Mexican Revolution No. 9

By AARON MESH

"Maybe there's only one revolution, since the beginning: the good guys against the bad guys," philosophizes Burt Lancaster from his butte surveillance in The Professionals. "The question is: Who are the good guys?" This dilemma runs as a thread through the studio westerns set in Mexico, as every band of Yankee ruffians senses kinship with the defiant peasants. In Richard Brooks' 1966 version, the conversion is accomplished with expert élan by Lancaster, Woody Strode, Robert Ryan and Lee Marvin, all slinking along the Nevada sandstone. Maybe there's only one movie. Maybe we need to see it again. Laurelhurst Theater.

  1. Best paired with: Ninkasi Total Domination.
  2. Also showing: Green Zone (Academy, Grand Lodge, Laurelhurst), High Fidelity (Bagdad).

WWeek 2015

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