Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Outside the Law Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 9, 2022

Some of the creative staff behind Outside the Law are on hand in various supplements included on this disc and in interviews with them a number of films are cited as having helped to inspire this effort, including Once Upon a Time in America, though if one were to choose an iconic film about gangsters with a perceived tether to Outside the Law, it might just as easily be The Godfather, since both that Francis Ford Coppola epic and this French-Algerian co-production place a plot emphasis on the relationship(s) between brothers. While actual honest to goodness historians have quibbled or in some cases outright argued about the accuracy of certain events depicted in the film, kind of ironically the fact that my hunch is very few Americans at least will know enough about the fraught conflicts between France and Algeria for it to matter all that much, since the film's emotional through line is really more family based and is probably therefore "accessible" even if hewing to the actual historical record isn't of prime concern. The story begins in 1925, when a family is simply "informed" that a colonial type named Le caïd ( Larbi Zekkal) now "owns" their ancestral home, and that as a result they need to move within three days. The family is obviously distraught, with their three young(ish) sons perhaps not fully realizing the impact of having to find a new home will have on them.

The film then segues forward a couple of decades to the end of World War II, and in fact it's evidently this sequence in particular which has invited the ire of French (nationalist?) sentiment in particular. On May 8, 1945, which even we undereducated Americans may know was Victory in Europe Day, an uprising in Algeria leads to an appalling massacre of native Algerians by the occupying French. Included in the carnage are the father and sisters of one of those little boys seen in the opening vignette, now a grown man named Saïd (Jamel Debbouze). Somehow Saïd's mother (Chafia Boudraa) has escaped the maelstrom, but without really any further ado, the story then skips ahead another eight years and quickly documents several developments. Saïd's brother Messaoud (Roschdy Zem) is among the supposed "French" forces engaged in battle with Indochina (soon of course to be known in the United States as Vietnam), and his other brother Abdelkader (Sami Bouajila) is in a French prison for unspecified charges which one assumes may have had something to do with the uprising from 1945. After Saïd exacts a little long simmering vengeance of his own (in another viscerally compelling sequence which nonetheless might have benefitted from more information and context), the Saïd and his mother need to find safe haven, and Saïd urges her to come with him to Paris, where he promises her other sons will ultimately join them.

While Saïd at least has already been shown to be more than capable of resorting to violence if he feels justified, the film only really movies into what might be called "gangster film" territory once Saïd and his mother end up in what amounts to a shantytown on the outskirts of Paris. While there is industry to help employ people, everyone in the "village" is obviously destitute, and it's not long before Saïd decides that a life of more or less organized crime provides more opportunity. Perhaps for reasons that had little to actually do with him, Saïd's promise to his mother does finally come true when both Abdelkader and Messaoud are able to rejoin the family. By that point, both of the brothers bear various kinds of emotional and/or physical scars, Messaoud as a disfigured soldier who also spent time as a prisoner of war, and Abdelader nursing a serious revolutionary grudge after spending time of his own as a different kind of prisoner of war.

Outside the Law probably elides way too much to ever register as an ostensible "history lesson" for those with little to no knowledge of Algeria. Unfortunately, though, despite an inherently fascinating story and a rather interesting family dynamic that seems to offer a whole host of reactions to the horrors of war and its aftermath, this is a surprisingly cold and unfeeling film at times. That's perhaps all the more surprising given the fact that Rachid Bouchareb's previous film, Days of Glory (note that the link points to a UK Blu-ray release), is such an emotionally devastating commentary on war.

Outside the Law Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Outside the Law is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Media Group with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. That's a just slightly wider aspect ratio than the one offered on the now long ago UK Blu-ray put out by Optimum Home Entertainment that Svet Atanasov reviewed way back in 2011. A cursory comparison of screenshots indicates that this Cohen release is also just slightly darker than the earlier Blu-ray. The IMDb actually lists the Kodak film lots utilized for this shoot, with a 2K DI also listed, but this presentation's slightly darker look may actually help to define a nicely tight grain field that gives things a suitably organic appearance. I don't have the Optimum release to do a side by side comparison, but to my eyes this presentation looks a bit warmer with better suffusion, and as Svet noted in his review, there are some interesting palette "evolutions" that director Rachid Bouchareb and cinematographer Christophe Beaucarne employ that are well supported by this transfer. Detail levels can definitely ebb and flow, and there are a few downright fuzzy moments on display, but in close-ups fine detail can be quite compelling. This transfer also shows some of the same variances in contrast and brightness that Svet mentions in his review.

Outside the Law Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Outside the Law features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks. Despite some ostensible "action" scenes like the devastating slaughter of Algerians in the film's early moments, this isn't an especially "showy" track, though side and rear channels are regularly engaged with good placement of ambient environmental effects. An interesting and evocative score by Armand Amar also helps to fill the surround channels. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. This is another foreign language offering from Cohen Media Group where the English subtitles are forced.

Outside the Law Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making Of (HD; 27:24) is actually titled Il était une fois l'Algérie et la France to make the film's perceived connection to Once Upon a Time in America completely overt. This features some interesting interviews, but it's notable that this piece begins with clips from Indigènes (the original French title of Days of Glory), ostensibly to make the perhaps obvious connection to this film, but which may subliminally remind those who have seen the earlier piece about some of that film's more moving aspects. Subtitled in English.


• Deleted Scenes (HD*; 28:23) are subtitled in English.


• Interview with Director Rachid Bouchareb (HD; 12:16) is subtitled in English.


• Cast Interviews with Laurent Weil (HD*; 19:41) include Sami Bouajila, Jamel Debbouze and Roschdy Zem. Subtitled in English.


• Trailer (HD; 2:02)

*720

Outside the Law Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If Outside the Law is taken as a starting point for further study rather than an absolutely accurate summation of Algeria's long fight for independence, it might resonate a bit better with prospective viewers. There's a lot of fascinating content here, and the performances are often extremely compelling, so if the film somehow manages to miss an emotional bullseye more often than not, there still may be enough to warrant the interest of armchair historians. Technical merits are generally solid and the supplements quite interesting. With caveats noted, Recommended.