Review of Le Samouraï (1967) by Grant P — 14 Apr 2008

Well, this would nearly be the opposite of Sweeney Todd, wouldn't it? haha.

Le Samouraï is an interesting little unassuming hybrid. It is also extraordinarily quiet. In fact, there's no dialogue for the first nine minutes or so even though characters are consistently on-screen.

Jef Costello is basically set up to be the urban assassin (or in Melville's mind 'a samurai'), although I think that can be misleading as he is more of a ninja than a samurai. Why do I think so? Well, for the past few weeks I've been obsessively watching Batman: TAS. There are two adjoining episodes with Kyodai Ken ("Night of the Ninja" and "Day of the Samurai"), which explain the differences between samurai and ninja. Jef is a hired gun; it would be a stretch to call him a protector. Additionally, his character seems too uninhibited to be considered a samurai.

For its relatively simple premise, the film runs a little long and does seem inactive at times, but it never really seems stale. The police tailing Jef is suspenseful, and the climax definitely plays into the film's title rather well even if I feel other elements do not.