Movie Mahal

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Flynn’s The Outfit, based on the prolific crime writer Donald Westlake, followed on the heels of Peckinpah’s The Getaway which was released a year before in 1972. In fact, if one was going to cite a key film in terms of attempting to contextualise a kind of cinematic lineage then it would have to be Boorman’s Point Blank, the archetypal Westlake adaptation. Duvall, in one of his earlier roles, is perfectly cast in the role of Earl Macklin, a fearless ex-con, who takes on a local outfit that have brutally slain his brother. Straight off the bat one can discern the influence of Get Carter with the vengeful brother returning home seeking to set things right. A sun kissed neo noir with fire in its belly, The Outfit regularly popped up on TCM as a late-night broadcast and has arguably yielded a cult following for its hard-bitten anarchic tone.

Cameos from Jane Greer and Elisha Cook Jr. are gentle nods to the lexicon of Hollywood noir but Duvall’s fiercely committed Macklin belongs in the company of anti-heroes like Straight Time (1978), situating the ex-con as a relentlessly mechanical ticking bomb and chronic professional, collective precursors to Neil McCauley in Heat and Frank in Thief. Robert Ryan as Mailer, the aging don of the outfit, appears fleetingly and is an archaic, misogynist dinosaur but ultimately doomed when he comes to realise Macklin’s taste for revenge is more than just familial. Death and destruction are the obvious destinations but Flynn is altogether preoccupied with the details of the world that Macklin inhabits, a fascination with the machinations of crime. Moreover, what so many of the neo noir crime films from the 70s seem to get right was an almost pitch perfect feel for milieu, a seedy underbelly punctuated by a nasty violent streak that is strangely comforting. The supporting cast is filled out by the ever dependable Karen Black and Joe Don Baker as Macklin’s ad hoc partner. The Outfit is a work that is far more influential than it is given credit.