Sam smith (sam_smithreview) I can give this film 10 stars just on the sound track alone! or me this is the best work of Bel Mondo. The story its just perfect, Joss (main character) uses the orders that the service gave to him to kill president N'Jala even after he became friend to to his government. They betrayed him and left him to die in prison. The character of commissionaire Rosen it's a perfect one. I have seen this movie maybe 20 times and every time I find something new. The speech in the end between the minister and captain Valeras it's my preferred moment: Is this call under surveillance? Of course Mr. Minister. The duel between Rosen and Joss in the best picture of Paris I have ever seen is also great. But the truth is every moment and every word is perfect. You don't have to miss this movie.

Movie Critic Filmed in 1981 when Belmondo was 48 this is a quirky movie that was meant to be comedy/serious using the star drawing power of Belmondo.The ending was a surprise as through out the movie you know Belmondo is going to prevail. But some how the ending is a gimmick that works and you rethink the serious basis of this story.I have little doubt the French secret service orchestrated lots of power brokering in Africa--whether they went as far as assassinations--??-possibly.Other than that fact this movie is totally unbelievable but you don't mind it as you witness Belmondo waltz around impossible roadblocks and apparently tie up the entire French security system in knots. Yes, it is pretty silly. This movie leaves you with an odd mix of emotions. Yes, it is idiotic nonsense but still..... There is also a time warp element, a lot of the references to Africa would be PC taboo today. Over all it deserves about a 6.5 but it is so different I gave it a 7.I hope I offend no one but Belmondo sure must have led a dissipated life style to look like he does. Why do the French make sex symbols out of less than handsome actors?..Depardieu--Yves Montand etc...bizarre.RECOMMEND

dusan-22 This is the best film on the specific topic of mercenary vigilante model of a film hero highly exploited by Hollywood even today. Everything else is a bad copy of it. I read comment of one user who compares the structural basis of the film with Count Monte Kristo idea which is interesting, but unlike the Count Le Professionnel is the milestone for the bad guys (assassins) that are becoming good during the movie getting all our sympathies, unlike any movie before that. We, the observers, are suffering with their pain and sharing it even though they had been murders in many color pictures just few film minutes ago. Excellent casting and one of the best Belmondo's roles. Morricone music makes one perfect whole, making this film being your favorite, if you are hesitating about that.

R. Ignacio Litardo I saw this film when I was very young, at the cinema, and still remembered the glorious ending. This film is perfect in its genre. Like a 007 but with heart, sociological undertones and humour.Like when the big bosses of the system look at the city from above their crystal palaces, and the first people who help our hero are the clochards/ beggars. Which are no saints, but whose materialism "what is it there for me?" seems honorable by comparison to the chiefs.Of course Belmondo is the best, and Morricone's score can't be improved. The script by Jacques Audiard has not one word that should't be there, like Poe's famous dictum.The passage of time: This film didn't loose any power with time. On the contrary, I feel it wouldn't be possible to make it now. Maybe it was the simple technology, the vague appeal to honour, and the political incorrectness. Like when Beaumont's chief, the hooker and cops speak of the president of an African state as "le negre".Josselin has a way with words, with people and strategically. Instructor Picard goes to the point when says that "he's got the whites" = always takes the initiative. This film is about mental games when outnumbered and out resourced. As such, it could be given in a course of strategy.Whereas its imitators rely on the action scenes like "Bourne identity", riches and gadgets (007) here life is mean and meaningless. Even a genius like Beaumont can achieve little against a corrupt and inefficient system.Somebody could make a study of the use of the telescopic lenses on the rifle. He who has it wins? Not necessarily so! But the three times it's being used, people fall like flies, like if death didn't inflict any pain.Morals: Beaumont has no friends, and he barely believes in his wife or his mistress, let alone his "friend". His nemesis, Le président N'Jala, is pragmatical as him, but follows some codes: "I didn't kill you because I wanted to exchange you for something". As is Robert Hossein as Le commissaire Rosen. Somebody as hard boiled as himself, no less. The "prisonnier évadé" also has moral. As, paradoxically, Doris Frederiksen, the stunning prostitute (I can't say more, but the ending proves it). I'd liked more character development of Jeanne Baumont and Salvatore Volfoni, his pal. Rosen always drawing sketches, at important meetings or when interviewing his wife, proves he cared for nobody, it was just another way of showing his superiority (in his perspective). Like when he said of Volfoni, whom he just used as a bait, "I pity him".I agree with IMDb's reviewer from Bochum, Germany that: "Today no one makes movies like this any more...". I was thinking about who could impersonate Joss now? Matt Damon in "The Bourne identity", as suggested by Amazon reviewer Hiram Gomez Pardo? Bradd Pitt :)? Definitely time doesn't always bring about progress...PS: Everyone will have its favourite quote with such a film. Mine probably would be the Instructor Picard again when he extols his pupils' virtues: "I'd like my son to be like him" and Le ministre, still insomniac, answer: "Ok, very moving, but it doesn't solve our problem".