Film Review
If you can sit through the utter comedy disaster that is
Arrête ton char bidasse!
without succumbing to the urge to commit hara-kiri with the nearest
object with a sufficiently sharp edge (a paper-clip will do),
you'll see just why its director Michel
Gérard has acquired a lasting reputation as a purveyor of
excruciatingly bad comedies.
Bidasse
(or sad sack) films, which poked fun at military service and army life
in general, were immensely popular in France throughout the 1970s,
although some - such as Robert Lamoureux's
Mais ou est donc passé la 7eme
compagnie? (1973) - were somewhat better than others.
Gérard's contribution to this genre was at the lower quality end
of the spectrum, although his first film of this kind,
Soldat Duroc, ça va être ta
fête (1974), is a reasonably likeable romp and does
not pose too great a risk to your sanity.
Gérard's follow up to his
Soldat
Duroc film,
Arrête ton
char bidasse!, is, however, inferior in just about every
respect, and the presence of Darry Cowl - then considered the 'roi des
nanars' (king of the turkeys) - is the surest sign that the depths are
about to be plumbed like they've never been plumbed before. Don't
bother looking for the plot - this seems to have been completely
overlooked, along with anything even vaguely resembling a decent
gag. It's just silliness piled upon silliness, the acting almost
as appalling as the writing and direction, and any attempts at humour
are so stiff and crass that it almost makes your eyes water. Is
it possible that people actually
paid
to watch this insipid crud in cinemas...? It would appear that, in
France during the 1970s, film comedy wasn't so much entertainment as an
extreme sport, as gruelling as a trek up Mont Blanc in a skimpy
bathing costume, only not quite as much fun.
© James Travers 2015
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Four young Frenchmen travel to Germany to begin their military service
at a French forces camp. None of them were expecting a holiday
but the rigour and discipline of army life soon begin to get them
down. Their only solace is that they are occasionally allowed to
leave the barracks, and they make the most of the freedom they have
when they do so. Army life is definitely not what they had
imagined...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.