This was the debut film from director Luc Besson (Léon, The Fifth Element), this film featured in the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book was a different kind of French film, I didn't have to worry about subtitles, because I had no idea it was completely mute. Basically in an unspecified point in the future, the world has become a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and only a few humans have survived whatever the disaster was, and none of them are able to speak or communicate verbally, most likely due to some kind of gas or radiation exposure destroying their vocal cords. Using physical movements and expressions only to communicate, all those who are left alive from the devastation of civilisation are fighting for survival, trying to find food and most fending for themselves, living in isolation, and the only way they can get by is through using brutality and hostility. The main character is known only as The Man (Pierre Jolivet) who is battling against the vicious character known only as The Brute (Jean Reno, in his feature debut), using improvised weapons and armour made from parts in the wreckage and their own remaining physical strength, they are only two of a few people left, and practically all are against each other. Also starring Jean Bouise as The Doctor, Fritz Wepper as Captain, Christiane Krüger as Captain's Concubine, Maurice Lamy as Dwarf, Michel Doset as Captain's Man, Pierre Carrive as Captain's Man and Bernard Havet as Captain's Man. The acting is obviously crucial to what is going on, because the film has absolutely no dialogue, only a little grunting and stuff, in his first acting role Reno proves himself a terrific villainous character, there obviously isn't any plot, it is just literally the last few humans on Earth fighting each other to survive and get whatever resources they can, an interesting poetic and cataclysmic science-fiction film. Very good!

Pierre Jolivet plays a Don Quixote character, unable to speak, living in a world incompatible with modern life. He trusts to his homemade weaponry - helmet, sleeves, and spear - made out of hubcaps, seat cushions, and discarded office furniture. Just as Don Quixote rode Rocicante, "The Man" rides his contraption (literally) transcending the lost lives caught up the harsh and demeaning modern world - soaring above the earth, away from the plight of modern man. Both characters ride in search of adventure in an effort to right the wrongs of the world. Both characters are guardian knights of values unfamiliar to most of the other characters in the story.Unlike Cervantes's tale, in this movie we identify more directly with the anachronistic ideals of the main character. We can only compare this alien and forbidding landscape to the lush and beautiful world we live in. Our frame of reference is the fantasy realm which the lone knight perhaps remembers. Our vision would be one which expects the main character to triumph, to vanquish, to change his world (for the better) back into a world of plenty that no longer exists.We look at this movie and see a true knight among a world of humans-as-animals. Don Quixote considered himself a true knight among animals.With Cervantes's tale we can only see the dreamer, without really understanding the scope of his anachronistic displacement. In Besson's and Jolivet's tale we see the new world from the eyes of Don Quixote, because we value the same visions and ideals as the crusading main character.

I'm afraid that although I started viewing Le Dernier Combat wanting to like it,(because I'm a fan of post apocalyptic films like The Matrix, Omega Man, The Road Warrior, etc...),this film just doesn't deliver. It's very odd, but not in a good way. People for some reason can physically no longer speak. OK. No subtitles to read. The visuals are not very interesting, and being in black and white may be more because of the film's low budget than an artistic choice. Bright colours has been Luc Besson's choice since he has the budget to use them. The film is so spare as it is, that colour may have given it that extra bit of interest it lacks, if simply to dazzle the eye. Would the Road Warrior have been the same in black and white? The story too, is not that compelling. The characters lack depth, because of the absence of dialogue, and their actions often seem quite unusual and off the wall. I can see where this film will have it's fans because it may be considered more artistic than others of its genre, but the art is again another attempt to hide the films major shortcomings. That said, art is in the eye of the beholder, so see it and decide for yourself!

Well, I guess I was in the mood for a movie that really grabbed me from the beginning. This movie wasn't it. It plodded along at a pretty slow, deliberate pace for the first 40 minutes, but there wasn't really anything in it that I was terribly interested in--there's an intriguing and mysterious feud between Jean Reno's character and an old man, but more of the first 40 minutes is dominated by the wanderings of the main character, whom I didn't know much about and couldn't really relate to at the time. He wanders around alone for the most part, he doesn't meet anyone; I imagine the director was trying to depict the loneliness of the human condition in this post-apocalyptic world or something, which is all good, but I still wish he'd trimmed it down from 40 minutes to 15, because it can get incredibly boring.But after those 40 minutes, things start to get very interesting. I guess I won't really say more than that because I don't want to spoil anything. So if you've seen the first 15-30 minutes of this movie and are thinking about turning it off (like I was), just stick with it--it gets a lot better.One of the most interesting things I found about this movie was the fact that it had no dialogue whatsoever, which really made me have to think about what was happening, how characters were feeling and what their motivations were, why things were how they were in this post-apocalyptic world, all of which gives the story a lot of room for audience interpretation. And it's amazing how much more satisfying a movie is when the actors aren't telling you exactly what's going on.