The Outside Man (Le marginal) (1983)

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General		Extras
Category	Crime	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1983
Running Time	98:15
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Jacques Deray
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Jean-Paul Belmondo Henry Silva Carlos Sotto Mayor Pierre Vernier Maurice Barrier Claude Brosset Tchéky Karyo Jacques Maury Roger Dumas Gabriel Cattand
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI	?	Music	Ennio Morricone

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.66:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.66:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Unorthodox Police Commissioner Philippe Jordan (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is sent to Marseilles to break up the drug running activities of crime boss Sauveur Meccacci (Henry Silva). He succeeds in intercepting and destroying a major heroin shipment, but Meccacci has highly placed friends in politics and the police and Jordan is shuffled back to Paris and posted to a dead end precinct in the red light district to keep him out of the way. But Jordan is not a man to let things be however much the police hierarchy impedes him. With honest cop Inspector Rojinski (Pierre Vernier) and hooker Livia (Carlos Sotto Mayor) Jordan moves through the bars and clubs of the district, mixing with the Paris underclass and taking every chance he can to obstruct Meccacci, especially when his old friend Frankie (Tcheky Karyo) becomes entangled. This is unlikely to end peacefully!

     The Outside Man (Le marginal) was directed / co-written by Jacques Deray who is known for films that are intended to entertain, not make political or artistic statements. He worked frequently with that other great French action star Alain Delon in eight films including Borsalino (1970), which starred both Delon and Belmondo, before directing Belmondo in Le marginal and four years later Le solitaire (The Loner). The Outside Man has American Henry Silva as its main villain but in truth he is underused due to a fragmentary and disjointed plot that sees Belmondo wandering the red light district dealing with men in gay bars, rescuing a 16 year old drug addicted girl from a house full of West Indian squatters and fighting a couple of pimps who had cut up Livia. Much of this may well show just how tough / cool Jordan (or Belmondo) is but it is only towards the end that the film seems to remember Meccacci and return to the main narrative.

     The film does have some good moments. Although Belmondo looks a little jaded, his stunts, whether running across motorways dodging speeding cars, jumping from helicopters or brawling in bars, are athletic and impressive. His cool and charisma have been compared to that of Steve McQueen, and in The Outside Man we have Belmondo chasing his quarry through Paris in a Ford Mustang, a la McQueen’s famous chase in Bullit (1968). Also in the cast in an early role is a clean shaven Tcheky Karyo, better known for his later roles such as in Besson’s La femme Nikita (1990).

    The Outside Man was another huge hit in France for Belmondo. It is an action film with some style and decent stunts, but the narrative is fragmentary and does not provide any character arc for any of the participants. Much of what happens is obvious and predictable and even the master Ennio Morricone’s score lacks sparkle. While the film is minus the charm and wit of earlier Belmondo films, it is not uninteresting and still worth watching.

     The Outside Man is included in the four disc set French Screen Icons: Jean-Paul Belmondo 3 from Madman that also includes The Professional (1981), The Loner (1987) and Amazon (2000).

Video

     The Outside Man is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, the original theatrical ratio, and is 16x9 enhanced.

     The print, especially in the outside shots, lacks sharpness, although inside scenes have crisper detail. The colours are also fairly dull and muted throughout, with the exception of Belmondo’s red shirt! Blacks and shadow detail are fine, but contrast does vary considerably in some shots, as does brightness. There is occasional breakup of the image under motion (see 8:45 as one example), aliasing (such as at 14:53) and the odd flicker and artefact, but nothing too serious.

     There are no subtitles available.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The audio is disappointing because the original French audio track is not offered. Instead, the only audio available is an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono dub at 224 Kbps, which really is a pity.

     Dialogue can occasionally be difficult to hear, and the lack of subtitles does not help. This, of course, is an English dub and not a particularly good one at that with some silly accents. The effects, such as the car chase, are acceptable. There was no surround or subwoofer use.

     The score by Ennio Morricone is one of his lesser efforts with nothing standing out. It came across cleanly.

     As this was the English dub of the original French language, lip synchronisation was poor, except for Henry Silva who, as far as I could tell, was speaking English on set.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     None

     The only other release I can find for The Outside Man is a Region 2 French version. It is listed as having English, French, German and Italian mono audio dubs plus a commentary, filmographies, photo gallery and trailers, but whether any subtitles are available for the feature and commentary is unknown.

     I cannot find an equivalent Belmondo collection listed on sales sites, indeed Amazon.co only lists our Region 4 release. The only thing close is a Region 2 UK collection that includes Breathless, Pierrot Le Fou, Le Professional, Stavisky and A Double Tour.

     The Outside Man is an action film with some style and decent stunts, but the narrative is fragmentary and does not provide any character arc for any of the participants; even the master Ennio Morricone’s score lacks sparkle. While the film is minus the charm and wit of earlier Belmondo films it is not uninteresting and still worth watching.

     The DVD has acceptable video but the audio is an atrocious English dub rather than the original French language. There are no extras but the film is presented in a box set with three other Belmondo films, which is great value.

     The Outside Man is included in the four disc set French Screen Icons: Jean-Paul Belmondo 3 from Madman that also includes The Professional (1981), The Loner (1987) and Amazon (2000).

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall