Based on the book by Jacques Mesrine
Screenplay by Abdel Raouf Dafri & Jean-François Richet
Directed by Jean-François Richet
Part One: Killer Instinct
The story of French ganster Jacques Mesrine (pronounced "Jack Mareen") before he was known as the country's biggest public enemy. It follows from his first experiences as an adult in 1959, the war in Algeria, where he served the French army and had to experience terribly tragedy.
Back in France, 1960, he's living with his parents, who have found him a good job. Smiling, Jacques knows he can never go to the real world, not after what he's seen. After meeting up with an old friend, Jacques is put into the pipeline of the criminal underworld, where he uses his intelligence, suave good looks, and animal cunning to make his way up in the world.
Starting as a small time criminal, he quickly makes his way up to robbing banks to provide for his now-growing family. When his wife finally realizes who he really is, she leaves him with the kids, for fear that if she took them he would hunt them all down and kill them.
The details of his crimes, along with the timelines, are facts, that won't do anyone reading this review any good, so I'll skip all that for now. However, Jacques was no stranger to prison, where he ended up more than once. Killer Instinct culminates with a daring prison escape, followed by the desperate act that would make Jacques Mesrine France's No. 1 Public Enemy.
9.4/10
Part Two: Public Enemy No. 1
The continuing saga of Jacques Mesrine picks up where he left off, on the run from the entire country, finding new cohorts to rob banks with, shooting anyone that gets in his way.
Again, plot and story are not what I will be examining here, but the plight of the French people at the time. Despite his many murders, prison escapes, and ruthless bank robberies, Mesrine still managed to capture the classic Robin Hood image amongst the general populace, hailed as a hero against the opressive French regime of the time.
On to the mechanics of the film. I'm still perturbed that they split this into two movies, since the only seemingly rational reasoning for doing so is people won't watch a 4 hour movie. This is the best 4 hour biopic I've ever seen, a portrait of a man via his crimes. It doesn't waste time on his small moments, but the way the story is put together, we only get his important moments and what makes them important in the grand scheme of his life. The script is excellent, knowing where to leave off, where to pick up, which prison escapes to show, which ones to leave out.
The production value is extremely high, most of the film is shot on location where it really happened, which sent the film crew all across France to get the film shot. The cinematography is one of the shining stars of the film, everything is bright and dreamy, which comes to a stark contrast with Mesrine's life once the gunfire starts and the blood starts flowing.
The gunfights are some of the best committed to film, there is nothing flashy or cool about people being cut down in a hail of gunfire, and this film aims to show you that. The shootouts are bloody and grueling, people die quickly and messily, just like real life.
The f/x are all top notch, with a large people dying on screen from gun violence, these days it's just easier, cheaper, and faster to do bullet hits and bloodletting via CGI. Richet is obviously not from that mindset, as every bloody shootout is filled with physical squibs that messily explode in front of the camera, nothing looks fake, it's a shockingly real portrayal of violence in life.
Of course the biggest part that made this all believable was the acting. Hands down, this will easily stand as Vincent Cassell's best on-screen performance. What must have been a passion project for him evolved into something more. He became Mesrine, both mentally and physically, losing/gaining weight to fit the man as he was. A lot of reviewers will praise a performance as a 'transformation', the simple way of saying they did a great job. However, in these films, Cassell is no longer Cassell. He is Mesrine. He lives, breathes, moves as Mesrine. I truly believe he will go on and continue to do great films, he was excellent in Black Swan, but at the same time, no role will ever require the thought or undertaking that this one did. On every level, he nailed it.
The ending to Public Enemy No. 1 is as exciting as it is sad. Obviously, the life of a criminal almost always has to end badly for him, and Mesrine was no exception. But the stark violence involved, even for a hardened fan of gangster films, it was still a pretty shocking and powerful ending. Easily one of the best gangster films ever made when viewed as a whole, Mesrine is an accomplishment.
9.8/10
Combined Score - 9.6/10
No comments:
Post a Comment