Sissy Spacek made her film debut in this sleazy but energetic crime thriller about big-times gangsters and the slaughterhouse they use to convert their enemies into sausage is a highly entertaining gangster film with co-stars Lee Marvin and Gene Hackman. Michael Ritchie takes iconic actors like Marvin and Hackman, who only have to be visible to make an effect. He puts in lots of destruction of property, and neo-Nazi blond bad boys falling by the score. There's shotguns and submachine guns and carnivorous farm equipment and 18-wheel trucks and all sorts of unlikely weapons. And the usual movie dichotomy of country good, city bad is stood on its head, with agriculture fairs and cornfields and sunflower fields as dangerous to life and limb as you could hope for (paging Alfred Hitchcock!). And young Spacek looked so beautiful and hot in her nudity scenes. Whooo!

[font=Century Gothic]In "Prime Cut", Mary Ann(Gene Hackman) hides his prostitute and drug operations behind his legitimate livestock business in rural Kansas. Since he owes the Chicago mob $500,000, they have sent three men out to have a quiet chat with him about it. The first two are killed and the third is shipped back in hot dog casings. Then, the mob decides to get serious and sends Nick Devlin(Lee Marvin) and friends to engage in more forceful discussions. While at Mary Ann's ranch, Devlin liberates one of his human "livestock", Poppy(Sissy Spacek, in her first prominent role), on the way out.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"Prime Cut" is an off-beat gangster movie(accentuated by the quirky Lalo Schiffrin score). It is fun in a violent way and there is some good action but the hinted back story for the characters only manages to confuse things.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]The movie is about how human beings should not be treated like animals.(Note to animal rights activists: animals should not be treated like human beings.) There is a subtext here about the conflict between urban and rural areas.[/font]