Highly controversial examination of a magnicide from the viewpoint of an intelligent investigator . A recent and fictional re-elected President of a fictitious state has been assassinated, similar to death JFK's 1963 . As a magnicide takes place , then a determined , stubborn prosecutor investigates and while emerging a dark and twisted conspiracy behind it . In the course of his search he proves a different look at the strange deeds . In this especulation the investigator organizes an expert team and he finds evidence that casts serious doubt on the committee's "lone-gunman" theory. Things go wrong when happen deaths of many of those involved , including several witnesses , the supression or ignoring of evidence by others and as the event leading to unexpected consequences , adding a surprising finale .
Riveting , persuasive thriller , this is a fascinating account of an assassination , after that , one of the members , Ives Montand , of the investigation committee refuses to sign the final report and is given the task of investigating once more . The picture stills grips almost throughout because of the subject and Montand's exploration and examination of it . Political thriller inspired by the conspiracy theories surrounding the magnicide of JFK's 1963 . A very bold and clever yarn that basically told the "JFK" story thinly posing as having taken place not in North America . Considered to be by some to be a cinematic masterpiece , others see it as a revisionist and provoking story that should be taken with a grain of salt . However, the phsychological test sequence which is admittedly a bit boring and a little over long, being based on the Milgram experiments at the university of Yale. As the picture follows in the wake of ¨Executive action¨ 1973 by David Miller and the notorious JFK 1991 by Oliver Stoner starred by Kevin Costner as prosecutor Garrison , an alike-character Ives Montand . Ives Montand gives conviction to his role as Le procureur Henri Volney . Although plenty of unknown secondaries , being poorly support cast . No matter , the facts win out here . It is very well acted by Ives Montand who had a long and prolific career as Europe as Hollywood , he even played with Marilyn Monroe in Let's make love . He starred a great number of films , being his first great hit : Wagers of fear . Following Gates of the night , Grand Prix , Is Paris burning ? , Le sauvage , On a clear day you can see , Red Circle , Jean de Florette , Manon des Sources , among others . And he performed various controversial and political films as Stage of siege , Guerra est finie, Special section , The confession and Z .
The picture contains an attractive score by maestro Ennio Morricone and is splendidly directed by Henry Verneuil, a Turkish director working in France from the 40s. Although not a director of great reputation among the critics, his movies have almost all been aimed squarely at the commercial market. Verneuil is an expert on heist-genre such as he proved in ¨The Sicilians clan(68)¨ also with Gabin and Delon, ¨The burglars(1971)¨with Omar Shariff and Jean Paul Belmondo , furthermore on Warlike genre : ¨Weekend at Dunkirk¨and ¨The 25th hour¨and only one Western : Guns of San Sebastian(68)¨. He seemed to have dropped out of the film-making after 1976, but in 1981 unexpectedly reappeared with yet another of his caper film : ¨Thousand millions of dollars¨. Rating : Good movie and above average, a must see for Ives Montand fans .
