5/5 Le Samourai is Extraordinary!
  by Lynn Ellingwood (Webster, NY United States)
Le Samourai is a a film of style. Alain Delon is a hired killer who wears white gloves, a suit and a hat. He lives a lonely life but with the ultimate in coolness. This is a fun film where the character has immense charm and attraction for an audience. I highly recommend it.

5/5 genius noir--not for the impatient
  by B. P. Seaton (Burque)
Melville creates a fantastically slow-paced and visually stunning neo-noir thriller about Jef Costello (played by Alain Delon), a brilliant but socially broken hired killer. Delon is as cool and slick as Steve McQueen at his best, but prettier and lonelier. Those who are looking for lots of running, fighting, and explosions should stay far away from this one, and Melville never includes dialogue if he can get by without it. The first line of the film comes more than ten minutes after the opening, but the story is about solitude, isolation, and disconnection. Delon's then-wife Nathalie plays the ethereally beautiful Jane Lagrange, Jef's part-time lover and alibi. If you love smart, patient cinema, and don't mind subtitles, you should definitely check this out.

Also, the Criterion features, including a well-assembled booklet, are well worth the price.

5/5 Samurai
  by Elizabeth M. Ross (IL)
I like also the movie. The only thing I did not like is Alain Delon died
and I think there should be a continuation in this movie.

4/5 Supremely cool French gangster movie
  by T O'Brien (Chicago, Il United States)
One of the better gangster movies out there, Le Samourai has gotten the royal treatment from the Criterion Collection with an excellent DVD packaging. Jef Costello is a hired killer, calm, cool and collected who does his job and does it well. He plans every last detail so that nothing can go wrong, but on one hit he's brought in as a suspect by the Paris police. Costello kills a club owner and because he's brought in by the police, the men who hired him want to kill him so there's connection to them. What follows is a cat and mouse game as Costello seeks revenge while trying to stay out of the grips of the French police. Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, this film doesn't have a wasted moments, every shot and line of dialogue serves a purpose. It's by no means an action movie, but what makes the movie so strong is the tension it creates right from the very beginning to the last scene which completely caught me off guard. But action or not, it's a great movie that shouldn't be missed.

In maybe his best role, Alain Delon is perfect as Jef Costello, a hired killer who always gets the job done thanks to his patience and coolness under pressure. It's a very cool part, very stylized, and Delon perfectly underplays the part with very little emotion throughout. François Périer is Delon's perfect oppposite as the Paris police superintendent so desperately trying to catch Costello and break his alibi. Delon's wife Nathalie is good as Jane Lagrange, Costello's girlfriend who sets up a perfect alibi for him to help show her feelings toward him. Cathy Rosier plays Valerie, a pianist who saw Jef leave the scene of the murder but has some alterior motives as to whether she'll turn him in.

The Criterion Collection DVD does not disappoint (have they ever?) with a cleaned-up widescreen presentation that looks great. Special features include two authors discussing the making of the movie and Melville's and Delon's involvement in the film, about 20 minutes of interviews from the late 60s and early 70s with the cast and crew and a trailer. All in all, an enjoyable, different take on the gangster movie with a great performance from Alain Delon in the lead. Give Le Samourai a try!

5/5 Melvillian Ganster Movie
  by Markus Gossas (Stockholm, Sweden)
Fine transfer of one of Melville's ganster movies. Alain Delon draws his gun faster than the eye! Stylish and hilarious and set in an imaginary Paris, this is not at all a realistic movie - but it is simply excellent.