L'arbalète

Daniel Auteuil is one of my all-time favorite French actors, but THE ASPHALT WARRIORS is probably his most embarrassing role. Oddly cast as a blue-jeans cop, swaggering along trying to look sexy, the master of subtlety and nuance is one big joke.

But it's a fun joke as he tries to avert a gang war in Paris, pitting Arabs vs. Blacks vs. Vietnamese vs. neo-Nazis. Sergio Gobbi, noted for decades of crime thrillers, tries to direct this with a straight face, but it plays as a parody of every dumb j.d. epic from WEST SIDE STORY to THE WANDERERS.

The original title "L'arbalete" refers to leading lady Marisa Berenson's nickname, rendered "Harpoon" in the English-dubbed version. As a streetwalker, Marisa is way too classy and simply not appropriate for the role, but she gives it the old college try. Though she's still quite active in Italy, her best roles all seem to have come in the early '70s at the outset of her career.

Auteuil fans should have a field day watching him horsing around here, with a poster for TAXI DRIVER looming in his apartment. Villain is well-played by Marcel Bozzuffi as the racist police captain who's behind a lot of the gang trouble.

In the early eighties, in France, you still had some crime flcks, with for instance the three Jean Claude Missaien's films, LA BALANCE and a couple of other ones, all this before a long stop of more than a decade and a half and the birth of Olivier Marchal influence. Back to this one, directed by film maker and producer Sergio Gobbi, already in the business in the early seventies: LE TEMPS DES LOUPS. Here, he tried to stay in eighties fashion, concerning the topic - drug dealers, corrupted cops, neo nazis - and also technical details about directing, details that you did not have ten years earlier. Music for instance, and editing too. This is a lousy job, sloppy, corny, a real junk movie, only saved by Marcel Bozzufi, terrific here in a nasty police superintedant whilst Daniel Auteuil tries to do his best to imitate Jean Paul Belmondo in his character, but without humor. It is fast paced, agreeable to watch, though badly made, I repeat,and especially gloomy. Good action scenes in Belleville district in Paris, a district that doesn't exist now under this form, because constructions and architecture mutation. Good ending. And it is amusing to see French police cars with American cops sirens....

A French crime flick in the mould of the typical '80s Euro-thriller, that is a film which is light on plot and heavy on action. Unfortunately the actual action set-pieces in this film are sparse and usually poorly-done; director Sergio Gobbi has to be the least talented director I know of named "Sergio" and seems unable to invest excitement in any of the shoot-outs or drug busts that the film involves.

Things start off pretty well with scenes of random crimes and shootings which recall VIOLENT NAPLES, with cars being set on fire and gang warfare erupting. Unfortunately things deteriorate with the introduction of about four street gangs (who quickly become muddled) who lack menace and prance around in dated '80s attire in a big rip-off of THE WARRIORS. There's a blaxploitation angle to the film which details the activities of a black gang, including a drugs pusher, and some very silly dialogue to go along with it.

Sadly the film is dated as a whole and very cheesy. Although violent, it can't be taken seriously and so comes across as light entertainment instead of the powerful chastisement on modern-day street society that Gobbi was probably hoping for. Being French, it's badly dubbed which doesn't help add to the realism, although technically its proficient with great colours and some nicely-lit scenes. The piano music that pops up is also above average for the genre.

The film ends on a rather pessimistic and downbeat note that is played stylishly and there are some moments to enjoy, especially cop Vincent's encounter with a homosexual street gang which is hilarious in a politically incorrect way! Things look promising with the introduction of another gang of Neo-Nazis, led by the ultra-slimy Didier Sauvegrain, but sadly the only nasty thing they do is burn a prostitute with cigarettes off-screen and act like simpering idiots otherwise. The characters are flat and underdeveloped, aside from Marcel Bozzuffi's memorably hard-headed Inspector Falco, and Daniel Auteuil feels a bit wooden in the lead. Fans of European cinema should look elsewhere for their thrills as ASPHALT WARRIORS lacks both excitement and action, or much of a plot to speak of.