Scorpio

There are loyalties to the country and then there are the realities of the job. There are orders issued by nameless bureaucrats from high above, and then there are requests from old friends on the lam. ‘Scorpio’ is about Cross, a veteran cold warrior, played by Burt Lancaster wanted by his superiors at the ‘Company’ for unnamed crimes. Meanwhile, Alan Delon plays Scorpio, a French contract assassin employed at an arm’s length by the Company to eliminate troublesome people. Cross, shown as a master at streetcraft is Scorpio’s case officer. When the Americans want Cross’ head, they recruit none other than his own protégé; Scorpio. The movie rapidly turns into an intense cat and mouse game, except that the mouse is no mouse at all, but a hardened field agent who has played the game as no other. This is not for people who love chick flicks and simple minded stuff. There are distinct flavours of ‘Hopscotch’, Brian Garfield’s tour-de-force about a renegade CIA agent being pursued by his own best friend. We are firmly on Cross’ side, but is he innocent of the double agent charges leveled against him? Or is there a more sinister underpinning to this tale? The movie dares to walk in that area of moral ambiguity which is normally best left as the preserve of people like John le Carre and Len Deighton. If there is a message here, it is brought home when Cross seeks shelter with Sergei Zharkhov, a KGB agent, and thus, a member of the opposition. The line which has immortalized the film was, ‘I have known Zharkhov for thirty years, as an ally and as an enemy; but always as a friend.’