Save your money for something good and enjoyable

One of my all time favorites.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Well, Sissy Spacek is very young and sweet (her first film). Gene Hackman, great talent but not great role here, he's like a negative character caricature. Lee Marvin, tough guy as usual, also does not have a great role (is the script's fault, which is not one of the best). But, as it is, not a great script, another director, like Sergio Leone for example, would have made something exceptional of it. Lalo Schifrin's music also is not one of his best. I love Sissy Spacek, Gene Hackman and Lee Marvin very very much, they are all three among my favorite actors ever but, I will not watch this one again, once it's enough.

To my personal knowledge Le Marvin played a totally sympathetic and totally non-violent character only once, in Jack Webb's superb Pete Kelly's Blues, but here his outwardly violent 'enforcer' displays significant sympathetic traits which add depth to his performance whereas Gene Hackman, an equally fine actor, is content to phone in a one-trick pony performance. Marvin is working out of Chicago but the bulk of the footage unspools in Kansas where Eddy Egan (the real-life cop on whose Hackman character Popeye Doyle in The French Connection was based) sends him to sort out Gene Hackman and recover the fifty large that Hackman has skimmed off the mob. As good as anything in the genre and Marvin is at his best.

Prime Cut (1972) *** (out of 4) Fun crime picture has a Chicago enforcer (Lee Marvin) heading to Kansas City where an evil cattle baron (Gene Hackman) owes the big boys some money but he doesn't plan on cutting them in on his business. PRIME CUT is a film that not too many people know, which is pretty surprising when you consider how popular these type of crime films are. Not to mention the film is probably the only one in history to feature three Oscar winners as well as a man who appeared in PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE. Overall director Michael Ritchie does a very good job at keeping the picture running very smoothly and while the picture certainly has some flaws, it's still a highly entertaining and at times sleazy picture. One of the highlights come early on when Marvin and his men show up at a "cattle" auction only to discover that Hackman has a major business of selling off women. The women, all in cages like cattle, serve up quite the image. The film also manages to have some great violence, although none of it really goes over-the-top or gets too graphic. There's a terrific sequence during a fair as well as another in a sunflower field. I'm not going to ruin either sequences but they contain some nice suspense. Of course, one of the greatest aspects is the terrific cast. While each cast member has been better in other movies, there's no doubt that it's still very fun to see them all together. Marvin and Hackman really appear to be having fun in their roles and we also get Angel Tompkins in a brief role as the woman who was with both of them. Sissy Spacek appears in a pretty thankless role but it's still fun seeing her. Gregory Walcott, a veteran of Edward D. Wood, Jr., appears as one of the major bad guys. As I said, there are certainly some flaws including the entire relationship between Marvin and Spacek but fans of 70's crime pictures will still want to check this out.

How to cut it? Watch as two very big personalities with bad tempers go at it and chew up the scenery. Very different in styles too. One hardened and lean, quietly going about his business which suited Lee Marvin, while Gene Hackman was all show, arrogant and aggressive in getting what he wants. So when these two come to blows, the confrontations are a sight to see. The story follows that of an underworld enforcer Nick Devlin sent to Kansas City by the Chicago mafia to collect money owned from a mobster Mary Ann who has no intention of paying, as those who have tried have met an untimely end (opening credits is an ingenious touch that won't have you looking at sausages in the same way again). So they hire the best in Devlin. A meat-packing plant fronts for Ann's other business dealings involving drugs and prostitution. "Prime Cut" is a hard-hitting 70s gangster joint, which can be brutal in its melodramatics and excessive in its details. It's a rough and tumble, if drawn out cat and mouse chase exercise with a pinch noir, as no one wants to step down from their stance. The script is unassuming, but vigorous when it has to be. Some moments do have a dark underbelly, like how the prostitutes are treated like live-stock. Drugged, paraded and demoralised. "Cow flesh. Girl flesh. All the same to me. " Throughout there are symbolic images, like when Marvin and his crew are riding into a storm, which mirrors what's to come in its climatic payoff. These moments stand out more, because it does feel aimless and maybe too simple in its automatic, if minimalistic narrative drive made up of hidden agendas. Director Michael Ritchie's hasty styling is comfortable, especially in constructing pockets of tense set-pieces (wheat tractor chase) and the picturesque backdrop adds genuine flavour. While it's the two leads that steal the show, making her film debut is the impressive Sissy Spacek, who's doll-face appearance simply sticks with you. Gregory Walcott also leaves a mark. Odd, but a conventionally engaging and unflinching action thriller. "Anyway it cuts."