Movie Review: Le Samouraï
Le Samouraï is a classic example of a “you had to be there” movie.
It had long been recommended to me as the ultimate, “cool tough guy” flick. On paper it seems like a perfect “guy” movie. It’s the story of a professional assassin dealing with the fallout of a job gone wrong in 1960’s Paris. It certainly looks cool. The fashion and aesthetic are amazing. I love the street shots of Paris in this era. The vibe alone almost makes this one worth watching.
But alas, the story itself has not aged very well. The story is threadbare and told very slowly. A single scene of a character bugging a room drags for seven minutes. The titular character, Jef, never does anything to justify the moniker, “Samourai.” In fact he just isn’t terribly competent at all. The only job we see him do he botches hard. The movie never establishes a baseline of how he operates or gives us a day in the life to show his skill or philosophy (Drive did this flawlessly in its first ten minutes). What’s more we never really even get to know him. We learn nothing about his past, his motivations, his goals, and his actions in the film reveal nothing but a dogged persistence to find out who is threatening his life.
The entire plot is just a game of cat and mouse between Jef, the police, and the gangsters hunting him. His only goal is to figure out who is after him, thus everything he does is reactive. He never seems to have ends of his own design. Even worse the film ends on a kind of senseless anticlimax not motivated by anything that came before it. Even for its time the action isn’t great nor is the dialogue memorable or profound in any way. At best it’s a very cool-looking movie. It looks great playing in the background at a high-end boutique or cafe. I also have to give it credit for inspiring many better versions of the “lone tough guy with a gun” trope. Get Carter is from a similar era and far superior in every way. Or for a more fun modern take check out John Wick. The original that inspires the trope doesn’t always hold up, as Le Samouraï shows.
Grade: C-
