1 homme de trop

This was the second feature film made by Costa-Gavras, two years after his spectacular murder mystery THE SLEEPING CAR MURDERS (COMPARTIMENT TUERS, 1965; see my review) and two years before his third film, the famous Z (1969; see my review). It is not easy to find this rare film with subtitles, but I got it from Movie Detective. This film is non-stop action, and is made in a semi-documentary style. The maquis are always on the move or on the run, or both. The Germans are relentless with their masses of troops and their tanks. The two leading figures in the story are played by Bruno Cremer, a field commander of quick resolution, and Michel Piccoli, who is released from prison by the maquis by mistake, and has to go with them as "un homme de trop", meaning "an extra man' or "one man too many", hence the French title of the film which is "1 HOMME DE TROP". No one is certain whether he can be trusted. He makes strange pacifist comments, and he wears German boots. Did he steal them or was he given them as an informer? Should they kill him or keep him with them? What little plot exists in this meandering film concerns that dilemma. The film is based on a novel, but the novel must have been meandering as well. We see daring lightning raids on a prison (to release their men about to be executed) and on a tax office to seize funds. All of these and many more action scenes are daringly and successfully filmed and move with such rapidity that one wonders how the cameramen could keep up. From the point of view of crowd control and complex action management, this film is remarkable. It is shot mostly hand-held. (Indeed, how else could it have been done?) Most of it is on location in the French mountains, though one is never told exactly where. The film is a completely convincing depiction of what this kind of resistance fighting was really like. One's comrades drop like flies, as a handful of brave men try to outwit the massive German Occupation forces. In short, it is a study in heroism. Costa-Gavras was celebrating the struggle against the Nazis in France, and he succeeds in making us marvel at their determination and bravery. The spectacular cinematography at the very end of the film, and the events which take place then, are simply mind-boggling.

The writer of the IMDb intro obviously did not watch the movie, as the enigmatic "homme de trop" played wonderfully by Michel Piccoli is not an enemy agent. And why is it labelled here as "shock troops" - an irrelevant title? This marvellous action movie has recently (march 2017) been screened in a restored version on French-German TV channel ARTE. Costa Gavras knows how to buld excitement and the editing is slick. A lot of resources must have gone into the movie which was an Italian-French co-production. The concluding battle with German forces features tanks, aircraft and hundreds of infantry - all very impressive. The closing shot was filmed at the impressive Viaduc de Garabit in the south of France which has been used in several other movies.

I, too, had a chance to watch this film for only once, and could never forget it, been even searching for a VHS copy but with no luck, agree with the other 2 reviewers' take on this matter, too many bad movies being released on DVD and Blu-Ray, but nobody want to pay attention on this one. Criterion Collection will release 2 great movies made by Costa-Gavras in May 2015, The Confession and State Of Siege , unfortunately "Un Homme De Trop" is not included, I really hope this film is not lost!! I had sent a request to Criterion Collection to make this film available, hope they will acknowledge it. If it's still being shown on TV, meaning at least there is 4x3 aspect ratio version of it, but no..I'd like to see it with original 2.35:1 ratio on Blu-Ray, please!!

"Un Homme De Trop" was shown in 2013 Champs-Elysees Film Festival stated as: "La projection du film très rare Un homme de trop de Costa-Gavras"

The projection of the very rare film of Costa-Gavras

!!! JUST IN It's coming out as part of Costa-Gavras Film Collection Vol.1 in Nov.

Being a Costa-Gavras fan this was the last film of him I never saw before. I only had my set of 24 lobby cards that really made me want to see it for almost 30 years. Exceptional cast, wonderful film. The camera work is outstanding and the "Gavras touch" is all over the film, he followed it with Z, L'AVEU and STATE OF SIEGE - all classics. UN HOMME DE TROP looks like a practice ground for those highly political films, and a very good one indeed.

A group of French resistance fighters in France in 1943 battle the Nazis, and after rescuing 13 men from execution have to decide what to do when it turns out that one of the 13 may be a traitor to the resistance. Director Costa-Gavras' 1967 World War 2 action drama is at times fast paced, and has a good cast including Michel Piccoli, Charles Vanel and Bruno Cremer, as well as a slight vein of humour. Unfortunately despite little moments of skill these are somewhat drowned out by the rest of the contents of this rather boring and not particularly good film, with it's rambling narrative reading like a poor 'Boy's Own' war adventure, with characters rushing around frantically, and with noisy, confused action scenes consisting of lots of machine gun fire and explosions. Not exactly 'The Dirty Dozen', in fact this is a classic example of how not to make a war (or anti-war) film.