The Outfit - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Outfit



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:




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Movie
While Robert Duvall is an absolute legend, he really wasn’t a big star until his mid 40s. Back in 1973, he’d acted in a few things with notoriety (most infamously THX 1138 and The Godfather), but he wasn’t a household name at that point. Which may be one of the reasons why The Outfit was glossed over by most of the cinematic community. It was a perfectly fine crime thriller, but when people like Gene Hackman, Clint Eastwood, and John Wayne were dominating the silver screen, the middle-aged actor just wasn’t recognized yet.

Penned from one of Donald E. Westlake’s crime novels, The Outfit is a tightly wound crime thriller that puts it all out on the line without being flashy or pretentious. It’s a simple revenge thriller that ends exactly how you would expect it to end from the opening monologue. Duvall is Earl Macklin, a bank robber who has just gotten out of a 27-year prison sentence after a botched job in Wichita. Little did they know when they took the job that the bank was run by “The Outfit”, a criminal organization much larger than the Macklin brothers and their crew. After getting out of the joint, Earl finds out that his brother has been recently murdered, and that he and another one of the crew are the only surviving members. Hooking up with Jack Cody (Joe Don Baker), the two decided to go on a revenge tour, recouping the money that they lost going to jail, and sticking it to The Outfit as well.

There’s some hullabaloo with Earl’s girlfriend Brett (Karen Black), who set him up at the beginning of the film with The Outfit, but that is weirdly hashed out in a classic “hardboiled” way. Meaning she’s forgiven after getting slapped around a bit. But past that,t this is a straightforward crime thriller. Earl and Jack (along with Brett) go on a Bonnie and Clyde style bender, robbing various members of The Outfit to make up the $250,000 that they lost while in the joint, effectively rubbing their noses in the criminal organization while justifying it by stating that it’s to avenge Earl’s brother. Reality is, it’s a mixture. Earl wants to avenge his dead brother, but he’s really after some payback for getting screwed out of 2 years in jail, and his character pretty much says that without actually saying anything.

Robert Duvall puts in a solid performance as the rough and tumble bank robber, but strangely isn’t THAT amazing. Or at least he’s not as amazing as he would become in the 80s and 90s. I got a chuckle out of the fact that Duvall looks both younger than I expected, yet a full decade older than he was in real life at the time (he looks mid 50s, and early 40s at the same time, despite barely being 41 in the filming of this one). His rugged tough guy persona works well for the character he’s playing, though the age disparity between his looks and Karen Black’s is almost comical.




Rating:

Rated PG by the MPAA




Video:

As was the case for all of July’s Arrow titles, The Outfit was restored by Arrow Films by going to the 35mm OCN and scanning it at 4K / 16-bit resolution using Warner’s MPI productions. The alternate ending included on the disc was sourced from a different 35mm IP, and then the whole thing was restored and color graded in 2K at Duplitech.

Part of me wishes that we could have gotten a 4K UHD disc due to the film being scanned at 4K, but I get it. This is a dirty-looking 1970s film that had an aging 35mm OCN, and probably wouldn’t look that much better (at least, that’s what I tell myself to assuage myself), but I still do wish it. Anyways, The Outfit looks solid enough for what it is, with good detail levels and a clean-looking image that doesn’t show much print damage at all. The grain is thick and heavy, with varying degrees of grain levels depending on the scene. Black crush can be a problem due to the dim lighting and heavy grain, but shadow details are still pretty impressive. The image can look a bit whitewashed at times, but skin tones look natural despite the white blasting, and the color palette is very much that 1970’s brown that we’re all familiar with. Maybe not perfect, but still a solid representation of the film’s source.







Audio:

The singular 1.0 Mono LPCM track is modest, but gets the job done with aplomb. Dialog is strong, cleanly replicated in the mains, and gunfire and various action bits add some spice to the thing. Naturally it’s not going to be as dynamic as a full-on surround track, and a mono mix has certain limitations, but there is nothing wrong with the simple track. It just gets the job done.










Extras:

• Brand new audio commentary by critic & author Jedidiah Ayres and 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
• Theatrical trailer
• Image galleries
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
• Collectors' booklet with new writing by critics Chris D, Glenn Kenny, and Priscilla Page

Final Score: ​

The film itself is solid, but never spectacular, giving us a solid Noir crime flick that has a few too many detours before ending up at the inevitable conclusion. Is it an amazing cult classic that I can’t wait to pull out? No. But even by modern standards, The Outfit is a solidly entertaining film that I don’t mind checking out when I have a chance. Arrow’s great restoration process gives it new life (the old DVD I saw years ago was TERRIBLE) and a hefty amount of extras for those of you who are fans. At the end of the day, I’d consider this one a good rental, or tentative buy for those who haven’t seen it before. And a solid thumbs up for fans of the film.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Robert Duvall, Karen Black, Joe Don Baker, Robert Ryan
Directed by: John Flynn
Written by: John Flynn, Donald E. Westlake
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: English: LPCM Mono
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Arrow
Rated: PG
Runtime: 103 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: July 28th, 2026

Recommendation: Check It Out