The Professionals (1966): The Anti-Interventionist Western Hiding in Plain Sight
Richard Brooks’ The Professionals (1966) arrives wrapped in the familiar trappings of the mid-century Western: sun-scorched Mexican deserts and a crack team of hired guns. The premise is equally familiar—a mission to rescue a kidnapped woman. But whether strictly intentional or a product of its era’s shifting mood, the film stands as one of the 1960s’ most quietly potent critiques of American interventionism—a story in which tactical mastery and technical expertise prove irrelevant in the face of a reality the outsiders do not understand.
The film’s opening imagery signals this irrelevance before a single line of dialogue is spoken. We see a roaring campfire and a coffee kettle, a rifle leaning against a bullet-scarred wall, and the graffiti "VIVA VILLA" and "MUERA" (Death)—symbols of the Mexican Revolution(1) that has already swept through the land.
From this evocative opening, the film moves to a series of vignettes establishing the defining characteristics and specialized skills of the four protagonists: weapons master Rico Fardan (Lee Marvin), horse wrangler Hans Ehrengard (Robert Ryan), tracker Jake Sharp (Woody Strode), and explosives expert Bill Dolworth (Burt Lancaster). They are promised a large payoff by wealthy oil tycoon J.W. Grant (Ralph Bellamy) to retrieve his much younger wife, Maria (Claudia Cardinale), who has allegedly been kidnapped by the Mexican revolutionary Jesus Raza (Jack Palance).
Fardan and Dolworth have a history with Raza; they fought alongside him in the Mexican Revolution years prior. Yet, they return to Mexico now not as comrades but as contractors. Their past involvement grants them no real insight; if anything, it blinds them. They ride south with the arrogance of men who believe they are on a legitimate rescue mission, and if they succeed, will be a lot wealthier.
The film takes a sharp turn a little more than halfway through, suddenly exposing the lie at the heart of their mission. When Fardan and Dolworth finally infiltrate Raza’s hacienda during their operation, they do not find a victim. They spy Maria and her alleged captor preparing to make love. The reality is instantly clear: she is there by choice.
This realization hits Dolworth hardest. In a moment that serves as the film’s moral epitaph, he turns to Fardan and delivers the line that lays bare the hollowness of their entire enterprise: "Amigo, we've been had. Let's get the hell out of here."
But they don't get the hell out of there. Despite knowing the justification for their mission is a lie, they choose the contract over the truth and proceed with the "rescue" anyway. Fardan rushes into the room, knocks Raza unconscious, and seizes Maria. In the chaos, Dolworth raises his pistol to execute the helpless Raza—the man he now knows is Maria’s lover, not her jailer. He is only stopped by a sharp command from Fardan. They then retreat into the desert with Maria, in essence committing the very kidnapping they were sent to stop.
The moral rot of their mission is verbally confirmed during the desperate flight back to the border, with Raza and his men in hot pursuit. When the team is forced to pause, Maria confronts them, stripping away any remaining illusions. "I was not kidnapped," she tells her would-be rescuers. She confirms she is Raza’s lover and a willing participant in his fight.(2) The Americans are forced to reckon with the fact that they are not saving a victim; they are dragging a woman back to a loveless marriage she has explicitly rejected.
In 1966, as U.S. involvement in Vietnam escalated under the banner of "saving" a people from communism, this plot twist in The Professionals offered a subversive counter-narrative. While Brooks may not have set out to write a direct allegory, he was a filmmaker deeply attuned to social undercurrents, and his film captured the growing suspicion that America’s "good guys" might actually be intruders. It suggested that technical proficiency does not equal moral authority, and that you should not intervene in a struggle you might not understand.
Most contemporary reviews missed this subtext entirely. New York Times critic Bosley Crowther dismissed the script in his initial review, claiming the film's "scenery... is clearly more profound than the script." While he later included the film as an "Honorable Mention" in his year-end list, his praise remained superficial. He categorized it as merely "a good old slambang western," noted mainly for its "vitality" and "terrific scenic setting"—completely overlooking the subversive political critique hiding beneath the action.
Ultimately, the film’s most radical act is not its violence, but its ending. Unlike the nihilistic, suicidal violence of The Wild Bunch (1969) in which the heroes find redemption only in death, The Professionals ends with an act of quiet humility and life. The heroes don't win or lose in a firefight. They defy their employer, refuse to hand Maria over, and forfeit the reward money.
Before riding away, Fardan delivers a stinging rebuke for the man who wrote the checks. He tells Grant, "We made a contract to save a lady from a nasty old kidnapper. Who turns out to be you." When a furious Grant calls him a "bastard," Fardan’s reply is the film’s thematic mic-drop: "Yes, sir. In my case, an accident of birth. But you, sir, you're a self-made man." This bold line reinforces what has already been made clear: the true villain was never the Mexican revolutionary fighting for his land, but the wealthy American interventionist who believed his money gave him the right to do what he wanted.
- The Mexican Revolution (approx. 1910–1920) was a major armed struggle that ended a 30-year dictatorship and transformed Mexico’s government. Pancho Villa, referenced in the graffiti ("Viva Villa"), was a prominent general in the north who led an army of laborers and cowboys against the federal government, becoming a folk hero for his defiance of both Mexican elites and U.S. intervention.
- The "kidnapping" was actually a ruse coordinated by Maria to extort a ransom for the revolution. She never intended to return; she had permanently left Grant to be with Raza. Grant, viewing his wife as property, refused to pay the ransom and instead hired the team to forcibly retrieve her—preferring to spend money on violence rather than pay any ransom.
References:
– The Professionals Script - Dialogue Transcript, Drew's Script-O-Rama.
