The story's nominal heroes are a poker klatch of middle-aged hoodlums who are growing weary of the diminishing returns and increased agita that their traditional rackets have been providing them. The panderer Lino (Lino Ventura) and his vacant chauffeur Aldo (Aldo Maccionne) are nonplused when Lino's stable stages a walkout in search of a comprehensive benefits package. Jacques (Jacques Brel) and Charlot (Charles Gerard) are barely breaking even with their elaborate bank heists. The only one content with his current gig is the manic Simon (Charles Denner), who's being paid to stage attempted assassinations on corporate executives which can in turn be pinned on the left. Simon sells his compadres on the notion that global upheaval is where the real money's to be made--and, after a funny sequence where a stream of students, teachers and radicals attempts to raise their collective political consciousness, the band sets out to establish itself as hired muscle for revolutionaries.
Their first attempt to raise their profile comes with the abduction of pop singer Johnny Hallyday (as himself), which they declare to the authorities to be a political act--and which has, in fact been staged and paid for by Hallyday as cost-effective publicity. (This also gave Lelouch the opportunity to work in concert footage of the iconic Hallyday, who wound up with fourth billing for his roughly five minutes of screen time.) With their reputation out before the underground, it isn't long before they're jetting to Paraguay, where revolutionary commander Ernesto Juarez (Jean-Luis Bunuel, the surrealist's son) commissions them to kidnap the Swiss ambassador (Andre Falcon) and trade his life for the release of Juarez's jailed commandos.
After their success, the gang is less than thrilled with Ernesto's request that they forego their promised payoff in the name of Marxist fervor, to the point where they take him captive and accept concurrent ransoms from his men, the local military, and the CIA. They follow up with an audacious 747 hijacking that nets them a $2 million payday, and start enjoying an island holiday--but they hadn't reckoned with a vengeful Juarez and the French justice system, which take the film's events to a properly irreverent conclusion.
Lelouch's real metier has always been the glossy romance exemplified by A Man and a Woman (1966), but his of-the-moment visual sensibilities add to the spirit of fun, as shown in the title sequences marked by strobing day-glo and the "38,982nd sunset in the history of cinema." While the elements of political farce in L'Aventure, c'est l'aventure appear today to be applied with a sledgehammer rather than a scalpel, the film remains an enjoyable lark largely because of the macho horseplay between the five principals. The brutish Ventura and intense Denner seem to enjoy themselves in such light fare, and the storied singer/songwriter Brel provides an amusingly insouciant performance as well.
While Image did nice work with the presentation of the print, which had been mastered in the film's 1.66:1 theatrical aspect ratio, the paucity of extras is frankly disappointing. The viewer's given the option of removing the English subtitles, and that's pretty much it--no interviews, trailers, stills, or even written liner notes to give any additional insights into the production.
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by Jay S. Steinberg
