Movie Review - This Man Must Die (1969)
Posted on 07 April 2008 by Gary Karbon
This Man Must Die (1969) (Que la bête meure) is a Claude Chabrol thriller with some of the same structural elements shared by quite a few of his other films like the sea as an important background element and a nasty antagonist introduced in mid-plot who dominates the rest of the story.
A little child getting murdered is another Chabrol motif that is repeated here. Perhaps Hitchcock was correct when he said all directors mainly shoot the same movie over and over again throughout their careers.
This Man Must Die's main plot is similar to the American TV and film classic The Fugitive. But instead of a doctor chasing a killer in order to prove his own innocence in the murder of his wife, the anti-hero Charles Thenier (played by Michel Duchaussoy) chases those who kill his six year old son in a hit-and-run traffic accident.
It's a riveting story about non-relenting hatred and vengeance.
Like in Christopher Nolan's Memento (2000), Charles Thenier constantly takes notes in his little notebook, making no secret of his plans for his son's murderer. But he keeps a notebook not because he has a memory problem, as the case in Memento. The convoluted reason becomes all too clear at the end of the movie.
A major twist in the story arrives in Act 2, when Charles is forced to go to bed with the alluring Helene Lanson (Caroline Cellier) who might be the possible killer of his son.
Why?
He has to ingratiate himself to her graces and thus learn the identity of the driver who killed his son in broad daylight while Helen was sitting in the passenger seat. The ploy works.
When we are introduced to the monstrous antagonist Paul Decourt (acted to chilling perfection by Jean Yanne) at mid-point, it's like gasoline pouring over fire.
The service station owner well-to-do Decourt is the kind of sadistic and lecherous brute that you'd like to see punished bad. He is also the driver of the car that killed Charles's son.
The way Paul's aging mother blindly roots for his evil son sends a chill down the spine. Every time Paul eviscerates his own teenage son and wife in public with grave insults and mean jokes, the Mother backs him up with the same nasty glee.
At the end, justice is served in a way perhaps not expected. Closure attained. We are left with the thrill of a perfect chase arriving at its cinematically proper (if not totally legal) conclusion to serve a just cause.
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May 14th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Great review of This Man Must Die. It sounds like a great movie. I have yet to see it, but because of your review I will put it on my list. This movie actually sounds a lot like Reservation Road. It is amazing how many movies are really just remakes of older ones. It is seems like Hollywood is running out of ideas.