Slowburn but has its moments
Summary
Farewell, Friend at times borders on tedious, but Charles Bronson and Alain Delon make for a magnetic duo and their fight scene midway through the film makes this worth a watch.
Plot: After an overseas deployment, two former French Foreign Legion members plan to break into the vault of a French corporation.
Review: I bet when you think of Christmas movies you never think of Farewell, Friend starring Charles Bronson and Alain Delon. It takes place over the Christmas holidays with our two leads (who are far from friends) breaking into a vault.
It’s more of a crime thriller than all-out action picture, but this actually has several fight scenes and around the 50 minute mark Bronson and Delon throwdown and it’s a pretty satisfying fight scene.
The majority of the film takes place inside a building as Bronson and Delon are locked inside as they try to open the aforementioned vault. There are all kinds of twists and turns and you aren’t quite sure who can be trusted.
Bronson’s character Franz Propp is filled with cocky swagger and isn’t especially likeable and frankly neither is Delon’s Dino Barran, but they feel believable for the time period. Bronson is particularly jacked in this movie at his absolute physical peak and he clearly wanted to show it off by removing his shirt for half the runtime.
Farewell, Friend is at times painfully slow and I doubt many modern viewers would stick with it, and to be honest there were times when I had no idea what was going on as it gets very surreal. I never was that bright however, so maybe I need to watch it a few more times. The scene with the girl pretending to be a doll… What? Why? It’s the two leads which make this film as watchable as it is due to their sheer on screen chemistry that kept me viewing.
Overall, Farewell, Friend is a strange tale and is more like Rider on the Rain than Death Wish with Bronson and Alain Delon playing challenging characters who aren’t especially appealing, but they feel believable enough to keep you engaged. It is incredibly slow at times and a bit too weird for my tastes, but there are some decent fight scenes especially the main one between the two leads about half way through the film. Worth watching out of curiosity but not one of my favourite Bronson pictures.