Le Gang (1977)

Le Gang is a French thriller film first released in 1977, directed by Jacques Deray.  The film stars Alain Delon, Xavier Depraz, Roland Bertin and Adalberto Maria Merli.  It has also been released under the title: The Gang.  Our overall rating for this film is: mediocre.


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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