The Loner (1987)
In Paris , Commissioner Stan Jalard and Inspector Simon Lecache plan to quit the police to go and enjoy a more peaceful life in the West Indies. In a nightclub, during a routine visit, they spot Schneider, a dreaded gangster and public enemy. At the time of his arrest, Simon is killed at close range by the criminal. Stan then decides to stay in the police to avenge Simon. Being the godfather of Christian, Simon's son, who sometimes lives in a boarding school, sometimes at home, he takes charge of his education. Two years later, Stan has been promoted, and he's told that Schneider had resurfaced in the capital. A long hunt begins.
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Gripping story with well-crafted characters
Great Film overall
Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.
This film is really bad even for 80s Belmondo standards. Story? None. Belmondo is looking for his friends' killer and chases cars, beats up and kills people in the process. At one stage or other the director seemed to have noticed that this wouldn't fill 90 minutes and added the character of a child. So all in all it seems like a tough and nasty version of a 60s Eddie Constantine film. It is interesting though that if you watch the film closely you'll notice that props and cast also feature in some other 80s Belmondo movies. The overall impression is that nothing really seems to fit story wise as well. The whole film seems to be made up of odds and ends. In Germany the film was called The Professional 2- a bit pointless given the fact that the original professional actually dies in the first part.
Jacques Deray,who recently died, made several commendable works ,even if he never made a masterpiece:"la piscine" "un papillon sur l'épaule" or in his latter days "un crime".But "le solitaire" has nothing going for it:here Deray is Belmondo's drudge,trying to direct a star who overplays and who single-handedly gets rid of the villains and even the treacherous cops.They added a child's character (Belmondo's godson whom he takes in after his father's death )to sweeten the violence ;the brat is subject to some gaffes concerning Godfather's love affairs.This is supposed to provide the poor screenplay with a comic relief.The film wasn't even a commercial success in France which had begun to have enough of these cops and robbers flicks
this is one of the very best of belmondo! see, how the "old bebel" is hunting for the killer of his cop-partner. one of my favourites... i am looking for all belmondo movies. since early 50s he was getting more marvelous and a "strong hero". belmondo is the greatest actor in europe!