Patrik Lindström I was recommended this movie from the bald guy who has the DVD-rent shop in my block. It was called Total Action in my country. He said: This is a good french action movie that no one rents or has heard of. Tomorrow I will tell him that he made a good recommendation. It even got better when I understood that it was a western movie.It has a hero that speaks softly and has bad connections in the beginning. But he is honest. He never lies. It has a hot landscape with neighbours to far away. There is the naive priest who do not understand how evil the villains and there sadistic leader is. Everyone in the movie can take a beating with a frying pan or several bullets. SPOILER The arrogant cavalry with no real violence experience arrive but are no match for the dark side./SPOILER It has all the western ingredients but I could not see any horses however. There are no revolvers. Just modern mercenary equipment. So this movie made it clear to me: This is how a modern western movie should be. SPOILER The first part of the movie takes place in the french city where we get to know the lonesome hero and see the problem of the catastrophic heroine deal he is unluckily drawn into. Bédé the hero flees to the sanctuary and works as a volontaire at the reformative school and gets to know the cocky youth and earns there respect. The criminal mercenary effectively trace the hero and starts to torture him. All the pupils who think they are tough bad boys realise that they do play in the same league of evil as the villains. They fight the mercs as a team and overcome there previous small grudge. They all face their fear and overcome them and you feel they become better persons after this traumatic katharsis /SPOILER. This movie does not have a huge budget. Sometimes you get the taste of B-movie in your mouth. That takes the grade down a notch but after we saw Total western we said to each other: "This french modern Western movie was much better then we anticipated"

brooz This movie has been a shock. It begins like an ordinary gangsters movie. But soon, the hero needs to hide in a farm used as an education center for violent youngsters. OK, now the story begins. the hero is threatened by the teenagers and the gangsters. The fight can begin. people shut up while guns speak out loud!The characters are convincing: cynical gangsters; peaceful and coward educators; violent but fresh teenagers. the plot line is simple but yet efficient. Enjoy it!Beware: this movie is not suitable for all audience: several tortures scenes a displayed. The worse of these is not actually on screen as we only see faces showing pain (of the victim), horror (of the unwilling watchers), coldness (of the butcher) and disgust (of the gangsters). Watching this scene made me clench my teeth.

FabZeFab It's a good movie, that's sure. A few months before LE PACTE DES LOUPS or LES RIVIERES POURPRES , Eric Rochant made a great and violent film,with a lot of great gunfight sequences and a Samuel Le Bihan really good in a like-Rambo character. If you like guns, tortures, blood and sometimes free violence, take a look to this TOTAL WESTERN

kcarver-2 I saw this movie at the premiere at the Grand Rex Monday night. Not knowing anything about the movie, except that I'd liked Rochant's "Aux yeux du monde", I was impressed. I found it was an intelligent film, with a good soundtrack, comparable with a good old American action movie, (suspense, simple but effective script) but keeping a popular French touch. It has all the elements of a fun shoot'em up movie, with pointed humor and a certain wistful detachment with regard to the (sometimes hard to take) violence. It can be enjoyed by fans of Pulp Fiction, Taxi (stupid but effective French movie) or the Seven Samurai or Ghost Dog.