Pros: DVD enhances imagery and sound immensely! Lancaster, Delon, script, supporting cast,
Cons: Dated 70s polyester look, otherwise great.
The Bottom Line: Finally available in theatrical format DVD, the crystal clear imagery and sound enhances what has always been one of the better spy films to come out of Hollywood. See Scorpio!
Director Michael Winner's 1973 Scorpio starred Burt Lancaster as an aging CIA operative, Cross, wanting to "come in from the cold."
In a magnificent performance, Lancaster takes the viewer behind the gray stone facade of the CIA, showing the inner workings of The Company. It is a view we would rather not see, I’m afraid, but we keep on peeping through our fingers at the fascinating exposure!
Cross' protégé is a contract hit man, Scorpio, played by Alain Delon. The two men are shown working together on a hit in an unspecified African nation. On the plane back from Paris to Washington, Cross warns Scorpio not to trust the CIA. He tells Scorpio he had the contract to kill him since two hits ago, but chose not to fulfill it. Because of his hesitance, Cross is now considered unreliable by the CIA. The men part.
Tension is provided by Cross wanting out, while Scorpio wants in. WWII-era Cross is a "cowboy," out of touch with the way the new breed at CIA work, obsessed with efficiency and little concerned with the human cost of their computer-aided decisions. Scorpio is a contract killer, little regarded by the agency, which discards such men as casually as one discards a wrapper from a takeout hamburger.
Scorpio is arrested on trumped-up drug charges. The CIA offers him a way out: kill Cross. He accepts after stipulating that he will be brought inside the agency with Cross' old job once the contract is fulfilled. The CIA director (John Colicos) agrees.
Cross is being watched. He shakes off the tails and makes a devious way to Europe where he meets his old counterpart, the Communist bureau chief, Zharkov, admirably played by talented thespian Paul Schofield. The word is out: Cross is to be eliminated. Scorpio is in hot pursuit, with the still-athletic Cross managing to stay just ahead of him.
Meanwhile, back in Washington, during a bungled burglary attempt the CIA kills Cross' wife. Cross returns to America and arranges the assassination of the CIA director. He performs the hit himself and escapes.
Scorpio finally tracks him down. Facing Scorpio's gun, Cross says, "There is a room in CIA HQ where the directors play a game. It's a bit like Monopoly. There's no good and no bad. The object of that game is not to win, but not to lose, and the only rule is to stay in the game." Scorpio murders Cross.
As he walks from the darkened garage, cat-lover Scorpio stops to fondle a stray cat. Two muffled shots ring out from a darkened limousine. Scorpio will not be getting Cross' old job, after all.
Apart from the excellent acting from Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon, the script is the real gem in this film. The storyline is plausible enough for those interested in recent events to be believable, and it leaves the viewer with a sick feeling of how an out-of-control government full of unaccountable bureaucrats can turn a formidable espionage agency against its own citizens.
Photography is excellent, with impressive location shots from Washington to Vienna, to Paris, to nameless African locations.
UPDATE: Now available on DVD! The MGM DVD is crystal clear and adds immensely to the enjoyment of Scorpio. Presented in 1.66: 1 format it adds quite a bit of imagery to the pan and scan format of the VHS version. The digital imagery and sound add plenty to the enjoyment of one of my favorite espionage thrillers. You won't want to miss this!
Also recommended for fans of political thrillers are The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, a magnificent Cold War epic featuring Richard Burton's finest performance, The Third Man, a tale of post-WWII Vienna, and The Day of the Jackal, another gripping undercover thriller.
Burt Lancaster stars as Cross a US intelligence veteran whose CIA chief McLeod John Colicos has marked him for termination. On the run from the assass...More at Family Video
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