The Big Pardon (1982)
The Bettoun clan: Raymond (the patriarch), Maurice (the son), Jacky (the nephew), Roland (the nephew), Albert (Raymond's cousin), Pépé (Raymond's friend), Samy (the bodyguard) are a family clan of Jewish Blackfoot kingpins of French organized crime. Their activities include running casinos, organizing underground boxing matches, illegal gambling, pimping, racketeering and bloody settlements of scores against other Arab and French clans. But in the shadows, Pascal Villars has sworn the loss of the Bettoun. He will succeed in setting the Arab clan against the Jewish clan, for the great benefit of the police commissioner Duché, who has been trying in vain for ten years to bring down the Bettouns.
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Reviews
everything you have heard about this movie is true.
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.
Roger Hanin -then President François Mitterrand 's brother -in-law -had big ambitions -and probably a big budget too : "Le Grand Pardon" was intended as a French "Godfather" ,no less.Needless to say ,it's little short of disaster.The only reason why you would sit through these two hours + is the cast which features Bernard Giraudeau,Anny Duperey,Richard Berry,Jean-Louis Trintignant,Jean-Pierre Bacri.... Based on true facts,but it does not make this Jewish family saga exciting for all that.Alexandre Arcady even made a "Grand Pardon 2 " (1992) which took place in Miami (like DePalma's "Scarface" ) and featured Christopher Walken and Jill Clayburgh.
A very bad one : a story with all the stereotypes about jewish Pieds-Noirs. Hanin exagerates his manners and the result is nothing but a very caricatural image of a world that doesn't look like this. The actors themselves don't seem to believe in the movie. Better watch Once upon a time in America in which the jewish society is described quite rightly.