Summary
When a police commissioner is murdered in Nice, Stanislas Borowitz is assigned to track
down and eliminate his killers. Very soon, he up against the notorious gangster
chief Théo Musard, and his ruthless henchmen, which include senior members of the
local police...
Review
Flic ou voyou was inspired from a novel by Michel Grisolia, "L’Inspecteur de
la mer" and is widely regarded as one of Jean-Paul Belmondo’s best films. It
was certainly one of his most popular, attracting nearly four million cinema goers on
its release in 1978, making it the most popular film in France that year after La Gendarme
et les extra-terrestres.
The film is a typical late 1970s French crime thriller (or polar) which takes
one of the recurring themes of the genre to its limit - the idea that the morality of
the police can be as bad, if not worse, than the gangsters they are trying to round up.
For the first half of the film, it is not even clear on what side of the law Borowitz
(Belmondo) stands. Displaying a cool lack of humanity, casually resorting to violence
at the least provocation, Borowitz appears to be the archetypal bad guy, and the fact
that he is portrayed with Belmondo’s familiar charm and good humour renders the character
even more disturbing. To complicate matters, the local police unit includes corrupt
cops who are in the employ of a gangland boss. For most of the film, the audience
does not know who are the good guys and who are the bad. The film’s title is aptly
chosen.
Although the film is well written, well acted and features some amazing stunts (a standard
feature of Belmondo’s films), it is not faultless. The scenario is perhaps too familiar,
the characters are by now conventional stereotypes, and the dry humour diffuses any real
drama and tension. The film is entertaining in itself, and fans of Belmondo will
adore it, but it lacks the originality, suspense and conviction of the truly great French
crime thrillers.
© James Travers 2006
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