The Professionals. Richard Brooks. 1966
Film Plot. The End of Cynicism Journey. The Professionals. Three Academy Award Nominations
The Professionals is a 1966 American western starring Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Woody Strode, and Claudia Cardinale. The supporting cast includes Jack Palance and Ralph Bellamy and the film was written and directed by Richard Brooks, whose screenplay was based upon the novel A Mule for the Marquesa by Frank O'Rourke.
The movie received three Academy Award nominations and an enthusiastic critical reception.
In the latter period of the Mexican Revolution, Rancher J.W. Grant (Ralph Bellamy) hires four men, who are all experts in their respective fields, to rescue his kidnapped wife, Maria (Claudia Cardinale) from Jesus Raza (Jack Palance), a former Mexican Revolutionary leader turned bandit.
Team leader Henry "Rico" Fardan (Lee Marvin) is a weapons specialist, Bill Dolworth (Burt Lancaster) is an explosives expert, the horse wrangler is Hans Ehrengard (Robert Ryan) and Jake Sharp (Woody Strode) is a scout with traditional Apache skills, particularly with a bow and arrow. Fardan and Dolworth, having both fought under the command of Pancho Villa, have a high regard for Raza as a soldier. But they are hard and cynical professionals so they have no qualms about killing him now.
After crossing the Mexican border, the team tracks the bandits to their hideout. They bear witness as soldiers on a government train are massacred by Raza's small army. The professionals follow the captured train to the end of the line and retake it from the bandits. Some move on to the bandit camp and observe Raza and his followers — including a buxom soldier, Chiquita (Marie Gomez). At nightfall, Fardan infiltrates Raza's private quarters but he is stopped from killing him by Maria, the kidnapped wife. "Amigo," Dolworth concludes, "we've been had."
Fardan does what he is being paid for and escapes with Grant's wife. Back at the train, the men find that it has been retaken by the bandits. After a shootout, they retreat into the mountains, hotly pursued by Raza and his men. The professionals evade capture by using explosives to bring down the walls of a gully, thus blocking the path. But as Raza and his group are relentless, Dolworth acts as a rearguard to allow the others to escape. The bandit leader is captured, battered and wounded following an ambush.
The four professionals, with Maria and Raza, reach the U.S. border to be met by Grant and his own men. It is then revealed that they had not rescued his kidnapped wife but Raza's willing mistress. Grant "bought" Maria for an arranged marriage only for her to escape and return to her "true love" in Mexico. The pleased rancher then tells Fardan that their contract has been completed to his full satisfaction and he releases them from the business agreement.
As Maria hugs the wounded Raza on the ground, Grant callously turns to one of his men and says, "Kill him." But before the man can shoot, the gun is shot out of his hand by Dolworth who tells Grant he has not earned the right to kill a man like Raza. The four professionals then step in to protect Maria and Raza. Grant calls Fardan a bastard, to which Fardan retorts: "Yes, sir, in my case an accident of birth. But you, sir, you are a self-made man."
The professionals collect the wounded Raza, put him on a carriage and, with Grant's wife at the reins, send them both back to Mexico. They collect their things and follow on horseback.
Burt Lancaster ... Bill Dolworth
Lee Marvin ... Henry 'Rico' Fardan
Claudia Cardinale ... Mrs. Maria Grant
Robert Ryan ... Hans Ehrengard
Woody Strode ... Jake Sharp
Jack Palance ... Jesus Raza
Ralph Bellamy ... Joe Grant
Joe De Santis ... Ortega
Rafael Bertrand ... Fierro
Jorge Martínez de Hoyos ... Goatkeeper
Marie Gomez ... Chiquita
José Chávez ... Revolutionary
Carlos Romero ... Revolutionary
Vaughn Taylor ... Money-Delivering Banker
The film received three nominations at the 1967 Academy Awards. Writer and director Richard Brooks, for Best Director and Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) and cinematographer Conrad Hall, for Best Cinematography.
The film won two Motion Picture Magazine Laurel Awards in 1967, for Best Action Drama and Best Action Performance for Lee Marvin. In Germany, it was one of only four movies to receive a Golden Screen award (the others were Doctor Zhivago, Merveilleuse Angélique and You Only Live Twice) in 1967.
WIKIPEDIA
Quotes
Hans; “What were Americans doing, fighting a revolution in Mexico anyway?”
Dolworth; “Maybe there’s only one revolution. Since the beginning. The good guys against the bad guys. The question is, who are the good guys?”
Raza; “...That will change nothing. She (he) is my woman (man), before, now, always.”
Dolworth “Nothing is for always. Except death. ...Ask those in the cemetery of nameless men (women).”
Raza; “They died for what they believed.”
Dolworth “The revolution? When the shooting stops and the dead are buried, and the politicians take over, it all adds up to one thing. A lost cause.”
Raza; “So you want perfection, or nothing. Oh, you’re too romantic compadre. The revolution is like a great love affair. In the beginning she (he) is a goddess (god). A holy cause. But every love affair has a terrible enemy.”
Dolworth; “Time”.
Raza; “We see her (him) as she (he) is. The revolution is not a goddess (god) but a whore (male whore/pimp). She (he) was never pure, never saintly, never perfect. And we run away, find another lover, another cause, quick, sordid affairs. Lust, but no love, passion, but no compassion. Without love, without a cause we are nothing. We stay because we believe, we leave because we are disillusioned, we come back because we are lost, we die because we are committed.”
Richard Brooks and Claudia Cardinale. On set.
Jack Palance. On set.
The Committed Departure. The Continuation of the Cause. Amera Ziganii Rao
It’s not just a journey of becoming an unlearned helplessness female, it is also a journey of becoming an unlearned control female. The control of emotional care, the control of misogynistic based direction of female skills and talents into the family, the unpaid frustrating midwifery if you like, of emotionally unavailable people, namely men. Anyone can be emotionally unavailable and usually are in the wounded ego, but the traditional journey of woman and man is the woman pounding on the door of a man’s heart, right? The learned emotional care giving/control, in other words.
Friendship with a man therefore is actually being ABLE to let go of the emotional carer or controller. Of course, a programme of unlearning has to be embarked on but so worth it. Who wants to be nursing an adult male anyway? And yet, we are programmed to do it and do not realise that it is a skill like any other. How to do it, when to do it, how to do it professionally, how to do it personally, and of course, I should know, even as a woman, that women are very much like men. Some are very good at it and some are just crap at it. We are all learning friendship all the time.
Of course, like learned helplessness, learned caregiving is a response to male unavailability, coercive power and having all our professional skills culled and taken away from us. So again, it is a responsive wound to coercive corruptive power. Nevertheless, it is our privilege to get rid of it, even if it was forced upon us from circumstances. Daughters especially of my type, type and archetype, are giving from the day we are born, sharing the wisdom, listening, helping and of course, those interactions have led me to do this as a profession, so yes, of course, there are pluses and minuses, but discernment is the name of the game and unlearning to learn.
Misogyny or gender racism as I like to call it now of course is another matter. It is that which has created the emotional care misgiver, if you like, and what has most tragically, killed the friendship between a man and a woman. Whether it is outright cruelty, whoremongering or the whore and Madonna syndrome, it is misogyny that has created that vanishing of friendship as soon as a relationship or courtship or marriage begins.
It is also the generic wounded ego that destroys friendship between any two people who are family or who become family. What is more commonly called ‘taking for granted’ or co-dependency. Why someone can treat a stranger better than their partner, daughter, son, mother, father, cousin, and the like. Need, greed and conditional love, in other words. All these things destroy friendship dead and true love is about friendship more than anything else, if not above and beyond every single other thing. ‘Taking someone for granted’ or needing the illusion of an angelic love, it is all about the wounded ego and being emotionally unavailable. But it’s not personal. It is being non present on Earth. It is being in the terrified, self medicating, mad wounded ego.
Soul is to feel totally present on the planet in this existence and to give oneself to anyone fully and totally, so that even a minute’s conversation or interaction or a glance is fulfilling. Not hiding. And not just at the beginning. All the way through any relationship. Always being authentic and real. I am not being flippant or cold about it. That is the journey’s end. To be present. The first pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, if you like.
Misogyny and gender racism, bullying, coercive family behaviour, coercive ‘friends’ behaviour are all the same. Misogyny, the whore and Madonna madness of needing illusion...these are just the male manifestations of ego. It is friendship we as women lose by entering relationship and marriage. That is what ‘the fear of penetration’ (literal or emotional or symbolic) is. And not surprising.
Of course, women in the wounded ego will also withdraw friendship through need and greed too. Conditional love is as generic as anything else. ‘Taking for granted’ is not a male thing. But in the Rochester and Jane Eyre legend, the ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’ legend, the woman reaches first.
Which means that the final stage has to be then entered into, so that as Raza says in The Professionals, we don’t feel ‘lost’ and waste months or years of emotional investment. The return after the disillusionment. Which actually means a committed keeping out of it, until or unless a man (or anyone) can enter soul too. The Jerry Maguire moment of suddenly feeling. I have always been bemused in the symbolism of drama, how it happens so fast, but remembering my own entrance into soul, it was fast. Consciousness suddenly descends with the lesson that moves one completely out of conditional love and into the peace of a different existence. The universal self. The knowing self. Ego still pains, ego still hurts, but we are now watching the ego, as opposed to the ego watching the soul.
The Sacred Whore has to wait to see if the man she loves, can move into soul too. An almost impossible pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, especially with a legacy of darkness and misogyny and coercive power and corruption. But it does happen and as Raza, again, says, without a cause there is nothing. Until or unless. Same difference in the end. Especially because while anti romantics would say, what foolery, anyone who has healed or is involved in healing, knows that this evolution to soul is actually quite without mystery. Looking within, re-programming and re-educating oneself and self crucifying in each moment. Easy. Hardly easy, but certainly straightforward. Healing. The return to oneself. The return to the Source. The Source being the Soul. The Soul, being the Source.
And meanwhile, as I say, a woman can then find herself in the enviable position of actually being ABLE to be herself and not be this relentless emotional carer and controller of a relationship (with him or anyone) anymore. The risk of love has been taken. It’s been completely withdrawn. The risk of loss is over because so is the love from the other. So there is no more fear of loss and there is no more fear of anything. We know what we know and we love who we love. The war for us is over. We can just breathe and be. Celebrate as well as mourn the bittersweet of ‘waiting’, knowing that for the first time in our female, giving, lives, we might actually be able to have a friend as a partner. That, or nothing at all. Which means, it was all worth it. We can also, finally, put love second, just like a man. Committed but in the proper perspective at last. Self crucifixion indeed, but so very much worth it.
The final stage and one that has to be entered into, with as much commitment and dedication, reality and hope, as any other stage.
‘It’s not over ‘til it’s over’ as is said.
Raza; We see her (him) as she (he) is. The revolution is not a goddess (god) but a whore (male whore/pimp). She (he) was never pure, never saintly, never perfect. And we run away, find another lover, another cause, quick, sordid affairs. Lust, but no love, passion, but no compassion. Without love, without a cause we are nothing. We stay because we believe, we leave because we are disillusioned, we come back because we are lost, we die because we are committed.”
Amera Ziganii Rao © 2012
Lee Marvin. The Professionals
Amera Ziganii Rao. A Profile
WRITER. ESOTERIC. PHILOSOPHER. ENLIGHTENER. INSPIRER. PHOTOGRAPHER. ARTIST. SELF ACTUALISATION. LIBERATION. SEXUALISATION. HUMAN RIGHTS
Amera Ziganii Rao is a philosophical writer, essayist, social commentator, cultural commentator, spiritual commentator, prose writer, dramatist and photographer as well as a consciousness explorer, mystic, self actualiser and emotional healer. She is a former hard news journalist who is now turning professional with her art forms and indeed, her healing forms, after a long journey of inner searching, self teaching and exploring many layers and areas of both craft and wisdom. She is now working on her first book of philosophy and esoteric thought, and social, cultural and spiritual commentary. She is also showing her first photography collections. And last but most definitely not least, she is building a business to share her consciousness and empowering explorations to reach as many people as possible across the world. She is in her forties and lives in London.
Amera Ziganii Rao © 2011
AMERA ZIGANII RAO SCHOOL OF LEARNING
Writer and Enlightener, Amera Ziganii Rao, is now putting together a comprehensive and unique programme of Education For Liberation. Liberation of the lower mind into the higher mind, the soul and the inner heart and therefore one's true, confident, happy, successful, creative, sexual, sensual, individual, intelligent, emotionally healed, capable of loving and being loved self. Based on her scholarly and non scholarly work over 15 years (so far), if not for her whole life, and her extensive and intense, visceral experiences of self transformation from resignation, cynicism and despair to a state of relative bliss, and above all, the right to be, the courses will cover the method of change. The psychological, sociological, spiritual, cultural, political, emotional and physical and even anthropological methods of change. Why we are here. The meaning of life, no less. This will be on offer in the future. My first book of consciousness, a comprehensive series of online courses, live events and audio and visual material. Books, live events, CDs and DVDs. The method of change. The right to be and the way to have the right to be.
Amera Ziganii Rao © 2011
AMERA ZIGANII RAO SCHOOL OF LEARNING ll
In the meantime, please enjoy this website. I have included many of the subjects I am covering, areas of experience and insight that I will be exploring to the fullest in my book, the courses and all the other work that is to come as a dramatist, novelist and essayist. I also of course, include many of the wise people on this planet, who have come long before me; authors, screen dramatists, playwrights, film makers, artists, and other enlighteners and grand carriers of the wisdom I have found the most helpful on my journey, to find peace and become enlightened. The seemingly impossible journey, in the face of oneself and one’s circumstances. People who have contributed massively to my healing on this mad journey called life, in this insane existence called The Universe. People who have helped to make me as good a carrier of wisdom as I in turn, can be. Thank you.
Amera Ziganii Rao © 2011
Amera Ziganii Rao. Philosophical Writer, Communicator and Empowerer. Essayist. Dramatist. Prose Writer. Artist Photographer. Actor. Film and TV Creative. Entrepreneur. Esoteric Mystic and Scholar. Shaman. Clair Cognisant. Metaphysicist. Consciousness Explorer. Self Actualiser. Alchemist. Sage. Sacred Whore. Sexualist. High Priestess. Titan. Gladiator. Freedom Fighter. Feminist. Egalitarian. Spiritual Truth Seeker. Defender of The Meek and The Unrecognised. Warrior. Samurai. Outlaw. My Business is Human Rights, The Right to a Sexual Society, Self Actualisation and Freedom. My Business is To Overthrow Fascism, in the Home and in the Country. My business is also mastering destiny. Overthrowing the ultimate fascism. The Universe. Fate. Submitting to the journey to liberate and evolve oneself, through following one's heart, however much heartbreak and devastation it leads to on the long long long journey to freedom and then the longer journey to happiness. 'Long Road to Freedom', as Nelson Mandela says. My business is always taking risks, never giving up and making the endless sacrifices it takes to become whole. Enlightenment, Nirvana and then Parinirvana and beyond. My business is pain.
Amera Ziganii Rao © 2011
Other Links
Amera Ziganii Rao. A Profile ll
http://ameraziganiirao.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/amera-ziganii-rao-profile-ll.html
Amera Ziganii Rao Photography
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ziganiirao/
http://ameraziganiiraoart.blogspot.co.uk/
Thank you to outside sources for photography. Darkroomed by Amera Ziganii Rao
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