X
  • 1972
  • GP
  • Artists International
  • 1 h 45 m
  • 1972
  • GP
  • Artists International
  • 1 h 45 m
Le Samouraï

Summary Jef Costello (Alain Delon) is a contract killer with samurai instincts. After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him.

Directed By: Jean-Pierre Melville

Written By: Joan McLeod, Georges Pellegrin, Jean-Pierre Melville

  • 1972
  • GP
  • Artists International
  • 1 h 45 m
  • 1972
  • GP
  • Artists International
  • 1 h 45 m

Le Samouraï

Metascore Universal Acclaim Based on 21 Critic Reviews
must-see
90
User Score Available after 4 ratings
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Summary Jef Costello (Alain Delon) is a contract killer with samurai instincts. After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him.

Directed By: Jean-Pierre Melville

Written By: Joan McLeod, Georges Pellegrin, Jean-Pierre Melville

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Universal Acclaim Based on 21 Critic Reviews
90
95% Positive
20 Reviews
5% Mixed
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
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  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Universal Acclaim Based on 21 Critic Reviews
90
95% Positive
20 Reviews
5% Mixed
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
100
An elegantly stylized masterpiece of cool by maverick director Jean-Pierre Melville, 'Le samouraï' is a razor-sharp cocktail of 1940s American gangster cinema and 1960s French pop culture-with a liberal dose of Japanese lone-warrior mythology. [16 Aug 2017]
FULL REVIEW
100
Le Samourai is as efficient a piece of cinema as it is darkly romantic.
FULL REVIEW
100
The film is masterful in its control of acting and visual style.
By Roger Ebert FULL REVIEW
90
Melville coolly mixes the conventions of American crime films from the '40s and '50s ( THIS GUN FOR HIRE is one key reference point) with a distinctly European austerity, yet the film still manages to pack quite an emotional punch.
FULL REVIEW
88
Melville's austere yet sensuous reinvention of the genre's macho honor and trenchcoated, fedora-wearing iconography, coolly projected by Delon's expressionless face, makes "Le Samourai" a pungent and pleasurable experience still. [02 May 1977, p.D7]
By Jay Carr FULL REVIEW
80
Delon is fine and the movie has the cool delicacy and preci sion one ordinarily associates with something no more philosophical than a Swiss watch. Melville, however, is a philosopher and “The Godson” is as much parable as fascinating melodrama.
By Vincent Canby FULL REVIEW
60
It is intermittently successful.
FULL REVIEW

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Details

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Production Company Compagnie Industrielle et Commerciale Cinématographique (CICC), Fida Cinematografica, Filmel, T.C. Productions
Release Date Jul 12, 1972
Duration 1 h 45 m
Rating GP
Genres
Tagline Things suddenly go badly for a successful French assassin
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Awards

Turkish Film Critics Association (SIYAD) Awards
• 1 Nomination

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