Dobermann (1997) - film review

Known as Dobermann, Yann Le Pentec is a notorious killer hunted by the French police.  He and his gang of equally ruthless outlaws, which include his mute gypsy girlfriend Nat, a dog lover and a priest, pull off a spectacular bank robbery in Paris. The psychopathic Inspecteur Sauveur Cristini is determined to bring Doberman to book…

With his first full length film, director Dutch Jan Kounen set out to shock, and with Dobermann he manages to achieve just that.  This is 100 minutes of non-stop comic-book violence, a traditional cops and robbers scenario in which the police are no better than the crooks, as they hurl abuse and bullets at each other in a relentless battle to the death.  The intention presumably was to out-do Tarantino, but the result is far from entirely satisfying.  Some viewers will love the outrageous stunts, the fast and furious photography and action scenes, but most will probably be put off by the film’s extreme violence and grim nihilism.

Dobermann is visually an impressive film, and indeed the first half of the film is quite watchable, an extreme off-the-wall black comic thriller, with some nice comic touches to offset the hard-edged thuggery.  Unfortunately, the film fails to develop and after the well-executed bank robbery scenes, it gets hopelessly stuck in a rut, like a gramophone record.  The second half of the film, although more excessive than the first, lacks impact because, by this stage, the audience has become so inured to the film’s style that it offers no new surprises.  Far from exciting its audience, the film becomes increasingly boring and predictable as it progresses.

Despite some impressive acting, notably from Vincent Cassel and Tchéky Karyo, characterisation is as two-dimensional as a poor quality strip cartoon.  Worse, the dialogue appears to be comprised entirely of a vocabulary limited to a dozen or so slang words for intimate body parts and bodily functions.

Overall, despite the high-adrenaline action photography and a very promising start, this film is a major disappointment.  The gratuitous violence and bad language would have been acceptable if it was placed in a suitable context, with a story that actually means something.  Unfortunately, this is a film that really has nothing to say and it merely attempts to conceal the fact with over-the-top visual imagery and extreme depictions of human behaviour which is in no way realistic.  Dobermann indeed shocks, but not in the way its director had intended.

© James Travers 2000

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