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Prime Cut
  

Prime Cut

Starring: Lee Marvin, Gene Hackman Director: Michael Ritchie Rating: R (Restricted) Format: DVD
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)

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Product Details

  • Actors: Lee Marvin, Gene Hackman, Angel Tompkins, Gregory Walcott, Sissy Spacek
  • Directors: Michael Ritchie
  • Format: NTSC
  • Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Rating: R (Restricted)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B000980GV6
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #182,960 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  • For more information about "Prime Cut" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Prime Cut is a strangely likeable if decidedly oddball thriller from 1972. A happy collision of gangster genre grit (validated by Lee Marvin's granite-faced lead performance) with a strain of shameless (though shrewd) exploitation not unfamiliar to screenwriter Robert Dillon (X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes), plus the kinetic, semi-documentary wit of director Michael Ritchie (The Candidate) makes Prime Cut both a straightforward noir and a satire of itself. Marvin plays Nick, an aging enforcer for the Chicago mob, sent to Kansas City to deal with a ruthless cattle baron (Gene Hackman) who owes a half-million to Windy City racketeers. Hackman's character (inexplicably named Mary Ann), dismissive of old-guard crime chieftains, has set up his own heartland empire guarded by a weird contingent of blond, lookalike young men with rifles. Not only does he render the bodies of his enemies into sausage meat, Mary Ann is making a fortune trafficking in naked, enslaved young women. One of the latter, played by Sissy Spacek (in her film debut), falls under the protection of Nick, who sets about taking Mary Ann down. Ritchie's highly energized, absurdist scenes (e.g., a gunfight in an endless field of sunflowers) are nicely counterpointed by Marvin's smooth anti-heroics and the self-conscious cheesiness of the sex slave angle. --Tom Keogh

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Customer Reviews

30 Reviews
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 (10)
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 (13)
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Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (30 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
41 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the all-time absolutely best American movies!, January 4, 2000
By inframan (the lower depths) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Prime Cut [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Frame by frame (preferably wide-screen) this movie stands out as a major accomplishment on every level: as an action thriller, as a suspense drama, as visual and cultural satire.

The classic opening scene of a conveyor belt in a sausage plant holds its own alongside the opening scenes in Touch of Evil for narrative invention and visual ingenuity.

So many brilliant set pieces follow that it's hard to single them out: Gene Hackman as "Mary Ann", the gangster meat-packer feeding his face in the company of a tableful of stockyard guests as Lee Marvin mumbles: "You eat guts." The pen of "white slaves" amid the other "stock" in the giant barn during the meatpackers trade show. Marvin & Sissy Spacek being chased through a gorgeous ocean of Iowa(?) wheat by shotgun-toting, tow-headed & tanned, killer farmboys. The giant menacing combine in the same panoramic field confronting & consuming & excreting the big black city-slicker limousine. & so very much more.

This movie is a feast of images and ideas and sensations. If the 70s was the last golden age of film, then Prime Cut was the pinnacle of that period.
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36 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Grade A, March 8, 2005
By JR Dunn (New Brunswick,, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Prime Cut [VHS] (VHS Tape)
They don't make 'em wilder than this.

"Prime Cut" is essentially the ancient fairy tale about the ogres preying on innocent maidens until the knight comes to town updated to a rural Kansas mob-war milieu. The chief ogre here is Mary Ann (not "Mother") a Great Plains gang leader played by Gene Hackman with the relish of a man who knows he may never see a role quite like this one again. His shaven-headed brother Weenie (Gregory Walcott) does things like run rival mobsters through meat-grinders and attack limos with pitchforks. The representative maiden is played by Sissy Spacek, back when she looked cute rather than merely odd. Lee Marvin plays the knight, flourishing a submachine gun while wearing a pricey 70s-style silver-gray suit.

None of which goes anywhere near far enough in relaying the serious strangeness of the thing. For that you need scenes like the one introducing Mary Ann tucking into a plate of beef guts ("I like 'em!"). Or the young gangster eagerly introducing boss Marvin to his mother. Or the shootout in a field of enormous sunflowers. Or Lee's visit to ex-mistress Clarabelle (I swear I'm not making up these names) who lives on a houseboat that looks as if it was designed by Christo collaborating with Heidi Fleiss. And I could go on.

Ritchie later made a number of innocuous comedies and Robert Redford vehicles of the "Downhill Racer" variety. But just once (the very late "Alleged Cheerleader-Murdering Texas Mom" being a partial exception), he got out of the cage and ran wild, and "Prime Cut" is the result. Compare it to Tarantino if you must, but if he or any of the other bravos has ever matched this, I haven't heard about it. "Prime Cut" is sui generis. They don't make 'em like this any more for the very simple reason that they never did in the first place. That's our loss.

...and oh yeah, I'll have mine well done.

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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Lee Marvin Is Prime Cut When it comes to Action, April 27, 2000
This review is from: Prime Cut [VHS] (VHS Tape)
A ENJOYABLE FILM DONE WITH THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF ACTION AND COMEDY. Lee Marvin one of the all time greats plays a chicago hitman who is hired to take down an old nemesis from kansas city, who has been invovled in the slave trading business. This film even by today's standards can still be considered a delight to see. the old time dixie music and the farmland scenery is a throwback to what life was like a long time ago. Gene Hackman plays "mary ann" the one who tries to compete in the slave industy. another standout was this was Sissy Spacek's film debut. As for lee marvin Hollywood lost an icon when he passed away. There will never be another Lee Marvin as far as i'm concerned. And when you see this film or any other of his films you'll see why.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Crazy Sunlit Noir
I saw this film when it came out in theaters way back when. I didn't remember much of it except the character Weinie's attempted stabbing of Nick (Lee Marvin) with... Read more
Published 20 days ago by J. Levy

4.0 out of 5 stars American Gothic
This thing is whack! Very edgy and ahead of its day of 1972. Lots of hand held camera work, weird angles and off-beat cutting. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Bradley F. Smith

4.0 out of 5 stars Probably Ingrid Newkirk's favorite movie
Lee Marvin as an enforcer for the Chicago Irish (?!) mob, Gene Hackman playing a character named Mary Ann, Sissy Spacek (before she started looking like a leprechaun) in a... Read more
Published on November 16, 2007 by Frank Clover

4.0 out of 5 stars Lee Marvin V Gene Hackman
This is a rarely seen movie which basically is a showcase for the great acting of Hackman and Marvin - stoic Marvin taking on out of control pig farmer and sausage maker Hackman... Read more
Published on July 17, 2007 by G. SANSOM

4.0 out of 5 stars Yummy!
SO many of the best films came out of the 70's and this is certainly one of them. Mobsters, sex slave trade, and most of all good ole' country cuisine make Prime Cut a real... Read more
Published on February 12, 2007 by DonMac

4.0 out of 5 stars Oldy but Goody
This a classic with great acting and some light nudity that was well before its time. Worth a watch or two just so you can brag about having seen it. Read more
Published on January 15, 2007 by Harold R. Kirkbride

3.0 out of 5 stars Lee Marvin was the ultimate in professional torpedoes...
In the Fifties, in "Violent Saturday," he made a little name as the killer who kept using a nose spray while terrorizing Sylvia Sidney and a bank... Read more
Published on January 10, 2007 by Roberto Frangie

4.0 out of 5 stars How to tell if Lee Marvin had been drinking.



I bought this movie and loved it for the sheer wierdness of seeing three academy award winning actors in a movie about meat grinding humans and drugged... Read more
Published on October 4, 2006 by William Kalal

5.0 out of 5 stars A twisted dish indeed
Being from Kansas City I'm always interested in any cinema shot here, especially since there are so very few movies made in this part of the country. Read more
Published on July 18, 2006 by M. Collins

3.0 out of 5 stars A guilty Pleasure
I have always liked Gene Hackman (real different role for him) and Lee Marvin. Simple plot, Mobster is skimming money, enforcer is sent by mob boss to get it back. Read more
Published on April 12, 2006 by A. Long

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