I can understand though that the dichotomy in this film between comedy and brutal and even tragic elements can disturb some viewers. But let's admit that this movie reunites all what Jean Paul Belmondo is able to do: action, comedy, acting. Everything here is smooth, without any length - its main quality - and Robert Hossein is so exquisite as the evil guy. This is also a downbeat story, despite the comic lines. This is the kind of story and characters that I love since my childhood. I won't even speak of the terrific Ennio Morricone' s score. One of my Belmondo's favourite, if not MY favourite.

This is a movie I can't help seeing again and again. The classic scenes are so many I don't have enough space to write them. Best of all, the very last scene (Joss exiting the castle). The movie is brilliantly complimented by Ennio Morricone's Chi Mai, a song you must have in your CD drawer. Don't you miss it!

Jean-Paul Belmondo is on trial for trying to kill Pierre Saintons, the military dictator of an African country. He won't say who hired him, he's heavily drugged, and eventually he is sent to prison. Two years later, he escapes and returns to Paris to take another crack at the job; his former colleagues in the French Secret Service, who sold him out when the political winds changed, try to stop him.

It's one of those roles in which Belmondo does things, which is what made him so attractive as a New Wave anti-hero. He's still playing the anti-hero, of course, but there are no heroes, just middle-aged bureaucrats, thugs , and beautiful women. He lets you see the years and weariness creep up on him, particularly in the scenes with Michel Beaune. Mostly, though, he is what the title of the movie suggests, a thorough professional, who takes well-calculated risks that confound the people who try to stop him; they are worried about their jobs, their futures, their remaining ideals of right and wrong, and utility. He's just doing a job, and if he survives, well and good, and if not..... well, that was a possibility all along.