NekoHomey
Purely Joyful Movie!
JinRoz
For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!
Megamind
To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.
Voxitype
Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
adrian-43767
Alain Delon has always been one of my idols. It might be because my Mother found him the most handsome of all actors and in my teens I tried to copy a few of his mannerisms, so I have tried to track down and watch all his movies and Le Battant was one of the few that I had not watched yet. Alas, it is a self-serving movie in which Delon's name appears twice in the initial credits, before being credited as director. He kills with no song (the movie's soundtrack is worse than torture) and certainly not softly, and he has enemies everywhere, even among the women he seduces so easily but, amazingly for such a thorough killing machine, he is easily duped by his most evil and yet trusted nemesis, and he makes basic mistakes like walking openly into possible lines of fire, standing by windows with open curtains, and placing the gun too close to the enemies he subdues before dispatching them. He is also fabulously good at moving diamonds to Rio de Janeiro, while everyone else believes they are in France.In terms of acting, my idol falls very short of his quality performances in ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS, THE LEOPARD, THE SAMURAI, LES FELINS and even PLEIN SOLEIL. And his direction is aimless, throwing in all kinds of bows to directors like René Clément, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jacques Deray, and others. He even borrows the cage of the bird in THE SAMURAI and a few musical notes to go with it, in a snippet of a scene that is totally meaningless to anyone who did not watch that J-M Melville masterpiece.The supporting cast is largely anonymous in light of Delon's almost continuous presence on the screen. Perier is one fleeting exception. The other is the exceedingly beautiful and sexy Anne Parillaud, the movie's saving grace. She, alone, is worth the price of admission, and I hope Delon did the honors because a cake like that deserves to be savored and eaten many times.Final note: You learn nothing morally valuable from this film.
Bob Taylor
Alain Delon turns in a stylish caper film here, one that could have come from René Clément's script drawer. I liked the intimate tone of the story, the way François Périer almost adopts Delon as his son, even giving him his mistress, Anne Parillaud. There is not much in the way of violence, which suits me fine.The performances are generally good. Périer is oily and treacherous as Ruggeri, the club owner, Pierre Mondy has an easy time with the detective role, and Anne Parillaud is superb as the sexy assistant-turned-mistress. At two hours, though, the film is a bit long.
lcourteau
Okay, I won't tell you the story, just warn you about the avalanche of clichés in this film.Well directed, Alain Delon was a good actor; as a director and producer, I just hope he did not take his stuff seriously. From the girl who can't keep her dress on for five minutes to the Colombo-style commissary, from the sped-up car chases to the horribly banal one and only musical theme, the only way to enjoy this flick is to laugh it through.Speaking of music, one thing for sure: Delon has no taste whatsoever in that area. I wonder what Michel Colombier's job was here (he is credited for "music coordination" or something). This is not the first instance where Delon-as-director wears out the same theme over and over throughout a film. In "Pour la peau d'un flic", a certain Bensonhurst Blues is randomly cued in and out for two hours. I jumped on my seat when I saw this tune credited at the beginning of the movie. About an hour and a half through it, two bad guys turn on their car radio; you can hear the said blues for half a second (enough to recognize it if you've heard it for two hours the week before and have anxiously been waiting for it for 90 minutes) and one of the goons exclaims: "Ah non! merde!" before switching the station to a Mozart concerto. That's it for Bensonhurst this time. This is, sad to say, the best moment in the film.
konya-s
...could have been much better if the director (Alain Delon) can handle the atmosphere of the film. I mean...There is no atmosphere in the movie and that's the single problem with Le Battant. Otherwise it's a pretty good, hard boiled revenge-flick, and in some scenes reminded me Mel Gibson's little thriller called Payback. Alain Delon is cool, he's a silent murderer in this movie, he didn't give a damn about anybody, he slaps the poor girl when the situation needs it, so he's just a cold blooded killer who's only interested in his freedom and the money he deserved. The story has some twist (but nothing special), some violence, but as I said before it could have been much better.