Trois hommes à abattre (1980)
Directed by Jacques Deray

Film Review

By the late 1970s, the classic French thriller had taken a distinctly darker turn, with grimmer plotlines, grittier characters and noticeably greater use of explicit violence.  Driving this trend was the burgeoning popularity in the néo-polar strand of popular crime literature, which soon found its way into French cinema in such depressing noir offerings as Yves Boisset's Le Juge Fayard dit Le Sheriff (1977) and Henri Verneuil's I... comme Icare (1979).  Such books and films reflected an ever-growing national mistrust in the major institutions - particularly the judiciary, the police and the political class in general, as well as the larger industries - following a succession of high-profile scandals that exposed spectacular instances of corruption and abuses of power.  The nihilistic thriller Trois hommes à abattre reeks of the heightened cynicism and pessimism of its time, its success at the French box office resulting in a spate of similar, increasingly violent thrillers that mirrored the widespread public perception of a deeply corrupt society which was in the throes of a potentially catastrophic moral tailspin.

The film was adapted from Jean-Patrick Manchette's 1976 série noire novel Le Petit Bleu de la côte ouest, one of several popular works by the author that made it to the big screen.  Others include: Gérard Pirès's L'Agression (1974), Robin Davis's La Guerre des polices (1979) and Philippe Labro's La Crime (1980).  In the 1970s, Manchette was France's leading crime writer and it was he who first coined the term 'néo-polar' to mark a definitive shift from the classic (gangster-oriented) polars of the 1950s and '60s.  Although Manchette was himself an accomplished screenwriter he had no direct involvement in the writing of Trois hommes à abattre, this task being taken up by Christopher Frank, a prolific scénariste on such classic films as Michel Deville's Le Mouton enragé (1974), Serge Leroy's Les Passagers (1977) and Pierre Granier-Deferre's Une étrange affaire (1981).  Frank's penchant for twisted dark humour lends the film a clearly discernible underbelly of warped irony, to the extent that at times it feels more like an extremely tongue-in-cheek black comedy than a conventional action thriller.

It's another showcase piece for Alain Delon, the über-cool prince of the French thriller, now riding high in the public's estimation after a brief period in the mid-1970s when misfortune appeared to dog him at just about every turn.  The success of Georges Lautner's Mort d'un pourri (1977), another exemplary thriller, gave a sudden boost to Delon's popularity and his association with the genre (the most popular in French cinema at the time) was set to continue for another full decade.  By this stage in his remarkable career, Delon had become a successful film producer and Trois hommes à abattre proved to be one of his biggest commercial hits in this capacity, with an audience of 2.1 million in France.  It was the seventh time the actor collaborated with the director Jacques Deray, who was particularly renowned for his slick thrillers, notably the classic gangster film Borsalino (1970) and stylish realist policier Flic Story (1975), both of which featured Delon at his near-best.  Deray's flair for the action thriller was virtually unrivalled in France at the time and Trois hommes à abattre benefits from his rigorously well-prepared mise-en-scène, especially in the set-piece actions scenes which include a stunningly well-choreographed cross-Paris car chase that bears a favourable comparison with that seen in Peter Yates' Bullitt (1968).

Better known for playing the macho hero/anti-hero who is very much in control of events, Delon takes his audience by surprise with his more down-to-earth portrayal of an ordinary Joe who happens to get himself embroiled in a hideously muddled intrigue - resembling Cary Grant in Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959).  The pacy, action-oriented script has little room for character depth but Delon is surprisingly convincing as an innocent man way out of his depth, driven by the more primitive urges - the will to survive, fear of the unknown, outrage at being threatened - to free himself from the madness that he has caught himself up in.  In this, he is admirably opposed by two chillingly paranoid villains played by the distinguished performers Pierre Dux and Michel Auclair.  The former's Monsieur Emmerich is a wonderfully unhinged monomaniac from the James Bond school of comic-book villainy - his similarity to Ernst Blofeld is so striking that you could almost say they were one in the same man.

The high body count, frenzied bouts of realistic violence and shock ending (judged so grim by the Japanese distributors that it was cut for Japan's release) all mark Trois hommes à abattre out as one of the darkest French thrillers of its era.  In one memorable scene, a large bathroom mirror is totally sprayed with blood after Delon puts a bullet into the head of one of his deadly pursuers.  In 1980, this kind of gory indulgence was pretty rare in mainstream cinema, although things would soon change in the wake of Brian De Palma's exuberant gore-fest Scarface (1983) and James Cameron's non-stop carnage The Terminator (1984).  Shocking as the film is, its relentless self-serving nihilism does become a tad monotonous around the midway point.  Knowing for sure that just about every character in the film is going to end up dead does tend to undermine the suspense and surprise element somewhat - a common failing of many similar ultra-violent thrillers of the following decade.  The wafer-thin characterisation, predictable deaths and overly formulaic plot prevent Trois hommes à abattre from being as compelling and satisfying as it might have been.  On the plus side, Deray's masterful direction and Delon's magnetic presence keep us hooked as we are dragged along on this wildly uninhibited joyride across a nightmare doomscape that howls despair at the futility of existence almost as loudly as Edvard Munch's The Scream.

Film Synopsis

Late one evening, professional gambler Michel Gerfaut is on his way to a poker game when he comes across a badly injured man in a wrecked car.  He drops the wounded man off at the nearest hospital and resumes his evening as planned, not expecting any repercussions from his Good Samaritan act.  Taking a weekend break with his girlfriend Béa in Trouville he is attacked by two unknown men whilst swimming and almost drowns.  Michel then receives a mysterious telephone call and rapidly deduces that for some reason he has become the target of a would-be killer.  His suspicions are confirmed when he picks up a newspaper reporting a triple homicide and recognises one of the victims as the injured man whose life he tried to save a few days earlier.  It seems that the three dead men were connected, each being a senior employee in a leading armaments corporation run by a rich and powerful businessman named Emmerich.

Realising that he has managed to get himself into very deep water, Michel appeals to an old friend Liéthard, who works in the French security services.  Liéthard merely confirms what Michel already knows, which is that his life is in great peril and he must go into hiding to avoid another assassination attempt.  The advice has scarcely passed Liéthard's lips before he too is shot dead by one of the mystery assailants in Gerfaut's own apartment.  Enraged, Michel hurries after his would-be assassins and a death-defying car chase ends in a shoot out in which he manages to eliminate one of the hitmen.  Injured in the exchange of fire, Michel ends up in hospital and soon discovers that the police suspect him of being Liéthard's murderer.  He narrowly evades another attempt on his life and, having disposed of a second assassin, he contacts Béa and orders her to hide out in the country until it is safe for him to rejoin her.

Unbeknown to Michel, his success at evading death has impressed Emmerich, whose paranoid tendencies lead him to believe that the target is a seasoned professional in the employ of a dangerous opponent.  Through various intermediaries, Michel finally gets to meet Emmerich and is surprised when he is invited to work for the monomaniac industrialist.  The interview ends suddenly with Emmerich suffering a fatal heart attack.  The businessman's second-in-command, Leprince, takes his place and puts the offer of work to Michel a second time.  As the gambler walks away, Leprince assures him that he has no choice but to accept the offer or face the consequences - anytime, anywhere.  Now that Emmerich is dead, Michel believes he is no longer in danger and returns to Béa to resume his former uneventful life.  Leprince's threat hits him when he least expects it.