Le Gang (1977) - film review

In the aftermath of World War II, a band of crooks profit from their country’s disarray by robbing banks and factories across France.   The crooks’ leader, Robert, plans ever-daring hold-ups, in the hope of retiring on a fortune.  Unfortunately, the police have other ideas...

After the enormous popularity of Borsalino and its sequel Borsalino et Co. in the early 1970s, director Jacques Deray and actor/producer Alain Delon hoped to repeat their success with Le Gang, a similar kind of period gangster action film.  The film was based on a novel by Roger Borniche, which recounted the real-life story of a notorious gangster boss, Pierre Loutrel (known as "Pierrot le Fou").

Here, handicapped by a new haircut (a wig masquerading as a perm), Delon plays a somewhat more sympathetic character than the psychopathic killer in the Borsalino films.  Indeed, the film presents an idealised view of the gangster milieu – the crooks are portrayed as civilised heroes and the police as inept, trigger-happy fools who urinate in public.  Unfortunately, thanks to a lethal concoction of lack-lustre acting, limp direction and bland stereotypical characterisation, this rather hackneyed approach only emphasises the film’s deficiencies.  Consequently, despite its slick presentation and well-choreographed fight scenes, Le Gang is something of a disappointment.  All that it really has to offer is a watered down pastiche of the classic gangster movie, with a lot of running around and plenty of shoot-outs, lacking the originality, focus and humanity of other Deray-Delon collaborations.

© James Travers 2003

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