Wizard-8 "Scorpio" is a pretty good spy drama, though it's not for everyone. Before I explain that qualifying remark, a brief mention of the movie's positive attributes. Unlike a lot of other movies involving spies, the plot for "Scorpio" is pretty easy to follow. The movie also portrays the world of spies in a more realistic fashion; spying for the most part isn't action- packed, but instead involves a lot of humdrum stuff. The movie also has a very un-Hollywood-like ending that I thought was pretty refreshing. Those last two positive attributes, however, are two that will turn many people (mainly young viewers) off this movie. The lack of action will probably bore them, and the ending will probably infuriate them. But if you are a fan of older movies and their particular kind of storytelling, the movie is a good way to spend 114 minutes of your time.

djderka I had seen this years ago and thankfully it was shown again on thisTV out of Indianapolis.Although this film is a great spy thriller, it is much more about friendship. Deep friendship. Between enemies and old friends. Not the fleeting digital facebook friendship where facebook folks are friended are defriended with the ease of changing lipstick. But deep, 'no questions asked' friendship of life threatening assistance. Do you have any friends like that? I think not. This is more a human story of old loyalties not nameless rule book bureaucrats. There is a very poignant scene in the music hall where Max and Cross are listening to Brahms talking about the favor that Cross needs. Earlier in a cafe, Cross tells Max he needs a favor, and Max says he will do it no matter what and has the weekend free. Max is a music instructor. In the music hall, Cross says the favor may be painful, he needs a message delivered to his wife and it will probably kick back to Max. Max doesn't care, because after WWII, Cross was the one who liberated Max from the camps, where "he couldn't listen to Brahms without crying". Now, after being liberated he can. He dies helping Cross. Who has friends like that?Cross friendships go deep, from the hood in DC to a Soviet spy. In fact, those friendships transcend race and politics.Scorpio predates Casino Royale in a great foot chase through a construction sight and it also has the intrigue of 3 Days of the Condor. It also predates the Bourne Identity series in that Cross is one step ahead of the CIA most of the time.GREAT LINE: SCORPIO: "I think you better try McLeods chair for fit, it is going to be empty soon". Said to 2nd highest CIA guy after learning that an agent of McLeod killed Cross's wife.I liked Cross's coterie of old friends that he relies on for his escape through Europe and in the US. A great entertaining thriller and with Burt Lancaster, Alan Deloin and Max Schofield you will have a delightful time.

sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** A lot like Michael Winner's previous thriller "The Mechanic" the film "Scoripo" has to do with an aging CIA assassin who's now regarded by his superiors as being both obsolete and expendable. There's also the suspicion that he's planing to flee to Moscow and reveal all the secrets of the agency, CIA, that can be very embarrassing to both his bosses in the US Government and his contacts and undercover agents in the USSR.Cross, Burt Lancaster, has been in the dirty business of political assassinations since WWII. Now in his 50's Cross wants to retire and live out the rest of his life with his wife Sarah, Joanne Linville, in peace and quite without looking over his shoulder every time he's out on the streets.With Cross' new boss McLoad, John Colicos, suspecting him of treason he sends out cat loving French hit-man Jean Laurier-Alain Delon-or code name Scorpio to do Cross in before, in McLoad opinion, he defects behind the Iron Curtain. It turns out that Laurier was Cross', who thought him every thing he knows about contract killings, protégé in the assassination business as well as being a good friend of his. Laurier is also curtain that Cross is clean and this antagonism towards him by McLoad is personal not professional in that Cross, a man who likes to do things his way, doesn't toady up to him like the rest of the agents he's in charge of.Suspense filled thriller with Cross on the run as his options for staying alive dwindle down to next to zero. Laurier is very hesitant to knock off Cross in that he feels that, besides being a good friend of his, he's innocent of the charges that McLoad accuses him off. With him trapped in Vienna Cross goes to the only person who can possibly save his life long time friend and adversary Soviet Agent Zarkov, Paul Scofield. McLoad uses the Cross/Zarkov relationship to try to convince Laurier that his friend Cross is actually a double agent worthy to be gunned down from his treachery to both the USA and Laurier's own country NATO member France. The movie's both thrilling and surprise ending has Laurie find out the truth behind Cross' actions and they have nothing at all to do with his attempted defection to the Soviet Union! But they do in fact have something to do with those that Laurie has been closely associating with! Someone who's a lot closer to Laurie then even he,in his wildest conspiracy paranoia, could possibly imagine!Like in Winner's 1972 assassin thriller "The Mechanic" the film "Serpico" shows just how thankless the job of a paid assassin really is. In the end Laurier finally realizes that being in the business he's in he has no time for friend and family as well as romantic relationships. In that the only one you can really trust is yourself and, in Lauries case, the street cats that you adopt; and worst of all the agency's retirement plan sucks!

bkoganbing Scorpio was a film Burt Lancaster didn't think too much of according to a recent biography and after viewing it I can certainly see why.On the plus side Lancaster got to work with former co-stars Alain Delon from The Leopard and with Paul Scofield from The Train, both films considerably better than Scorpio. Too bad he wasn't given something better than a warmed over espionage story.Lancaster is a CIA agent suspected of being a double agent. Word has come from on high to terminate his existence. Not an easy task by any means. Lancaster hasn't survived in the spy business by being a dummy for thirty years.From French intelligence the CIA borrows hit-man Alain Delon who has worked and trained with Lancaster. He's got the title role as one nicknamed Scorpio because of the way he strikes. Lancaster has an ace or two up his sleeve also. An old friend with the KGB, Paul Scofield, is willing to help up to a point.Here's where there is a real problem. Both Lancaster and Scofield are identified by the script as having served in Loyalist Spain with 'volunteer' groups. Of course in the Soviet case I'm sure volunteering was strongly urged.In America however that would have been the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. And during the post World War II McCarthy era that was one of a group of organizations past and present that was considered a Communist front. I'm sorry, but there ain't NO WAY that Lancaster with that in his background would have ever gotten a job with the Central Intelligence Agency. And if he did, he would have been found out and dismissed back then and there. The whole story falls apart knowing this.There are some nice location shots of Vienna and of Washington, DC in Scorpio and acting honors if any go to Paul Scofield. But the film is one colossal waste of time.