Farewell Friend, or Adieu l’ami, the original title in French, is an odd curiosity. It was a huge international hit when it came out, starring two international icons of the ’60s and 70s, Alain Delon and Charles Bronson. Strange as over the years, the movie seldom comes up in either of the actors’ must-watch movie lists. Once Upon a Time in the West, may be the movie that is considered a bona fide classic as far as Charles Bronson is concerned. But Farewell Friend is the movie that made him a star in Europe after spending years in the US as a supporting player. It is surprising to know that the movie got its eventual release in 1973, five years after its original release.
Since this is a heist movie, there are ample twists and turns to keep the plot turning. After the Algerian war, Franz Propp (Charles Bronson) and army doctor Dino Barran (Alain Delon) go their separate ways. Franz works as a pimp, and Dino goes to work in a firm in Paris. On the behest of Isabelle, the lover of the man he accidentally killed in Algeria. In a turn of events, both men end up working together on a heist in the building.
As we are retrospectively watching the movie, a lot of the twists are pretty predictable as they follow the general rules of a heist movie. But the main reason to watch the movie is for the stars. Both of them play pretty suave and likable characters in terms of the story, at least as likable as they can be with this being a product of the ’60s. Its female characters are also treated just as you would expect from a movie from that era. This is also despite Bronson playing a pimp, who the makers have tried really hard try to justify his character.
There are shades of the characters that Bronson and Delon have played before and after their legends have been solidified. There is nothing complex in their characterizations and it is not much of a stretch for them.
The highlight of the movie is the central heist and their subsequent escape. We can call it a highlight for this film, as it doesn’t compare to the best in the heist genre. The heist also includes a big fight sequence, with the two of them having a go at each other. Contractual obligations might make it standard for people to land an equal number of punches and not lose a fight these days. But seeing the same thing happen in a movie 50 years ago makes it look not that unusual even back then.
It can be long, and apart from the central portion of the movie, there is nothing much happening in the movie. Be as it may, this is the type of cool, suave movie that can be pretty fun to watch for the lead actors’ chemistry and for fans and completists of heist movies.
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