Director: John Flynn
Cast: Robert Duvall, Karen Black, Joe Don Baker, Robert Ryan

There's one thing that I have really admired about the Mafia over the years, that thing being how they supposedly got their name. There is evidence to suggest the name dates back to the 13th century when France invaded Sicily, prompting the Italians to come up with the rallying cry, "Morte alla Francia Italia anela!" Take the first letter of each word, and see what you get. In case you are wondering, in English that translates to, "Death to the French is Italy's cry", so anyone who can make any jab against those snobby Frenchies has my applause. Seriously, to any French readers, I admire your country because you make real movies and TV shows, unlike my country Canada. Continuing along that serious vein, I will admit that I really don't like anything about the Mafia at all, from their hand in distributing illegal substances to their murders of many individuals. Any time that I hear about any news story that reports some kind of victory against the Mafia or any organized crime group, it not only gets me to cheer, it also inevitably interests me to see the particular technique that was used to put Mafia members behind bars. No doubt you have heard of some of these methods over the years just as I have. One used technique is to get an undercover law enforcement agent to infiltrate the Mafia, report on what he saw, and subsequently use the information to make arrests. A similar technique to get the word from the inside is to convince some Mafia member to essentially squeal, using his testimony to aid in the conviction of high-ranking Mafia members. But there have been some offbeat methods too. One interesting story I came across several years ago was when Mafia members got hands on certain cell phones they were sure were encrypting their conversations and text messages. What they didn't know was that law enforcement agencies had secretly altered the cell phone hardware so that the Mafia's going-ons with their phone could be clearly monitored, resulting in mountains of evidence that lead to hundreds of arrests.

All of that is well and good, but despite all the time and effort the law has put into dismantling the Mafia over the decades, the Mafia is still in business today. That thought can certainly be a little frustrating when revolving around in your mind, and I am sure that many of you - like I have - have wondered at one point or another what you could possibly do to put some kind of dent into the Mafia's operations. At first glance, it indeed seems like a formidable challenge. The Mafia has thousands of members, a lot of money, a lot of power, and a lot of resources. What can us lowly members of the public ever do? Well, Mack Bolan, star of the long running and very popular pulp action book series The Executioner after his family was indirectly and essentially wiped out by the Mafia simply killed some Mafia members, then went to the Mafia and pretty much said, "I think I saw who did it." The Mafia, somehow unaware that a man whose family was hurt by the Mafia might be secretly planning revenge, hired Bolan to join their ranks, which subsequently got him to see their operations up close and start his plan of revenge. Of course, thinking about all of that even just a little bit makes the whole idea sound both stupid and dangerous. What is a safer method to start with? Well, after a little thought, it seems that the first course of action would be to study your target in secret. With stealth and over an extended period of time, take photographs, shoot videos, do your research to see how the Mafia in your community works. The more you know about your target, the more likely you will start to see weaknesses in it, and subsequently start to get ideas on what you might be able to do.

It would certainly help if you could recruit some help along the way. Do you know anybody from an equally frustrated friend to a shop owner forced to pay "protection" to the Mafia who might have such a big beef that they would be gung-ho to do something that might help them to get revenge? Of course, everyone's brain works differently, so although good help is good help, bad help might turn out to be deadly. Once you and your buddy (or just you by yourself) know enough about the Mafia, what should you do next? I think the best way is to start small. Maybe start by needling the lowest ranks of the Mafia, like the neighborhood drug dealers - you could secretly film them dealing, and hand the evidence to the authorities. Once that was done, you'd probably could work your way up, gaining knowledge and confidence with every step up. Thinking about that, I am now gung-ho towards infliciting harm to the major criminal elements in my city. But before I do that, I want to review The Outfit, a movie that takes the idea of someone with a beef against the Mafia and going step by step to right the wrongs the Mafia did to him. What really interested me about the movie was that it was based on a book by the famed author Donald E. Westlake (under his nom de plume "Richard Stark"), and it's considered one of the best cinematic adaptations of Westlake's work despite still being in relative obscurity. And as you know, I am eager to bring a spotlight to a movie that's good but unknown. The central character of the movie is a bank robber named Earl Macklin (Robert Duvall, Apocalypse Now) who has been released from prison after serving a sentence for robbing a particular bank. It turns out that the bank he robbed with his brother Ed and his friend Jack Cody (Joe Don Baker, Framed) was owned by the Mafia (referred to here as "The Outfit") and was used to deal with their ill-gotten gains. The Outfit knocks off Ed, and when the freshly released Earl meets up with his girlfriend Bett (Karen Black, Airport 1975) - who was forced by The Outfit to arrange an opportunity for Earl to be easily killed by them - Earl barely escapes with his life and Bett. Naturally, Earl is unhappy by the attempt at his life and the death of his brother, so he seeks revenge. He reconnects with Jack, and they start on a grand plan to make The Outfit suffer, repeatedly robbing various Outfit operations of their money. This of course irks The Outfit's leader Mailer (Robert Ryan, A Minute To Pray, A Second To Die), and soon he's just as determined to stop his two enemies.

You've probably seen before at least one cinematic exercise that has many or even all of the above plot elements found in The Outfit, so you are probably wondering how this particular telling manages to stand out from others in its pack. Well, for the most part the screenplay by writer/director John Flynn (Rolling Thunder) doesn't make a few gigantic leaps and bounds away from the familiar, but instead sprinkled throughout there are interesting quirks that while individually are small, come at a rapid pace so that your interest is kept up and make you wonder what the next unexpected touch will be. For example, it takes over a quarter of the movie to fully understand what happened in Earl's past and how it connects with the initially unexplained events of the movie's first quarter. All the same, we are not confused by these early scenes; we have some idea of what is happening, and it's clear that everything will come together soon. It's kind of fun, as a matter of fact, to put the pieces together one by one. Once everything falls into place, The Outfit then seems possibly headed towards predictability. While it is true that much of the middle portion is kind of repetitive (one robbery after another), and we can more or less guess what will happen in the final sequence, there are those aforementioned quirks that shake things up a little. The protagonists often take the time to not be heavily focused on their main ambition - they may do things like briefly chat about Earl's brother ("Nice guy", "The best"), about how Volkswagens have their own personalities. Sometimes they suddenly have to stop for a few minutes to deal with something unexpected, such as when shopping on the black market for a good used car, a woman in the black market whose advances were spurned by Jack subsequently and abruptly informs her beau that Jack tried to rape her, forcing Jack and Earl to deal with this. None of these quirks are particularly bearing on the central plot (if at all), but this color all the same is like having your car repainted and the dents removed - it's still the same car inside, but boy, on the outside it's sure nice to look at and admire.

The new pain job also extends a degree to the central characters. We learn that Earl actually has a wife and a child, but he doesn't allow his thoughts to dwell on them. When he later discusses the proposed agreement between him and Jack to work together, their words show no disagreement, but also not too much enthusiasm - to them it's just business. At the same time, however, the internal personalities of both men cannot help but peek out occasionally. Earl has confidence, but doesn't make a big show of words - he's obviously been down the same basic path many times in the past. The thuggish-looking Jack actually is a bit lighter, showing some humor and sarcasm, but careful with his words to not come across as too goofy. These two interesting characters are really brought to life by how they are performed by actors Duvall and Baker. Duvall may not look like the criminal type, but the way he says his character's words and executes actions will make you think, "This guy knows his stuff, he knows exactly what to do." At the same time, Duvall does not give his character a Superman-like vibe - you will always feel he could be cut down at any moment despite his professionalism. Baker, on the other hand, has a rare chance to not only show humor, but ease up on the thuggish air that surrounded many of the roles he played during this particular time in his career. We can't be sure of his character's fate as well. As for Black and Ryan, they are good, at least with what they're given. Black really shows her range as an actress, showing guilt, panic, anger, and helplessness. However, she is offscreen for some considerable periods, and when the end credits start to roll, while thinking back on the movie you will realize that her character didn't really make much of an impact with The Outfit's story. In fact, I am not really sure her character is that necessary at all. Things are even worse for Ryan. His character as The Outfit's boss only appears once or twice briefly in the first sixty minutes, and not much more afterwards. It should then come as no surprise that we learn pretty much nothing about this character. As I said, Ryan is professional, but I wonder if he could have had more impact if his character had more depth.

The Outfit's script doesn't just have weaknesses with some of its characters, as well as its sometimes repetitive story. You can probably guess what happens in the final chapter of the movie, but what you probably won't expect is that this chapter surprisingly doesn't even attempt to milk out the situation. The characters go in, promptly do their thing, and that's about it. Worse, what happens just seconds before the end credits start rolling seems too light, too goofy after what we watched during the previous 102 minutes, and concludes things on a wrong note. But aside from the final sequence, writer/director John Flynn does generally direct The Outfit very well. While this was a major studio production, Flynn eschews the normal big budget slickness to surprisingly good effect. He shoots exteriors in desolate countryside and decaying parts of cities. The interiors look very worn out for the most part, and Flynn often underlights these interiors so they look somewhat dark. All this makes this world look and feel real, since I think all of us have more experience living with some grit rather than total polish. When it comes to the action sequences, they aren't abundant in number, and quite a few times they stop not too long after they start up. Despite that, the action catches your eye. There's an often-brutal air to the fisticuffs and shootings, helped considerably from the fact that the action doesn't in the least bit feel all that choreographed. You will always fee that the action sequences don't end for the benefit of the audience, but that they end in a manner that will have you feeling that the defeated participants in the action could possibly have won in the same situation during another day. The movie might have been improved by several notches if there had been a slow and believable air of tension building from the beginning to the final showdown - things do seem a bit too casual at times. But don't let that or the other issues in The Outfit scare you away from a viewing; if you like 1970s crime and action movies, the movie definitely delivers what you expect and want. It will also show you everything from how to blow away the members of the mob in your community, to when to punch a receptionist in the face, so it's educational as well.

(Posted March 4, 2026)