Der Erpresser

What can people do to draw people's attention?Some go as far as to kill their fellow men to achieve that;

Louis ,a humble craftsman, inherits a lot of money.He's got fortune,but he wants fame too.He has his friend Einstein(sic) take photographs of him among crowds of celebrities.He sends them to the Police and threatens to commit crime as "Armaguedon".

Alain Jessua was certainly one of the most underrated of the French directors of that era:"traitement de choc" (probably his most successful effort)"les chiens" and "paradis pour tous" all ventured off the beaten track;they were sometimes close to sci-fi. While "Armaguedon" seems more realistic,it is an absorbing thriller.

The movie is worth seeing because it stars Alain Delon (a psychologist who collaborates with police) and Jean Yanne, a psychopathic criminal with terrorist aspirations.

Maybe the film is more interesting today than in 1977, because now we live in a period in which terrorist threat is global. In a certain way "Armaguedon" is 25 years ahead of its time.

Unfortunately, although still watchable, the movie lacks a real confrontation between the two main actors, and that's a pity -because thriller is one of the genres French filmmakers are excellent in. In the film Delon and Yanne never meet really... It's a script mistake, which director Alain Jessua admits.

There's some action, but the film is more psychological than physical -it's not like many banal Hollywood action movies. But it's not a memorable movie, the final part goes too fast -it spoils the tension settled so far.

I have always compared Alain Jessua's filmography with Serge Leroy's one; interesting topics which analysed very brilliantly and in the best intelligent way the problems of the modern world, or human nature. And they often used the thriller pretext to do this. Check every of their films, for both of them and you'll have confirmation of what I say. For Leroy, LA TRAQUE, ATTENTION LES ENFANTS REGARDENT or LEGITIME VIOLENCE, LE QUATRIEME POUVOIR; for Jessua, ARMAGUEDON, TRITEMENT DE CHOC, LES CHIENS; all topics about social issues and human behavior. The adaptation from the David Lippincott's novel is rather faithful and that remains a very good French yarn. Yanne is exquisite in this ambivalent character. The relationship between his character and Renato Salvatori's one is very touching, so unusual, which reminds me OF MICE AND MEN, between George and Lenny.

This movie is slow, boring and predictable. Apparently it was initially created for unpretentious and stupid audience.

At every turn of the plot you wonder how could the criminal be so dumb to leave such a trail of damning evidence behind and how the police can be even dumber not figuring it out.

I never saw Alain Delone being so bored in any of his many movies. Probably he understood that he's taking part in creating a real cinematographic dreck.

Louis Carrier gets a large payout from his brother's life insurance. He quits his workman job and promises to do something memorable. He is about to shoot the Prime Minister, but somehow he ends up greeting him with a handshake. He goes down the rabbit hole. With his idiot sidekick Einstein and the nom de guerre Armaguedon, he starts causing chaos with his random acts of terror and brutal murders. Dr. Michel Ambrose (Alain Delon) helps the police by profiling the unknown suspect.

This is an odd surreal crime drama. I would call it a thriller if it's actually thrilling. It's not and that's not the point. It's a study in nihilism. Quite frankly, it may not have made sense back in the day. This is a guy looking for infamy, looking for the clicks. He's every insel who shoots up a school to make himself a name. He's that guy who shot up a concert in Las Vegas a few years ago. He's not doing it for an actual cause. His cause is nothing but a word salad. It's infamy that he's looking for.