Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!

Twice winner of the prix Goncourt ,Romain Gary was a very famous writer whose books were often transferred to the screen :"la promesse de l'aube" (two versions including one by Jules Dassin) , "les racines du ciel" ("the roots of Heaven " by John Huston),"la vie devant soi" (probably the best of Simone Signoret's latter days performances). He was less lucky in the cinema ;his first effort " les oiseaux vont mourir au Pérou"( featuring. Jean Seberg ,his then wife till 1970)got unanimous thumbs down ;his second work passed unnoticed in his native country although it did feature the strangest face of the French cinema (Daniel Emilfork ,unfortunately wasted ) along with a cosmopolitan cast . The intentions were good: drug-traffickers , helped by corrupt politicians , and mainly junkie kids ,a subject often passed over in silence (the movie begins with a strong indictment of drug addiction among children and of the political system of certain countries) . The treatment is heavy -handed : a lot of female nudity in a night club where the black owner sings the blues (totally irrevelant in that context) ,a risqué scene between Seberg and Boyd -outrageously made up in his first sequence as though he was featured in a horror movie ;the scene when Seberg removes the blanket to kiss her lover good morning and discovers a corpse with a banana in his mouth is guaranteed to net nothing but horselaughs;ditto for the final massacre , filmed in slow motion ,as it was often used in the early seventies .Editing is absurd ,and I dare you to catch up with this cock and bull screenplay. There must be a dead body a minute in this thriller, so if you can get an eyeful with the nude slaves in the club,do not expect any suspense : Seberg searching for her hotel in the night and living the perils of Pauline takes the biscuit .This clever feminist actress should have known better. Both Jurgens and Mason seem to wonder why they got involved in that business.

This movie has suspense action and love all rolled into one loop. An earlier Die Hard movie and this movie is a great emotion builder. The cream of the crop and do not listen to anybody else. Do not miss this movie because their are big stars of the time and did I mention action. Shootouts, interrogations, espionage.

An extremely remarkable feature, partly because of Romain Gary's script, the husband of Jean Seberg, which does not appear from the information. This multi-award winner writer (of for instance *The Roots of Heaven* (directed by John Huston with Errol Flynn) shot himself December 2nd 1980 one year after the suicide of his wife Jean Seberg, who was hounded to death by the FBI for no valid reason at all. This film was maybe their last major collaboration, and the script (the story of the film) is ingenious, James Mason in the final *ballet* scene seeing his worst nightmare come true. Romain Gary was a survivor of the Holocaust, which is touchingly described in his autobiography "Promise at Dawn", perhaps the most brilliant and moving epic of a mother ever written, in which every word is true.

According to IMDB, there were two versions of "Kill!", as they cut the nude scenes in one in order to get the film shown in more conservative countries. Surprisingly, the version they have on YouTube is the nude version. And, unlike the nudity in most films, it seemed completely gratuitous in many cases...with nude women in many scenes doing really nothing other than getting naked. It didn't in any way relate to the plot...I guess Romain Gary just liked seeing naked women.

I have no idea if Jean Seberg's nude scenes use a double or not...though considering the animosity that existed between her and the writer-director (they'd just divorced and reportedly did NOT want to make this film. I assume he probably insisted she do these scenes. Regardless, Gary seems to have put a lot of Jean's own life into her character...such as her being involved with African-American causes (showing this by putting an Afro wig on for no other apparent reason at the beginning of the movie) and her being dissatisfied with her much older husband in the story.

When the story begins, a big-time drug kingpin is inexplicably released by a judge....and most of Alan Hamilton's drug agents resign in protest. Hamilton (James Mason) remains on the job...and soon someone tries to kill him. At the same time, heroin dealers around the world are begin assassinated....and you assume Hamilton's ex-coworkers are behind this....or, perhaps Hamilton himself.

Now at this point, this is when things get weird. Hamilton's estranged wife (Seberg) begins having an affair with Brad (Stephen Boyd). She tells him she hates him and he's insane...but, inexplicably, is soon in the sack with this violent man. She still she sleeps with him...possibly because she craves the excitement. But soon he's killing people and acting very cruel....and he himself might be a heroin dealer or an ex-cop killing them...or both! What's next? See the film.

The general plot for this film is good...as are the twists and turns and surprises. It showed intelligent writing...at least in that regard. However, while Gary wrote a decent script, his directorial skills were very poor here....with the most over-indulgent ending I've seen in years. It's loud, brash and completely over-the-top....and detracts seriously from what could have been a much better film. A curious film...with an odd message that the best way to deal with drug dealers is to simply murder them!

This movie is not for everyone, but I think it is a 70's classic. Directed by Romain Gary, and starring his wife Jean Seberg (just after her nervous breakdown), this is a strange, dreamlike, bizarre film. There are some great moments in this film- sort of a cross between a spaghetti western, ClockWork Orange and Performance. Jean Seberg herself is perfectly cast in this as the bored housewife Emily looking for a thrill--and off to Pakistan (well, OK it was filmed in Spain) she goes! The renegade she meets, Brad Killian (name obviously in reference to his dedicated profession of killing every drug runner he can find), is played by the wonderful Stephen Boyd. In his leather-clad outfit and wild hair, he makes for a great anti-hero as he seduces Emily, and turns the cards on her husband, played by the excellent James Mason. The music is amazing, and there are a host of classic Italian character actors in this flick as the bad guys. Oh, and Curd Jergens shows up too! It's a great 70's trip - I highly recommend this if you can track it down on IOFFER.