Boomerang Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Boomerang Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 21, 2025

José Giovanni's "Boomerang" (1976) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include new audio commentary by critics Steve Mitchell, Howard S. Berger, and Nathaniel Thompson, and vintage trailer. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

It is easy to tell that Jacques Batkin is modeled after his creator, Jose Giovanni. Batkin is also a former gangster who has turned his life around and become a prominent public figure whom many admire. He is a caring father. He also frequently revisits his past, pondering what could have been, what should have been, and whether he has done the best with the opportunity he has been given to have a different life. Batkin genuinely wants to be a good man, too, but his history with crime has left him with too many scars, some obvious and some invisible, that are making this transformation awfully difficult.

During a late-night party in a secluded mansion, a young, heavily drugged man (Louis Julien) fires a rifle and kills a veteran policeman. After he is arrested and identified, his father, Jacques Batkin (Alain Delon), a very wealthy and very busy business executive, immediately begins working with his lawyer, Jean Ritter (Charles Vanel), to figure out the best strategy to free him. However, it is not long before Ritter confirms that the killer will be tried before the least lenient judge (Christian de Tiliere), who is determined to make an example of him by recommending the harshest punishment -- the death penalty. Convinced that his son is not a cold-blooded killer and deserves a second chance, Batkin meets the widow of the murdered policeman, and shortly after, she sends a letter to the judge with a request to reconsider his intention. But the progress is instantly invalidated when an aging gangster serving a long sentence recognizes Batkin and reveals that he is a former partner who has cheated to regain his freedom and reenter society as a different man. When the media exposes Batkin’s murky past, he reaches out to a prominent underground figure and good friend from the old days with a request to help him free his son. After a risky operation, father and son reunite, and with the police closing in on them, begin moving toward the Italian border.

Boomerang is a confession. It just isn’t a classic intimate confession. It spells out what every criminal -- a gangster, a killer, a robber, etc. -- who has genuinely attempted to rebuild himself and his life knows, which is that a complete transformation is impossible. The past is an essential element of one’s identity, and because the past can never be erased, one’s identity cannot be permanently altered.

This is the main reason Boomerang is a bit different from all the other films Giovanni’s name is attached to. At the center of it, there is still a crime that brings together criminals behaving like criminals usually do in Giovanni’s films, but it tells a bigger story that has something to say about characters that are nowhere to be seen in it. As a result, Boomerang probably isn’t going to be a hit amongst folks who approach it expecting it to be a conventional crime film.

Giovanni frequently commented on his criminal past, which is closely intertwined with that of his brother, Paul, also a gangster, who was gunned down in Nice. Rather than attempting to erase it, like Batkin does in Boomerang, Giovanni embraced it, routinely warning about the permanent consequences of getting caught up on the wrong side of the law. His honesty made him enormously popular, including amongst some of the biggest actors in post-war France, who then appeared in various films inspired by his writings and directed by him.

Boomerang Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.34:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Boomerang arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release brings a recent 4K restoration, completed on behalf of StudioCanal, that is difficult to praise. While it does produce various nicely detailed and healthy visuals, virtually all of which hold up well on a big screen, it also regrades the entire film. As a result, large portions of the film appear oddly cool, in some places even anemic, and in others, distractingly unnatural. Primary green and blue are often the least convincing colors, and in many areas, both destabilize other primaries and supporting nuances. The somewhat good news is that the regrading job is not a straightforward tinting job, like many of the worst L'Immagine Ritrovata and Eclair regrades, so viewing the film does not become an endurance test. Still, all of this is unfortunate because there are no traces of problematic denoising corrections, and the density levels of the visuals are consistently excellent. My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Boomerang Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

While clarity and stability are always good, in several areas, the audio becomes a tad thin, creating the impression that it is compressed for some unknown reason. I would not say that this is a distracting development, but something is not quite right. During the action material, which is not a lot, the dynamic intensity is modest. I think that Georges Delerue's predictably wonderful soundtrack is much more effective in other areas, where there isn't any action at all. The English translation is excellent, but the subtitles are a bit small.

Boomerang Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critics Steve Mitchell, Howard S. Berger, and Nathaniel Thompson.

• Trailer - presented here is a vintage trailer forBoomerang. In French, with English subtitles. (3 min).

Boomerang Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If a criminal lives long enough, he eventually discovers the truth that is revealed in Jose Giovanni's film. However, because this truth is deflating and painful, only some criminals, like Giovanni, a reformed gangster, have dared to publicly acknowledge it. If you keep this in mind, you will quickly realize that Boomerang is a confession, not a conventional crime film, and Alain Delon's character is an important messenger. Kino Lorber's release is sourced from a recent but rather underwhelming 4K master.