Le Samourai 1967 Review

Le Samourai 1967  — 

Le Samourai

John Pierre Melville's Le Samourai is a film scholars' wet dream of a movie. It is stylish, accessible, well made, French and a product of American Noir influence and Japanese folklore. Because it's a minimalist styled film wearing several influences on its sleeves there is much to consider, contemplate and write about.

If you insist a masterpiece must be original-then this film is no masterpiece.  It is a work of impeccable style so finely crafted and honed, almost everyone who sees this film is pretty much hypnotized by a combination of its pacing, style, performances and sound design.

It moves rather slowly, but it moves in such a direct and deliberate way, you won't care about that at all.  You'll watch Alan Delon as Jef, intensely. 

Some have proclaimed that this film has influenced many movies but it's simply

 ridiculous to suggest that this movie directly influenced Coogan's Bluff (the influence for Dirty Harry) or Pulp Fiction (or Reservoir Dogs) or Taxi Driver. There are other films made at almost the same time like John Boorman's 1967 Point Blank, Seijun Suzuki's Branded to Kill (1967) , Peter Yates' 1968 Bullitt, not to mention Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde (1967) that are every bit as innovative and stylish and influential as this 1967 film is. And that is without mentioning all of the Japanese films that blended the Western myths and Samurai folklore into memorable movies by not just Kurosowa but by so many others. What's slightly different is that we have to make the editorial decision about how we feel. In most other films, the decision is made for us and very clearly. In this one, it isn't really made for us at all.    Alan Delon (the French Steve McQueen) plays Jef, a meticulous and efficient hit man.   We watch him, not sure what he is doing or why.   We wait and eventually do understand what is happening.

I put Le Samourai up on a pedestal,  because it is a brilliant balancing act of shadows and fog that pretends to give us much more than it actually delivers. It's brilliance is that without character background, we are fascinated and root for a cipher-a person we know nothing about, but because of his placement in a tableaux (a play) we are mesmerized by him and decide to like him for his sense of honor-even if he is cold blooded murderer.

John Pierre Mellville didn't make a whole lot movies, but most of them are quite good with a very deliberate pacing and style. In fact he was using some of the celebrated French New Wave techniques  nearly a decade before they became recognized (real locations, hand held cameras, experimental editing) Some may  fine La Cercle Rouge,  Bob La Flambeur  or perhaps Un Flic nearly as compelling as this one to watch.  I know I do.

#22 in my list of Greatest Movies of all time.  An admittedly subjective list that lives and breathes and hopefully will spark interest (in the films I mention) and create some dialogue of opinion.

Le Samourai  1967  Directed by  John Pierre Mellville