Summary
Twenty-five years after seeing his brother killed in a Nazi concentration camp, Julius
finally has the opportunity to avenge himself. His former torturer, Schmidt, has
been tracked down by a ruthless death squad, who will execute him as soon as Julius has
confirmed his identity. The suspected man, a seemingly respectable engineer, proves
to be far more dangerous than Julius and his allies had expected...
Review
Un homme à abattre is an unusual blend of conventional film noir and political
thriller, cast with a chilling sense of cold war realism which sets it apart from most
other thrillers of its time. The only diversion from the meticulously framed political
drama, filmed in neo-documentary style, is a romantic subplot involving Jean-Louis Trintignant
and Valérie Lagrange. Trintignant is, as ever, magnificent, but this particular
Un homme et une femme detour feels so out of place that it is almost surreal.
Whilst the film makes a pleasing change from the overly glamorised, glossy action thrillers
of its day, it is weak on exposition, and we get to find out very little about the characters
in the film, or their situation. The director, Philippe Condroyer (the same Philippe
Condroyer who gave us Tintin
et les Oranges Bleues) seems to be far more preoccupied with the mechanics of
espionage and with achieving a sense of gritty realism than in rewarding his audience
with the kind of slick suspense thriller they are used to. Un homme à
abattre is an obvious forerunner of the hard-boiled political thrillers of the 1970s
and is particularly reminiscent of the films of Costa-Gavras.
© James Travers 2003
|
