THE OLD GUN
France, 1975, 100 minutes, Colour.
Philippe Noiret, Romy Schneider.
Directed by Robert Enrico.
The Old Gun is a French thriller made by Robert Enrico, director of a number of arresting features and short films including the celebrated Incident at Owl Creek Bridge based on a short story by Ambrose Bierce. This film has the setting of World War Two and occupied France, used so expertly in the '70s by directors like, Costa Gavras (Special Section), and Louis Malle in the '30s with Au Revoir Les Enfants.
Though the film has excellent cast with Philippe Noiret and Romy Schneider, it is not exactly the kind of French drama that we might expect. Rather, it is in the vein of the Charles Bronson vengeance films, especially Death Wish which emerged at this time.
The film focuses on a doctor and his wife, their daughter. There is happy life, the impact of the Nazi occupation, the need for escape, the doctor's discovery of his family being massacred, his berserk reaction and getting and old gun and destroying the Nazis. This is connected to the work of the Underground during he period.
The film is violent, raises questions of tie effect of atrocities on the human spirit and the validity of violent vengeance.
1. A World War Two story? From the perspective of the '70s? Occupied France? Nazi atrocities? The Underground and the Resistance? The individual taking vengeance?
2. The re-creation of France in the '40s, the French countryside, the towns? The special effects for the violence? Musical score?
3. The structure of the film: the family on bicycles at the beginning, the memory at the end? The shift to the present, the build-up to the atrocity? The inserted flashbacks - the effect on Julien, memory, grief, motivation for violence?
4. Philippe Noiret as Julien, the bonds in his family, his love for his wife, the sketches from the flashbacks, his love for his daughter? his work in the hospital? His friends, the Underground? Francois an? their discussions? The effect of the German occupation?
5. The sequences at the hospital, hospital life and work, war and the intrusion of violence? The soldiers and victims? The Resistance patients, the searching of the hospital and the massacre?
6. The interrelationship between the Nazis and the French, the French police working with the Nazis? Horace? Julien and his response, searching and killing?
7. His getting his family to go to the villa, his long drive, the peaceful atmosphere, the discovery of the truth, the ugliness of his wife's burning death?
8. The effect on Julien, the effect on the audience? Disbelief, anger, rage? His plan? Getting the old gun, setting it up? His use of his knowledge of the villa? Setting up his victims?
9. The atrocity and brutality? The victims? The perpetrators? Their decision to move on, the officer in charge?
10. Julien and his breaking, destruction of the perpetrators of the atrocity, his letting loose his violence, the shooting, the violence in the well, The flamethrower? The effect on Julien?
11. The Resistance in contact with him? Reflection on the Resistance, contact with Francois?
12. The pessimism of the story? Tie brutality of the destruction and the effect on the vengeful spirit? Purging, the spirit by violence? The audience left with? moral judgment on Julien's response and behaviour?
