The dreaded four
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The dreaded four |
| Original title | The Professionals |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1966 |
| length | 117 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Richard Brooks |
| script | Richard Brooks |
| production | Richard Brooks |
| music | Maurice Jarre |
| camera | Conrad L. Hall |
| cut | Peter Zinner |
| occupation | |
| |
The dreaded four , originally The Professionals , is an American late-west whose action takes place in Mexico in 1917. A rich man buys the services of four highly specialized mercenaries who are supposed to free his wife from the hands of her supposed kidnappers. Director Richard Brooks wrote the screenplay based on the western novel A Mule for the Marquesa by Frank O'Rourke. The story was marketed under the film's title as The Professionals after the film's commercial success . The German edition appeared under the title The Wolves of Mexico .
action
Millionaire JW Grant hires four unemployed soldiers of fortune. These are supposed to free his young wife Maria , who was kidnapped by alleged Mexican bandits, and bring her back “in the name of humanity” . The four soldiers of fortune are Bill Dolworth , an explosives expert who believes that dynamite can solve all the world's problems. Henry, called Rico Fardan, is a sniper and mercenary who has participated in various foreign missions. As a former cavalry soldier , Hans Ehrengard is a horse expert. Fourth in the league is Jake Sharp , whose reputation is based on his perfect handling of bows and arrows, as well as his ability to read tracks. Grant lures the unemployed “professionals” with $ 1,000 per man immediately and the prospect of another $ 9,000 per man after the liberation of Maria Grant.
When they arrive at the camp of the supposed bandits, Dolworth and Fardan in particular have to find out that they are very familiar with them. The bandits are in truth revolutionaries with whom they once fought for Pancho Villa . The supposed kidnapping victim Maria clarifies the truth to her “liberators”. She voluntarily went to her lover Raza , the leader of the "bandits". As a child, she was once forced to marry the rich American Grant. Its wealth came about through predatory exploitation of the Mexican people. The Americans still want to fulfill the contract signed with Grant. They now become the kidnappers of Maria, who, according to the contract, hand them over to her husband's house in order to subsequently free her and return to Mexico with her.
background
The Professionals was one of the first Hollywood films, probably the first western, to take a critical stance on American engagement in Vietnam. The parallels between the Mexican and Vietnamese “bandits” were obvious to contemporaries of the 1960s. The message that such relief operations can become criminal undertakings in the name of humanity was understood as a blunt call to withdraw from Vietnam.
Movie quotes
- The revolution? When the shootings stop and the dead are buried and the politicians come back out of their holes, it turns out it was all a lost cause. (Bill Dolworth)
- The revolution is like the story of a great love. At first she is a goddess, a sacred thing. But all love stories have a terrible enemy. The time. We are slowly beginning to see more clearly. The revolution is not a goddess, she is a whore. It was never pure, never holy, never perfect. So we go back to find a new lover, a new thing. Without love, without a thing, we are nothing. We stay because we believe. We leave because we are disaffected. We return because we are lost. We die because we are committed. (Capitan Raza)
- This is a woman - she has never said no. (Dolworth via Chiquita)
- Grant calls Fardan a "bastard", who replies: In my case it is a birth defect, but for you it is a character defect.
Others
Claudia Cardinales stunt double was seriously injured while shooting with horses and explosives . To complete the final shots, Cardinale found herself willing to perform the stunt herself, even though she had never ridden a horse before. She survived the recording unharmed.
Reviews
- “The Professionals is Richard Brooks' masterpiece. Viewed in the context of world production ... the film is the master of all classes. He is the Cassius Clay of the 1966 film - the strongest and the most agile, the most effective and the most harmonious, gifted in punch and technique, not at all gifted in conformism, of great eloquence and poetry ... " (Roger Tailleur, here quoted from Hembus, p. 229)
- Phil Hardy saw the film "more complex than the adventure story suggests". The film has "a tight history of contradicting moral codes and loyalties" and anticipates the theme of the end of the West, as it later became, for example, in The Wild Bunch - They knew no law and Pat Garrett chasing Billy the Kid was genre-defining.
- "The film tries to relativize the fronts of good and bad, but then falls back into clichés." ( Ulrich Gregor , Geschichte des Films ab 1960. Bertelsmann, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-570-00816-9 , p. 463)
- "A morally dodgy Western, which was, however, staged at a high level of entertainment." ( Lexicon of International Films )
- “A brilliantly made Western [...]. The names of the actors - Lancaster, Marvin, Ryan, Palance, Cardinale - and the skill of the director Richard Brooks guarantee the friends of adventure almost two hours of exciting entertainment. " ( Protestant film observer )
Prizes and awards
The film received numerous nominations and won several awards. In 1967 he was nominated for three Academy Awards, including a. for the best direction. In the same year, film and lead actor Lee Marvin were honored with a Laurel Award , the film received a gold screen in Germany .
literature
- Frank O'Rourke : The Wolves of Mexico. Western novel (Original title: The Professionals ). German by Fritz Moeglich . Heyne, Munich 1968, 192 pp.
- Herb Fagen: The encyclopedia of westerns . With a foreword by Tom Selleck and an introduction by Dale Robertson. Facts on File, New York 2003 (The Facts on File film reference library), ISBN 0-8160-4456-2
- Michael Hanisch : Western. The evolution of a film genre . Henschelverlag / Art and Society, Berlin 1984
- Joe Hembus : Western Lexicon . Revised paperback edition. Heyne, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-453-00767-0
Web links
- The Professionals in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Comparison of the cut versions of Free TV - Uncut of Die afchteten Vier at Schnittberichte.com
Individual evidence
- ^ Phil Hardy: The Encyclopedia of Western Movies. Woodbury Press Minneapolis 1984. ISBN 0-8300-0405-X . P. 298
- ↑ Film Lexicon: The Feared Four Retrieved from zweiausendeins.de on June 9, 2014
- ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband München, Critique No. 8/1967, p. 12