''The Police War'' (French: ''La guerre des polices'') is a French
police drama
The police procedural, police show, or police crime drama is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasises the investigative procedure of police officers, police detectives, or law enforcement agencies as the protagonists, as ...
film directed by
Robin Davis and starring
Claude Brasseur,
Claude Rich and
Marlène Jobert. The French title (literally: "the war of the polices") refers to the rivalry between the two divisions of the French police force: the Territorial Brigade and
the Anti-Gang Brigade.
The film is loosely based on the real-life competition between French police divisions to capture gangster
Jacques Mesrine
Jacques Mesrine (; 28 December 19362 November 1979) was a French criminal responsible for numerous murders, bank robberies, burglaries, and kidnappings in France, the US, and Canada. Mesrine repeatedly escaped from prison and made internation ...
, who was considered at the time France's
public enemy
Public Enemy is an American Hip-hop, hip hop group formed in Roosevelt, New York, in 1985 by Chuck D and Flavor Flav. The group rose to prominence for their political messages including subjects such as Racism in the United States, American r ...
number one. Mesrine was shot dead by police ten days before the film's release, generating public curiosity and helping the film become a box-office success in France.
Plot
The team of Commissaire Ballestrat from the Territorial Brigade stakes out the hideout of a dangerous criminal named Sarlat. Suddenly, Commissaire Fush and his team from the Anti-Gang Brigade arrive to the site. The ambitious Ballestrat would rather let Sarlat escape than allow the rival team to take credit for the arrest. In the ensuing shootout, Sarlat kills one of Fush's men and flees. From then on, the two teams treat each other with open hostility. The police chief orders Ballestrat to cooperate with the Anti-Gang team. But the two groups would still act separately in their pursuit of Sarlat. Fush becomes close with Marie, one of Ballestrat's team members. She later betrays him by informing her boss of the Anti-Gang's upcoming operation to capture Sarlat's accomplice Manekian. Ballestrat's interference causes a death of an innocent bystander. Fush submits his resignation. Then the massive police ambush against Sarlat misfires, and one of the officers is taken hostage. While the rest of the police prefer to wait the situation out, Fush single-handedly confronts Sarlat, and they are both killed in the resulting stand-off.
Cast
*
Claude Brasseur : Jacques Fush
*
Claude Rich : Ballestrat
* Gérard Desarthe : Hector Sarlat
*
Marlène Jobert : Marie Garcin
*
Jean-François Stévenin
Jean-François Stévenin (; 23 April 194427 July 2021) was a French actor and filmmaker. He appeared in 150 films and television shows since 1968. He starred in the film '' Cold Moon'', which was entered into the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.
He ...
: Capati
*
Georges Staquet : Millard
*
Étienne Chicot : Larue
*
Jean-Pierre Kalfon
Jean-Pierre Kalfon (born 30 October 1938) is a French actor and singer.
Selected filmography
External links
*
1938 births
Living people
French male film actors
French male television actors
Male actors from Paris
French male stage a ...
: Marc
*
Rufus
Rufus is a masculine given name, a surname, an Ancient Roman cognomen and a nickname (from Latin ''wikt:rufus, rufus'', "red"). Notable people with the name include:
Given name
Politicians
* Marcus Caelius Rufus, (28 May 82 BC – after 48 ...
: Le Garrec
*
Féodor Atkine : Serge Manékian
*
François Périer : Police Chief Colombani
*
Ludmila Mikaël : The Magistrate
* David Jalil : Djalloud
* Jean Rougerie : Mermoz
* Jacques Lalande : Pralin
* Roger Miremont : Lagrange
* Franck-Olivier Bonnet : René
* Albert Dray : Francis
*
Jacqueline Parent
*
Michel Berto
Reception
The film had 1,792,679 admissions in France and ranked 18th at the 1979 box-office.
Awards
Claude Brasseur won the
César Award for Best Actor at the 1980
César Awards
The César Award is the national film award of France. It is delivered in the ' ceremony and was first awarded in 1976. The nominations are selected by the members of twelve categories of filmmaking professionals and supported by the French Min ...
.
Home video
The film was released on
Blu-Ray
Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
in 2022.
References
External links
*
1979 films
1979 crime drama films
French crime drama films
Films directed by Robin Davis
1970s French films
Films featuring a Best Actor César Award–winning performance
{{1970s-crime-drama-film-stub