Le Dernier Combat

Le Dernier Combat is a post-apocalyptic, desolate, and bleak cinematic experience that descended in theaters in 1983. The film is an exceptional work by the French filmmaker, Luc Besson, who later directed cult classics like Leon: The Professional, Nikita, and The Fifth Element. It marketed Besson's immense potentiality and resonated with his unique storytelling style that embodies action, drama, mystery, and palpable tension. The film features Pierre Jolivet, Jean Reno, and Jean Bouise in the leading roles and is set in a post-apocalyptic future ravaged by an unspecified event.

Shot in black and white, the absence of color presents a despairing and somber world marked with sediments of apocalyptic tragedy. The brilliance of the movie lies in the artistic silhouette and the challenge it undertakes - a virtually silent film where dialogues are mere whispers lost in the wind. It is the emotion, the gesture, and the human relationships that are the most vocal elements in the screenplay.

The film revolves around the life of a lone protagonist, known only as 'The Man' and played skillfully by Pierre Jolivet. He is surviving in a world where an unidentified cataclysm has denoted humanity mute, depriving them of the ability to speak. Moreover, society as we know it has disintegrated, and the remnants of civilization are a series of competing groups in a primitive world devoid of law, order, and ethics. The aggressors, desperate for survival, resort to violence and savagery, emphasizing the animalistic instincts that survive when social constructs collapse.

In this desperate world, the protagonist embarks upon a tireless quest to find a rumored woman, symbolizing hope and solace amid the bleak existence. On his journey, he must confront his nemesis, 'The Brute', performed by a very young Jean Reno, who is equally desperate but for very contrasting and significantly darker reasons.

The third central character, 'The Doctor', played by Jean Bouise, is an older man who fortifies himself in an abandoned building. He lives in solitude as he clings tightly to the vestiges of old world luxuries - functioning as a stark reminder of the world that was lost. He becomes an unlikely ally to the protagonist, aiding him in his quest and providing a nuanced examination of humanity, morality, and civilization.

Luc Besson perfects the pessimistic future through his embrace of the grim, desolate aesthetics presented in Le Dernier Combat. The dystopian backdrop is complemented superbly by minimalist sound design, with an eerie quietness that further enhances the sensation of dread, isolation, and anxiety. However, Besson ingeniously intersperses moments of dark humor, brilliantly capturing the absurdity potentially inherent in post-apocalyptic survival.

Beyond the desolation, the film is also an imaginative allegory and thought-provoking commentary on human nature, societal structures, and what makes us truly human. Are we defined by our memories of the past, or are we mere prisoners of our base instincts when deprived of societal norms? The film doesn't shy away from delving into these philosophical debates, all while maintaining the relentlessness of its post-apocalyptic environment.

In a different yet effective manner, Le Dernier Combat finds a way to intertwine the themes of survival, hope, despair, and the complexities of human nature without resorting to banal dialogues or cliched scripts. The protagonists do not need words to navigate their world. Their actions, decisions, and confrontations speak volumes about their motivations and their jaded perspectives on surviving in such a harsh world.

To summarize, Le Dernier Combat is a unique fusion of dystopian and existential themes, presented in an almost silent cinematic format. Its approach to storytelling is refreshingly original and soaked in symbolism, making it a rare piece that elevates itself from the confines of conventional narrative cinema. A landmark French film, Le Dernier Combat successfully blends together a bleak dystopian future with introspective exploration on society and humanity, delivered with a mix of existential dread and dark absurdism.