Le Gang Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Le Gang Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 26, 2021

Note: This version of this film is available on Blu-ray as part of Cohen Film Collection's The Gang /Three Men to Kill.

Despite the fact that the recent passing of Charlie Watts has alerted people to the fact that members of The Rolling Stones are not in fact immortal, there still may be the perception that they are (or at least were) indescribably attractive to women generally speaking, with Mick Jagger's infamous swagger probably elevating him to the head of that particular pack. In that regard, those who haven't seen it might want to use their favorite internet search engine to uncover a now comically infamous photo that has Mick Jagger on a couch with two other people, where it seems from both body language and just overall contextual sentiment that Jagger is uncharacteristically the "third wheel" of the group. The other two are Marianne Faithfull, who's in the middle, and one Alain Delon, who is on the opposite side of Faithfull from Jagger and who seems to have captured every last bit of Faithfull's attention, while Jagger kind of despondently looks at his (kind of dowdy) shoes, while one imagines the "sad trombone" sound effect plays in the background as accompaniment. If anyone is need of examples of why Delon may have been able to give Jagger a run for his "bad boy" money, the two films Cohen Media Group has aggregated for this release, should suffice, though they also offer evidence of one reason why Delon, like Jagger, has been able to fashion such a long lived career: both of the films on this release were produced by Delon, and on one of them he shares an adaptive co-writing credit, which suggests that, like any "bad boy" worth his salt, Delon wanted control over things.

As mentioned above, Le Gang has had a prior release on French Blu-ray by Pathe, and for those wanting a plot summary, I refer you to Svet Atanasov's Le Gang Blu-ray review of that release. Svet's review also provides a good opportunity to compare screenshots and supplements.

Le Gang Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Le Gang is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Film Collection, an imprint of Cohen Media Group, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Based solely on screenshots (I've tried to come close to duplicating some of the screenshots Svet took for his review), these presentations look largely interchangeable, and I'd echo Svet's comments about the generally commendable appearance here, especially with regard to some fine detail levels on things like fabrics or Delon's curly hair (is that a wig?). Things looked just a tad bright to me at times, so that blacks can appear slightly milky, and the early part of the film seemed kind of curiously jaundiced to me, with a yellowish quality that abates as things proceed. Grain resolves without any issues.

Le Gang Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Le Gang features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track in the original French, with forced English subtitles. The track offers secure support for both dialogue and some of the more action oriented set pieces, and also provides a clear rendering of Carlo Rustichelli's score. There are no problems with regard to dropouts or other damage.

Le Gang Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Both films are presented on one disc, with (newly done Cohen specific) trailers for each film available as supplements:

• Le Gang Trailer (HD; 1:31)


• Three Men to Kill Trailer (HD; 1:22)

Le Gang Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Le Gang isn't exactly innovative, but it's fun and often quite stylish, and it provides Delon a good chance to strut his, well, Jagger like stuff. This seems to look and sound pretty much identical to the Pathe Blu-ray release for the French market, which looks like it has more in the bonus features department, for those interested. Otherwise, though, this release from Cohen comes Recommended.