Law Breakers (1971)

Original title

Les Assassins de l'ordre

Directed by

Marcel Carné

Genre

drama film

Country

France, Italy

Runtime

1h 50m

Rating

5.5 of 10 from 30 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A magistrate investigates three police officers who beat a suspect to death. The case threatens to fall apart as witnesses are intimidated.

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What happens

Les Assassins de l'ordre (lit. 'The Assassins of Order') is a 1971 crime film starring Jacques Brel and directed by Marcel Carné. The film is based on the novel Les Assassins de l'ordre by Jean Laborde. The novel was based on the real-life incident where a man who was accused to stealing a watch was beaten to death by three police officers. The film is about an magistrate who is assigned to examine the case of two policemen and their inspector who have beaten a suspect to death. By the time the case is heard in court, all the witnesses and the widow's counsel have been intimidated into silence, which leads to the magistrate coming under heavy pressure to drop the case, and to have the three murderers walk free. The film opened in France on May 7, 1971. It was later shown at the 7th Moscow International Film Festival in July 1971 and later out of competition at the Venice Film Festival. In France it had a 1,142,534 spectators, making it the 21st highest-grossing film in France in 1971. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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• Max et les Ferrailleurs (1971)
• Ten Days' Wonder (1971)
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• Confessions of a Police Captain (1971)
• Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)
• The Lion's Share (1971)
• Love Me Strangely (1971)