Le marginal

After the success of LE PROFESSIONAL and the likes of PEUR SUR LA VILLE and L'ALPAGUEUR - major action crime flicks - and before the failure of his last action film - LE SOLITAIRE- Jean-Paul Belmondo gave us this one, directed by Jacques Deray, with whom he made BORSALINO, PAR UN BEAU MATIN D'ETE, and LE SOLITAIRE. It is obviously inspired by the DIRTY HARRY fashion, the tough, rough cop - Philippe Jordan - who applies his own methods, against all codes, rules, except his very own ones. Henry Silva plays the villain, this American actor who already played in Daniel Vigne's LES HOMMES and jean Claude Roy's L'INSOLENT, two gritty French crime flicks. The Paris car chase, under the aerial subway line, is of course a tribute to BULLITT, or FRENCH CONNECTION - also car chase under the New York aerial subway line - scene.

With Belmondo as with many of the things that matter, either you love him or you don't. I do, and it comes in the family, so be forewarned :).

There are films that demand not to be analyzed. This is one. Belmondo is a cop who behaves like a gangster to, well, get the gangsters behind bars. His code of ethics wouldn't win medals in any police academy, even a Third World's. Speaking of which, the way we see Marseille, it could well be Turkey or Bolivia :). Facts are not stylized, our hero kills and fails to be killed just by chance. You feel the danger, for instance, when he gets into a squatter's den in order to rescue the daughter of somebody whom he put into jail. He's a hardened man, always with a good blunt answer: "You should have thought about this before!" is what he says to this man when he moans that his daughter has been caught by this delinquents. But then, he gets the victim out of trouble, from an environment that makes his real "nemesis" look less menacing.

Morricone's score doesn't disappoint, as usual. "Beautiful, elegant, tense, suffocating and full of melodrama" (written by Paul Werkmeister "miser42" on Amazon).

It's difficult not to compare this to the masterwork of the genre: THE PROFESSIONAL. While it remains at the top, this would make a great 2nd best, specially if you don't want to get emotional at the end.

Pierre Vernier makes a great if unusual (and thus, welcome) sidekick. Like Jordan, sometimes he doesn't need to utter a word to answer. Henry Silva is finely cast.

Enjoy!

This is master-piece, one of the best movies I've ever seen. Belmondo is excellent, and Tcheky Karyo, of course. Music of Ennio Morricone is so beautiful that you can't describe it (it reminds me on music in movie "Frantic" by Polanski, where Morricone also made music). This one of the best detective movies, ever shoot in the world cinematography, of course with "The French Connection". You have to watch it.

The four star I have given to it is just because of the camerawork. That is (was) very good. However, even Ennio Morricone went way bellow of his standard with this one.

The script is so bad, full of holes, you wonder 'How did we get here?' Broad shoulders, balls dividing in tight jeans, and that famous grin after beating up criminals.

This is Belmondo at his lowest.

This film is a guilty pleasure. It is by no means a very good film but it works. You get straight into the action when Belmondo's tough guy cop is sent from Paris to clean up Marseilles with his very unconventional methods. They backfire and he is put on the backburner. However, in a good cop movie, the cop never lets go. The story is rather pointless (and funnily enough a lot of villians in 80s Belmondo films have the same name) but the action works really well. Henry Silva as the villain makes the film stand out from the rest. And watch out for the red Fiat 131 that was used in every film Belmondo made in the 80s.