling a living testament to (1) the exploitation of women, (2) the exploitation of power, (3) the challenge of aging and (4) criminal enterprise as a part of American life. Yes, the character development is now considered "cookie cutter"; but the challenges of human liberation faced in this movie are still present.
Consider reading and/or viewing the trilogy by Stieg Larsson:[ASIN:030745455X] The Girl Who Played with Fire (Vintage); [ASIN:030745455X] The Girl Who Played with Fire (Vintage); [ASIN:0307454541] The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Movie Review: Prime Cut!
Summary: 5 Stars
Here we have Gene Hackman as the head of the Kansas City mafia. Leaving the city behind, Hackman makes his money on pork and prostitution. We quickly find out that Hackman is indebted to the Chicago mob for 500 large. They send one of their hoods down there to collect, but Hackman literally turns him into hotdog meat and mails the "franks" back to Chicago. Ready to play hardball, the Chicago mob retort by sending Lee Marvin down there to take out the trash, saving a young Sissy Spacek along the way. The ruckus that ensues is worth the price of the DVD alone, or at least a rental.Movie Review: 3 1/2 stars - Unusual actions scenes make this film memorable
Summary: 4 Stars
Nick Devlin (Lee Marvin), an enforcer for the Chicago Mob, is sent to Kansas City to collect a debt from a rancher and meat packer named Mary Ann (Gene Hackman). Mary Ann was sent by the mob to run things down there and now claims the fiefdom as his own. Previous enforcers were dealt with in a way appropriate to Mary Ann's chosen industry. Nick takes his trusted driver and three mob goons with him to collect the money. Upon their arrival, they find Mary Ann presiding over a livestock auction, but the livestock in this auction is the meat packer's second source of income, prostitution. Nick rescues Poppy (Sissy Spacek), a drugged out young woman, and they leave. Neither Nick or Mary Ann will give in to the other, leaving only one conclusion.
"Prime Cut" directed by Michael Ritchie, and made in 1972, is a new film for me. Recently, Ebert and Roeper featured a number of Lee Marvin films new to DVD. I have never been a fan of Marvin, but the films looked intriguing so I gave a few a try and also revisited "The Professionals", one of my favorite films starring Burt Lancaster and Lee Marvin.
It is important to remember that the film was made in 1972 because it strikes the viewer as dated. Shortly after Nick rescues Poppy, he buys her a dress (she was naked at the livestock auction) and they go to dinner at the fancy restaurant in his hotel. Poppy's new dress does little to hide her breasts, but she seems blissfully unaware as the older men and women in the restaurant stare at her. All the time, Nick and Poppy ignore them, trying to have a conversation. Everything about this scene screams early 70s to me, from their conversation to the `subtle' look at class. Later in the film, Nick and his goons arrange to meet Mary Ann at the local county fair and collect the money. This sequence is introduced with a series of close ups of a man walking on stilts, children laughing, etc., all meant to disorient the viewer before letting them become familiar with the new setting. Again, very 70s.
There are many sequences in the film which are strange, unusual and interesting, ultimately making the film worth watching. From the opening sequence; Mary Ann's demented brother, Weenie (Gregory Walcott) gets rid of one of the mob's enforcers (perhaps the most memorable scene), to a harvesting machine chasing Nick and Poppy through a corn field, Ritchie seems to be paying homage to Hitchcock and it works. The action scenes are interesting and hold your attention. Even the scene set in the corn field, which is close enough to be called a rip off of the famous chase from Hitchcock's "North By Northwest"; Ritchie adds a little touch at the end to make it memorable and interesting. You won't be able to stop watching it.
When the story turns to more sedate matters and everything relies on the actors, the film is less successful. Marvin seems to have been most comfortable portraying mobsters, generals and cowboys throughout his career. His demeanor is well-suited for these types of roles. He merely has to stare at most men and they will surrender. This persona works well with this character. But when Nick is supposed to be human, it doesn't work. When Nick takes Poppy to dinner, it isn't clear if Nick is trying to romance Poppy or become her supportive "Uncle". She clearly seems to be flirting with him but Nick doesn't seem to return the favor. Thankfully. At this point Marvin was 47 (Wow, he looks older. But I guess he always did.) and Spacek was 22. Not very age appropriate. This scene works if Poppy is flirting with Nick; he has just saved her from a life of prostitution and her life has been pretty screwed up to that point. But it would be creepy to watch Marvin's Nick putting the moves on the younger actress.
Gene Hackman is always interesting to watch. A villain with the name Mary Ann is going to have to be fairly menacing. Hackman follows occasional outbursts with a quick smile or joke, trying to hide his true menace. This performance reminded me exactly of Lex Luthor and makes this character seem all the more like a dry run for the villain he would play in the "Superman" films beginning in 1978.
Sissy Spacek is good, in her first starring role, but the part is a very traditional take on the female sidekick so prevalent in action films. For a great performance, check out her later work in "In The Bedroom".
"Prime Cut" is a memorable exercise in action filmmaking. Two sequences from the film will stay with me for a long time. Can you figure out which ones?
Movie Review: "Why don't we just ask Clarabelle?"
Summary: 4 Stars
I was looking for the new release of "Point Blank" at my local retail DVD buffet and they didn't have it so, finding "Prime Cut" instead (which I'd never seen) I bought it kind of as a consolation prize; but I was disappointed because I'd been looking for something with the kooky, flashy, noir-weirdness "Point Blank" offered.
Grudgingly, I popped this in and, within the first few minutes of the movie, I realized that "Prime Cut" is definitely weirder than "Point Blank." Somehow, I'd forgotten this was a Michael Ritchie film, made just after "Downhill Racer" and just before he really swung in with "The Candidate," "Smile," "The Bad News Bears" and "Semi-Tough."
We begin with a graphic tour of a slaughterhouse, through which a diced Chicago hood is processed into hot dogs by a guy named Weenie who wouldn't look out of place in the back of a panel of "Sin City."
Then there are the barnyard pens of wasted, naked sex slaves drooled over by Kansas City moneymen.
Presiding over it all is a hairy Gene Hackman, chuckling and shoveling hog guts from a plate into his usual sideways grin.
Lee Marvin, looking cut from salmon-toned marble, marches through the whole thing like he's the only character who's already read the script and knows every single decision he needs to make.
This is a movie that asks us to root against the upstart country boy who defies the mob, to favor the tough-as-railroad-ties mafia enforcer. He wades into the sticks to smack the machine so it'll work right again. And we do.
Sure, the movie has it's problems. There are *lots* of obvious visual metaphors for the way big systems process little things into profitable distortions (none of which trump the slaughterhouse credit sequence). And the women are mostly helpless, have a tendency to get assaulted but bounce right back at the sight of a shopping bag full of clothes. The final shoot-out drags a bit during the sunflower field scene. And, as for the film's signature chase scene -- Marvin and Sissy Spacek flee a gigantic thresher as it chases them across an open wheat field -- I couldn't ignore two thoughts: 1) Why don't they just double-back and run around behind the thing, which cannot easily turn and 2) They could run faster if they weren't holding hands.
Still, this is a weird, wild, underseen gem, a colorful thriller, almost like an inverted Travis McGee adventure, or like a particularly demented Don Siegel picture. You (or at least *I*) have to love a crime thriller that takes a five minute time-out while the two main badguys play grabass in a kitchen, wrestling around like teenaged brothers. This was a movie that made me perfectly happy to temporarily miss "Point Blank."