Le battant (1983)

Jacques Darnay has served 8 years for robbing a jeweller. Now he is out of prison and looking for his loot worth 6 million francs. There are other people looking for him and prepared to kill for the diamonds. There is also a policeman who is trying to find out what really happened during that robbery when the jeweller was killed. And there are lots of naked women who may or may not have their own agenda in the case.

Delon’s own homage to the French gangster movies of the 60s and 70s, with a an explicit reference to Le samouraï.

Alain Delon stars as Jacques Darnay, who is wrongly convicted for stealing diamonds and the murder of a jeweller. After serving eight years, he is released from prison, but followed relentlessly by Inspector Rouxel (Pierre Mondy) and the criminals who are after the jewels that were never found.

Delon also directs and makes it fast moving and hard boiled, while ensuring that there’s a good and gritty atmosphere in this long (121 minutes) but engrossing 1983 French action thriller.

Delon and Christopher Frank, the team behind the similar Three Men to Kill and For a Cop’s Hide, adapt a novel by André Caroff.