Cast: Robert Duvall, Joe Don Baker, Karen Black, Robert Ryan Review by Colin Dibben
Earl Macklin (Duvall) is a professional. A professional heist man. He robs banks. Once he robbed a bank with his brother Eddie. The bank was an organised crime front. Eddie got dead, Macklin got prison. Now Macklin is out, looking for revenge. His old lady, Bett (Black), tries to talk him out of it, but she owes Macklin and she knows it.
Macklin and Bett team up with retired thief Cody (Baker) to hold up The Outfit’s outlets – card and numbers games, import and export fronts – forcing mob boss Mailer (Ryan) to pay them off or kill them hard.
An under-rated rough diamond from a period of great crime thrillers, The Outfit takes a procedural approach to criminal acts – an approach in which there is no room for the police, only the hegemony of criminal power. This is a world in which independents like Macklin are always in conflict with the relentless corporatised structures of organised crime.
The no-nonsense, driven characters are shown doing their thing in a no-nonsense way, but there are lots of well-crafted sequences and considered details to appreciate. Highlights include the sequence where they visit a redneck car dealer and the film’s climactic home invasion and shootout. But you also notice little things like the grimy suburban and county road environments they travel along and stay in; and the way Macklin always asks for the first names of people he heists (it keeps them calmer to be addressed by their first names).
The film is so coolly made that it almost captures the icy spirit of Richard Stark’s much-loved Parker books, on one of which The Outfit is based. Unlike the books, Macklin and Bett, especially, are allowed both back stories and some nice scenes together. It is great to see these iconic actors building up a storm in a motel room.
The film also features the last performance from perma-snarling Robert Ryan, who delivers possibly the best, definitely the nastiest line in the film, despite it being a simple but harsh response to his wife’s remark that she is going to bed.
Watch out for cameos by several film noir character actors such as Elisha Cook Jr and Anita O’Day.
This limited edition Blu-ray is a brand new restoration from the original 35mm camera negative by Arrow Films. It is a High Definition (1080p) presentation.
Features include:
- Original and alternate ending options
- Brand new audio commentary by critic and author Jedidiah Ayres, film critic Mike White of The Projection Booth Podcast
- The Man With the Getaway Face, a brand new appreciation of author Donald E. Westlake (aka Richard Stark) by Westlake expert Levi Stahl
- Paths Not Taken, a brand new appreciation of the film by critic Walter Chaw
- Tapping into the Outsider, a brand new featurette on The Outfit and the Parker novels by Alissa Marmol-Cernat and Shay Dennis, creators of Tough Business: A Parker Site
- Archival interview with filmmaker Walter Hill on director John Flynn
The Outfit is out on Blu-ray from Arrow Video on 27 July 2026.
About the Author
