Karry
Best movie of this year hands down!
Aneesa Wardle
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Ezmae Chang
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
dbdumonteil
This is a return to the rural thriller (hence the title :"total western" ;French Aveyron becomes the wild wild west ) which was trendy in the seventies and early eighties with works such as " La Horse" "La Veuve Couderc" or "Canicule" ;only violence -and I mean violence :Samuel Le Bihan's torture scene is almost unbearable -makes the difference .The gangsters are seventies-like (a straight-faced Jean Pierre Kalfon )and the teacher of teenagers with special needs (played by Jean-François Stevenin,who was the schoolteacher in Truffaut's "L'Argent De Poche "(small change), looks like a person who took part in the events of May 1968 .Filmed on location in the splendid Aveyron landscapes where the home for delinquents is located ,the story is hackneyed ,but thanks to the cast ,the movie is not devoid of qualities:the youngsters are well directed and Le Bihan is credible (except for the last scenes when he becomes Rambo to the power of 10).It seems that the director does not know how to end his movie and the last scenes drag on (maybe he was waiting for the sunset!).Thus the best scenes are to be found in the first half ,with the arrival of the new "conselor" in the place ,and the problems dealing with the adults and the young people he encounters.
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"
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.
