After a long delay, I was finally able to view the conclusion of the two-part series about French gangster Jacques Mesrine, thanks to Bay Street Video. Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 follows the criminal as he moves in and out of custody and the police move ever closer. The true crime drama captures the last two years of Mesrine’s career, culminating in a violent shootout in the Parisian suburbs. Unlike the prequel, the tone of this work more like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or Public Enemies.
Like Mesrine: Public Enemy, the film is excellent and shares many of the same qualities. Director Jean-François Richet deserves credit for showcasing the entire story, instead of editing it for the purposes of convenience. Sitting through a four-hour film could be arduous and the break also allows one part to focus on Mesrine’s rise to a world famous gangster and another on his eventual demise.
After committing many bank robberies and daring escapes from prison, Mesrine has become out of control. He was never known for long-term planning and rational thought but he has taken his recklessness to the extreme. He is more concerned with media coverage than his own life or death. It doesn’t matter if the crime is not successful so long as the newspaper headlines are.
Early in his career, Mesrine committed bank robberies in order to live well without working. Now he justifies himself as a political rebel. Grand schemes and grandiose ideas alienate him from everyone who once supported him. His charisma had earned a tremendous amount of public support and positive news coverage but his egomania eroded this and endangered his life. Cohorts refuse to work with him and the police gradually tighten their net. Mesrine knows that he will be shot in the streets and goes through with the script because he feels that it’s the online thing a revolutionary can do. ***½