El viejo fusil

Based by the title, I originally thought the film will be about some old hag. Only little before the start of the movie I read the resume and I was really excited. A war theme and by good old French filmmakers? I couldn’t be disappointed. And I wasn’t. In the first half of the film you get the reason for revenge and in the second half Philippe Noiret creates a character I would never guess he could – a character of a man who takes revenge. And trust me, if you cross a path with a man who seeks revenge during war, you can count yourself lucky he is not after you. Of course that’s different with a movie, which you are watching with bated breath… that’s how powerful the old French filmmakers from the 70s can be. (12.06.2018)

No matter how hard I try and how hard I look... every minute felt fake, the flashbacks cheesy, and the point lackluster. The set design is underdeveloped and the context of the action is not very strong. The theme is excellent, but the processing is inadequate. If this is one of Romy Schneider's top 3 films, I'm really "looking forward" to the next ones. (19.07.2009)

Definitely a five-star affair. The Old Gun is exactly the kind of film that could only be made in France. Rough, raw, it hides nothing, and it has no regard for the viewer. Doctor Dandieu is Noiret's best role and you believe in everything he does (if Romy Schneider were my wife, I'd go and shake the whole of Berlin dry for her), and you cheer and cheer. An intimate war drama with top-notch performances, suspenseful scenes and human emotions that do not feel mechanical. This film should be cherished, because there are not many like it. (18.10.2007)

Revenge is sweet, French is elegant, Romy Schneider is charming and the Nazis are a bunch of heartless bastards – if you agree with all this, The Old Gun is the film for you. An unjustly forgotten gem in the treasure trove of French cinema that has perhaps the most raw and authentic type of action scenes imaginable in a non-commercial and psychological movie. At the same time, it’s exactly the kind of film art that Hollywood would never bother with: pacifist in content and strongly ethically tinged, but formally perfectly independent, idiosyncratic, indecipherable and highly artistic. The climactic passages are absolutely riveting and immersive with a chilling, sometimes unpleasantly claustrophobic atmosphere (excellent camera work), but unfortunately they stand in rather striking contrast to a number of very slow, uninteresting and unsurprising scenes, mostly from the opening part. If Robert Enrico had been a bit more nimble, this could have been a fantastically executed war drama instead of "only" 85%.. (13.04.2014)