ridiculous rating

A Brilliant Conflict

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I recognize that this is a well-made movie. But I still didn't enjoy it, and had to push myself to stay with it.It is the story of an amoral, troubled young man (the Lucien Lacombe of the title) who takes pleasure in killing rabbits and other small animals, though early on we see that he had feelings for an old horse. In the last days of the Occupation of France, after the Allies have landed on the Normandy beaches, he decides to join with the Militia and the German police, the Gestapo. He takes pleasure in frightening others with his gun.He also has a romantic side, of a sort, and falls in love, or at least in lust, with the daughter of a Jewish tailor. At times he helps them out. Sometimes, he does not.We never get to understand why he is so often so indifferent to the pain of others. But we are left to understand that such a man - an adolescent, still - could become a militia man.For me, the movie was too slow and too long. I didn't find that I was learning anything new about Lucien as the film progressed, and so saw no reason to stick with it, other than a dogged determination to see the thing through. If I hadn't needed to watch it for a project, I would never have stuck with it to the end.But, as you can see, others on here loved it. It is well acted, often beautifully photographed.I just didn't care for the story or most of the characters.I much prefer this director's later movie about the Occupation, Au Revoir les Enfants, which I found deeply moving.

In 1944, in the southwest of France, the teenager Lucien Lacombe (Pierre Blaise) works in a nursing home and returns to his hometown Souleillac for vacation. His father is a German's prisoner and he finds that his mother is living with her master Mr. Laborit (Jacques Rispal). Lucien seeks out the local schoolteacher and leader of the French Resistance Mr. Peyssac (Jean Bousquet) to join the group, but the man tells that he is too young and will not be accepted.Lucien returns to his job riding a bicycle and he has a flat tire. He arrives late in town and the German police bring him to a hotel and Lucien snitches Mr. Peyssac that is arrested and tortured. Lucien is invited to join the police by the Chief of Police Mr. Tonin (Jean Rougerie) and takes advantages of his new position. When Lucien visits the Jewish tailor Albert Horn (Holger Löwenadler) to make new clothing, he sees his beautiful daughter France (Aurore Clément) and forces her to date him. Later Albert is arrested and when France and her grandmother Bella Horn (Therese Giehse) are hold by the Germans, Lucien kills the German soldier and flees with them to the countryside."Lacombe Lucien" tells the fictional story of a despicable collaborationist in World War II. The brainless Lacombe Lucien is an alienated and wicked teenager without any sense of patriotism, morality, emotion, love or respect, and uses his power to hurt people. I do not recall any other film with a collaborationist in the leading role. The wooden Pierre Blaise keeps the same expression along the whole film and I do not know whether this is intentional to show how alienated his character is or whether he is simply a ham actor. The conclusion is very disappointing. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Lacombe Lucien"

This was a great film about a young man, Pierre Blaise,(Lucien Lacombe) who was raised on a farm in France and loved to kill animals, even birds singing in a tree. Lucien loved to catch chickens and kill without the blink of a eye and did the same thing with rabbits. That is basically how this film started out and it also took on many different directions. Lucien gets involved with the German's as they occupied France during WW II and joins the Nazi's as an informer and becomes deeply involved with a Jewish family. France Horn, (Aurore Clement) is a Jewish girl who Lucien falls in love with and her father is Albert Horn who is a tailor by trade and he does not like Lucien because he knows he is a turn coat for the German's who hate the Jews. This is a very interesting and mysterious film and has some very deep secrets that occurred during World War II.

Lucien Lamcombe is the title character of this story about a French teen who joins the German police on a lark during the last year of WWII. A short time earlier, he'd volunteered for the Resistance but was rejected--why he so willingly joined the Nazis was tough to decipher--as were his motives apart from that as well as his inner world. In fact, the young man is like a puzzle with several missing pieces--he just exists and seems to have no depth or much personality--much like the main character in Albert Camus' "The Stranger". He IS--and that's about all you can say about this rather bland and amoral character.Despite the war having been over for nearly three decades, this film apparently did not do well in France. Perhaps they just didn't want to be reminded that many "good people" willingly collaborated or maybe the wounds were just too fresh.I liked the film and recommend it, though I must admit director Malle's style is quite unusual and nothing like a Hollywood product. It isn't just because the title character is so amorphous, but the entire story of the film. While there is a little music here and there, it's generally a very quiet film with many long camera shots where not a lot occurs--and seems quite "arty" as a result. Also, there is so much vagueness about the final portion of the film. It just ends very abruptly and there is a slapped on summary of what happened next--almost like they were saying "scene missing here" and instead of re-filming it they just gave a summary of would have been the final ten minutes or so. To me, this was very dissatisfying--particularly because there was no mention of what happened with the girl or her grandmother. Perhaps because the film already was quite long (about 140 minutes), they just decided to end it this way to save costs for film! Whatever the reason, this brought the film from an 8 to a score of 7. An unusual, compelling and odd film--there certainly isn't much like it out there.UPDATE--I spoke with a friend about this film and the more we talked, the more I now realize that what I didn't like about this film (even though it is still a good movie) is that the main character is not consistent nor does he seem to have any depth. Because he is so immature and bland, I could imagine someone seeing this film and actually feeling sorry for or at least excusing his evil. No matter how "nice" he becomes later in the film, his actions are inexcusable and I didn't want to connect with him and I found this a bit disturbing. Still, it is an unusual and thought-provoking work.