Alain Delon has always been one of my idols. It might be because my Mother found him the most handsome of all actors and in my teens I tried to copy a few of his mannerisms, so I have tried to track down and watch all his movies and Le Battant was one of the few that I had not watched yet.
Alas, it is a self-serving movie in which Delon's name appears twice in the initial credits, before being credited as director. He kills with no song (the movie's soundtrack is worse than torture) and certainly not softly, and he has enemies everywhere, even among the women he seduces so easily but, amazingly for such a thorough killing machine, he is easily duped by his most evil and yet trusted nemesis, and he makes basic mistakes like walking openly into possible lines of fire, standing by windows with open curtains, and placing the gun too close to the enemies he subdues before dispatching them. He is also fabulously good at moving diamonds to Rio de Janeiro, while everyone else believes they are in France.
In terms of acting, my idol falls very short of his quality performances in ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS, THE LEOPARD, THE SAMURAI, LES FELINS and even PLEIN SOLEIL. And his direction is aimless, throwing in all kinds of bows to directors like René Clément, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jacques Deray, and others. He even borrows the cage of the bird in THE SAMURAI and a few musical notes to go with it, in a snippet of a scene that is totally meaningless to anyone who did not watch that J-M Melville masterpiece.
The supporting cast is largely anonymous in light of Delon's almost continuous presence on the screen. Perier is one fleeting exception.
The other is the exceedingly beautiful and sexy Anne Parillaud, the movie's saving grace. She, alone, is worth the price of admission, and I hope Delon did the honors because a cake like that deserves to be savored and eaten many times.
Final note: You learn nothing morally valuable from this film.
