Farewell, Friend

Farewell, Friend (Adieu, L'ami) (1968)

Runtime: 115 minutes

Directed by: Jean Herman

Starring: Alain Delon, Charles Bronson, Olga Georges-Picot, Brigitte Fossey, Bernard Fresson

From: A few different French & Italian companies

Not as fun as I expected a Alain Delon/Charles Bronson heist picture to be. To be frank, I am only familiar w/ this because on a podcast, Tarantino put it over and noted how this was the movie that made Bronson a big star in Europe, at least for a few years. The premise sounded fine: the two leads know each other from serving in the French Foreign Legion, although they are more enemies than friends. Delon discovers that there's a safe of bearer bonds that he wants to rob as if he's Hans Gruber. Old Chuck also discovers this, so via circumstances they are locked together and both have to determine the full combination of the safe.

Personally, the movie was long, slow, and surprisingly baffling at times. No matter you agreeing with that opinion or not, everyone will be on board with the fact that there are some gross moments against women & that has aged terribly. Bronson AS A PIMP for a few minutes was rather jarring, not to mention unexpected. The ending also wasn't that satisfying, IMO. What saves this and made the entire experience “fine” was such aspects as the jazzy score, the mod late 60's style you sometimes see, the performances of the two leads, some moments of suspense, and the charisma of both Delon & Bronson. Then again plenty have gotten more out of this than me, so YMMV. At least I now know that the Kino Now app works as advertised on my TV.