Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,897
edits
m (trope=>work) |
No edit summary |
||
(6 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown) | |||
Line 4:
{{quote|"There is no greater solitude than that of the samurai unless it is that of the tiger in the jungle... Perhaps..."|'''[[Blatant Lies|The Book of Bushido]]'''}}
''Le Samourai'', known in the US as ''The Godson'' or ''Cop Out'' (no, not ''that'' [[Cop Out]]),is a 1967 French Crime thriller directed by Jean-Pierre Melville and starring Alain Delon. It follows a perfectionist hitman named Jef Costello as he sets up an alibi, performs a hit, and then tries to get away with it, all while staying true to his Bushido-like code of honor. He eventually finds himself on the run from both the police and [[Contract
''Le Samourai'' is famous for being one of the first films to deal with the existential hero, and for deconstructing many of the tropes of the crime thriller and assassin genres.
----
{{tropelist}}
* [[Badass in
* [[Batman Gambit]]: Jef plants himself outside his girlfriend's apartment when her other lover comes home before making his hit. Later, when the lover is brought in to identify Jef, he recognizes and fingers him, thinking he's nailing him for a crime, when in reality he's offering him an airtight alibi for the murder.
* [[Blatant Lies]]: The opening quote is ostensibly from "the book of Bushido". In reality, it came from director Jean-Pierre Melville's imagination.
* [[Career Killer]]: Partially averted. Jef is extremely skilled and ''certainly'' a [[Badass in
* [[Contract
* [[Crazy Prepared]]: Costello (and the people who follow him) appear to have a ring containing ''every possible car or house key in Paris.''
** This is obviously what we in France call a ''passe-partout'' (lit. "go through anywhere"), which is basically a ring of [[wikipedia:Skeleton key|skeleton keys]].
* [[Doomed Protagonist]]: Pretty much the whole idea behind the film and its take on the Crime genre.
* [[Film Noir]]: Seen as a definitive example of neo-noir films for its style and pacing. Even though it's a crime movie, it has only ''three'' scenes involving guns.
* [[Incest Subtext]]: Melville cast Nathalie Delon as Costello's first romantic interest because they looked more like siblings than lovers, and wanted that sort of awkwardness between them for the audience. It gets weird when you realize the two of them were husband and wife in real life, and [[Identical Stranger|not related at all]].
* [[Incredibly Obvious Bug]]: Subverted. When the Paris police sneak into assassin Jef Costello's apartment to plant a listening device, the one they initially choose is a huge black box with a big antenna and a red light. The officer puts it in the hiding place, scrutinizes it briefly, and then decides to go with a smaller model.
* {{spoiler|[[Hitman
* {{spoiler|[[In Love
* [[Market-Based Title]] / [[Non Indicative Title]]: For its US release, [[Le Samourai]] was retitled [[The Godson]] in order to cash in on the gangster craze started by [[
* [[Meaningful Name]]: The main character's (not French at all) name, "Jef Costello", is a reference to both Robert Mitchum's character in the ''[[Film Noir]]'' classic ''Out Of the Past'' and to famous American mobster Frank Costello ([[Name's the Same|NOT]], ''[[The Departed|that]]'' [[Jack Nicholson|Frank Costello]])
* [[Nice Hat]]
* [[The Oner]]: The opening shot of Jef on his couch, with a slow, jerky [[Vertigo Effect]] to go with it ([[Word of God]] says this is to emphasize Costello's lonliness and mental instability).
* [[Rule of Three]]: A dramatic example. We see the [[Crazy Prepared|massive ring of keys]] three times, twice from Costello and once from the police.
* [[Signature Style]]: Costello puts on white gloves before every kill. This is a trademark of Jean-Pierre Melville.
Line 38 ⟶ 36:
[[Category:Films of the 1960s]]
[[Category:Le Samourai]]
[[Category:French Cinema]]
[[Category:Film]]
|