"I never lose. Never really." -Jef CostelloIn my pursuit of watching all of the Criterion films, I've come across few I didn't care for, but I found "Le Samourai" to be absolutely dreadful. What an incredible let down this movie was. On paper, it had the possibility of being genuinely incredible; taking samuari ideals and applying them to a modern gangster film, all created by Jean-Pierre Melville, a leading force within the French New Wave of cinema. Unfortunately, the execution left me longing for anything resembling a worthwhile effort. What began as simply sitting down to enjoy a movie quickly became a loathsome task that couldn't have ended soon enough.
The story focuses on ever-so-silent Jef Costello, a hitman-for-hire that lives an incredibly minimalist life, sadly the only real echo of anything resembling "samurai" in the whole film. Of the numerous murders he has performed, he has never once left any evidence of his crime, based on his methodical way of living which includes his girlfriend who is always handy with an alibi. After handling another job, despite his attention to detail, he is seen leaving the scene by a number of people, among them a lovely piano player that will come into play throughout the movie. This incident not only has the police after him, but also his employers. Thus begins a game of cat and mouse (and cat?) that will continue until the movies end.
See that paragraph you just read there? That little synopsis is one million times more interesting than this unbelievably lauded work. The movie tries in itself to be minimalist with hardly any dialogue and an agonizing pace. I can appreciate aspects of this, but without a single compelling character to get behind, it makes this form of film-making come off as boring and pretentious. Not once did I ever have a care or concern over our main character or any of those around him. The few times he spoke, the lines were often quips that almost beg you to groan at them. And then there's the pet bird. Showing up several times throughout the film, Costello's bird is the sort of maddening, constant annoyance that people sight as the reason they don't want children. The whole idea of this movie being silent and slow is pushed to jarring by the incessant chirping of said bird. The fact that it becomes a plot device is cause for much face-palming.
If you've made it this far, you can probably safely assume that I wouldn't suggest this movie, even to bitter rivals. Here's the odd thing. Some people I know, whose movie opinion I greatly trust, genuinely love this movie. It gets amazing reviews and is talked about to death on various movie and film lovers threads. Am I just missing something? Are these people finding something that's not actually there? I mean, Criterion did add it to the collection for a reason. So I leave you with this. I would never recommend it. I felt it to be long-winded, flat, annoying, and a sad waste of an excellent idea. Yet, since other people seem to feel differently. Take what you will from that. Make your own decisions. After all, I'm just one guy talking.
