Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

betty dalton This is true heroic gentleman gangster stuff. An eye for an eye. You mess with them, they will mess with you, no matter who you are. It has great guts and glory. Although I am certainly not a fan of supporting violence in movies, Robert Duvall and Joe Don Baker play gentleman gangsters, which make the portrayed violence look almost heroic. They only kill when they have to. And so they do in this story where Robert Duvall's brother got killed by a mob boss. The revenge for his brother's death is what this movie is all about. Honor his brother by killing the crime gang responsible.Has Tarantino influences written all over it and he enjoyed it alot being a kid, so he sayed. Especially one scene reminded me of "Pulp Fiction". At Imdb "The Outfit" is listed as one of 10 forgotten classics of the seventies. If one looks at what others who saw this flick liked too, then you are in for a real treat:"Charley Varrick" is mentioned, which is another Tarantino favorite. "Prime Cut" and "Point Blank" are mentioned too. These are all true macho crime classics, wherein men are real MEN. Either this gun stomping flick has got everything in it others have copied since, or it is a copycat itself. Anyhow, lots of scenes do bring to mind so many other crime classics made since then...Acting, Story and Supense are just Excellent ! This is how crime flicks aught to be made. Robert Duvall and Joe Don Baker carry this movie with bravoure and machismo. They are true modern cowboys. Their way of life is the way of the GUN. Their guns are sacred: "Dont ever touch my gun.." screams Robert Duvall to his girlfriend, the ONLY time in the movie he raises his voice. Mr. Cool himself.At a trivia end note: Sound quality is pretty horrific. But so was sound in almost all early seventies movies. Bass sound basically just didnt excist back then. Unless you can see a remastered pumped up blu ray version with enhanced sound and picture quality, you will have to settle with rather meager quality of picture and sound. That reminds me of the following: once "The Godfather" was restored, director Francis Ford Coppola was astounded by the gorgeous sound and picture quality, it was better then he could have ever imagined.The original Godfather was really in terrible shape technically speaking. But all of this is just a long introduction to explain the only fault with "The Outfit": it's picture and sound quality. Maybe you wont even notice it, if you dont care about that. It is rather superficial and doesnt really matter though, because the core of this movie is rock solid.

dougdoepke Single-minded revenge saga. When Macklin's (Duvall) brother is killed by the outfit, he swears revenge. Never mind that Macklin and brother knocked over one of the outfit's banks, now it's a matter of family honor and a load of money. Heading up the outfit is a lean and mean Mailer (Ryan) along with a horde of underlings and gunslingers. So Macklin and buddy Cody (Baker) face big odds.No one's particularly likable, except maybe Cody. Thus identifying with Macklin is more a matter of a central role than his grim personality. Frankly, I don't think Duvall projects the kind of gravitas required for Macklin's near omnipotent prowess, (contrast with Lee Marvin in the similar Point Blank {1967}. Duvall's a fine actor but for whatever reason his rather colorless approach here fails to equal the highly charged plot. Where the movie does excel is with staging choices—the run-down shacks, the horse auction, the shabby interiors. All accentuate a subplot-- the little guy's cheap motels versus the big guy's gilded mansion. Also, the casting is a feast for old movie fans but you have to look quickly in some cases—Cook, Windsor, and Jones—all picking up a payday. Then there's Greer, Carey, and Jaeckel in more featured roles. Happily, their familiar personas add real flavor to the proceedings. I'm just sorry that the great Robert Ryan died the same year as the movie's release (1973). Truth be told, he looks pretty thin but still manages some of that great piercing quality of his best roles.Anyway, the girls, Cassidy, Black, North, are along mainly as eye candy, though Black gets at times to project a certain poignancy. All in all, the movie's an okay time passer, but as revenge sagas go, it's nothing special.

punishmentpark I'm not used to seeing Robert Duvall playing lead as bad-ass gangster, but there it is. He (unsurprisingly) does a fine job of molding his character into a tough, mostly upbeat-in-spite-of-bad-circumstances, guy. Mostly, because when he goes slapping his girl around, things get awkward really fast. Back then in the early seventies, it must have been explained away as an action to "settle the chick down" but leading roles wouldn't get away with that nowadays. The 'chick', by the way, is none other than the fantastic Karen Black. The other big supporting role is played terrifically by Joe Don Baker, playing an unusually nice guy (still a gangster, though) compared to what I'm used to.The film is pretty fast-paced and straightforward, with a plot that is built on blind vengeance and acquiring big money fast from a big organization which killed the leading man's brother. There are hardly any big surprises plot-wise, but it stays more than interesting enough, and the finale ís surprisingly happy, almost like a caper. Good enough for me, though.A good 8 out of 10.

Simon Harris So says Mailer (Ryan), head of the Syndicate when he meets Macklin (Duvall) in a horse auction. Macklin has been robbing Mailer's operations, to make him pay compensation for the death of his brother, who the Syndicate had killed, because he and Macklin inadvertently hit a Syndicate owned bank. Mailer carries on " We take in $250 grand by noon on a good day" trying to make Macklin feel small and put his compensation demand into some perspective. "I don't care" shoots back Macklin "As long as you pay". Mailer doesn't pay of course, and sends hit men instead to kill Macklin, his partner in crime Cody (Joe Don Baker)and Macklin's moll, Bett (Karen Black). This movie is one of a series of great heist / mob / thriller movies that came out in the early seventies, and reminded me a lot of other classics such as Point Blank or Charley Varrick (incidentally another great role for Baker in that movie.)There are no over the top action scenes, rather everything is cut to the bare essentials. The scene where Macklin and Cody buy a car from hick brothers Chemey (Richard Jaeckel)and Buck (the wonderful Bill McKinney)is superb, with early seventies stalwart Sheree North accusing Cody of trying to rape her when he rebuffs her advances, in such a cool and laconic way I laughed out loud. There are guilty pleasures to be had too, when Cody lays out a female telephone operator with a single vicious punch. All the heists are carefully planned and executed and Macklin and Cody are the ultimate professionals, working calmly and coolly under fire, while Bett drives the getaway car. The movie culminates in an assault on Mailer's home, which is better protected than any bank. "Getting out's gonna be a bitch" observes Cody as they plan their next move. Duvall and Baker really play off each other well in this movie, and their camaraderie and banter is a pleasure to watch, and one of the reasons the film is so enjoyable. Macklin offers Cody the chance to cut and run before the final show-down, as a thank you for his support up to that point,and a recognition that neither of them might make it out alive. "Nah! Think I'll stick around. See how this thing turns out!" he replies without even thinking about it. A tough thriller / heist movie with some eminently quotable dialogue,two great leads, a fine supporting cast that includes a young Joanna Cassidy as Mailer's young squeeze, and a simple plot line, that most movie goers will recognise has been re-made several times under different names: see Point Blank(Lee Marvin) or Payback (Mel Gibson)for example. This film can easily stand alongside those movies, and in many ways might even be superior, as it manages to deliver all of the thrills without any of the violence of Payback, or the voyeurism of Point Blank. Hard to believe this movie will be forty years old next year, as it still stands up as a great thriller.