Scorpio (1973)

Note des utilisateurs:

6.4/10   

Réalisateur:

Michael Winner

Writers:

David W. Rintels (screenplay) and
Gerald Wilson (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

19 avril 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drame | Thriller

Accroche:

When Scorpio wants you... there is no place to hide!

Plot:

Cross is an old hand at the CIA, in charge of assassinating high-ranking foreign personalities who are an obstacle to the policies of the USA...

Plot Keywords:

CIA | Vienna Austria | Running | Cold War | Cynicism

Avis des utilisateurs:

Paranoia film that's pretty typical of the early 70s

Ensemble

Burt Lancaster	...	Cross
Alain Delon	...	Jean Laurier, a.k.a. Scorpio
Paul Scofield	...	Zharkov
John Colicos	...	McLeod
Gayle Hunnicutt	...	Susan
J.D. Cannon	...	Filchock
Joanne Linville	...	Sarah
Mel Stewart	...	Pick (as Melvin Stewart)
Vladek Sheybal	...	Zemetkin
Mary Maude	...	Anne
Jack Colvin	...	Thief
James Sikking	...	Harris
Burke Byrnes	...	Morrison
William Smithers	...	Mitchell
Shmuel Rodensky	...	Lang

Durée:

114 min | Germany:110 min

Pays:

USA

Langue:

Anglais

Couleur:

Couleur (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Son:

Mono

Classification:

Singapore:PG | Iceland:16 | West Germany:16 (nf) | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Ireland:12 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:12 | USA:PG

Emplacements De Pelliculage:

Paris, France

Company:

Mirisch Corporation, The

Anecdotes:

Burt Lancaster, who was a circus acrobat, performed his stunts in the film during the chase scene.

Goofs:

Continuity: Lancaster disarms two agents by putting his car into reverse and slamming into their car in a narrow alley. Then he pulls forward and does it again. But on his second pass, there's a shot of the back of his car completely undamaged before it makes the second hit. (In that final shot, the car is damaged as it should be.)

Guillemet:

Cross: There's a room just down the hall from McLeod's office where grown men play a game. It's a bit like Monopoly, only more people get hurt. There's no good and no bad. The object is not to win, but not to lose -- and the only rule is to stay in the game.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The She-Creature (#9.8)" (1997)

Paranoia film that's pretty typical of the early 70s

In the 1960s, disenchantment among the Western populations led to the hippie movement and a new questioning of authority. Combining this with the Watergate scandal and you set the context for movies like SCORPIO and THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR. Both films view our own government with great suspicion--particularly the CIA. Such films probably would NOT have been accepted by the public just a decade earlier, but in the 70s paranoia of this type was fashionable. So was the moral relativism that implied that the US and Soviet governments were pretty much the same.

In some ways, the plot to SCORPIO is pretty interesting--a CIA agent (Burt Lancaster) is perceived to be a double agent and is ordered to be killed. Oddly, Alain Delon, a Frenchman, is given this task but Lancaster seems too slippery and skilled to be easily taken. Unfortunately, after a while the film both becomes rather dull and is rather hard to believe. As one reviewer pointed out, the way that Lancaster and Scofield knew each other didn't really make sense, as an American serving with the Spanish Republicans would have been seen as an extreme leftist--not exactly a person you'd expect to later be in the CIA. Of course, this DID help the moral relativism being pushed in the film.

Aside from watching the acrobatic Lancaster do his own stunts and Scofield overact (in a fun way), this is a very low energy film--and you'd not expect this would be the case for an espionage thriller. It just seemed very detached and uninvolving. Overall, it's a passable film, but not one you should go out of your way to see.