Ok, I must say that I made a mistake while watching this movie. All along, from the beginning 'till the end, I asked myself why the director, Claude Lelouch, kept on making films on groups of men, such as three (plus one) friends in Vincent, François, Paul...et Les Autres, or as these five crooks jumping from one "l'aventure" to the other. But no, the answer is, the other movie was Claude "Sautet"s !
And yet, throughout the whole movie, I kind of compared those two groups. First of all, Vincent, François, Paul.. and the others were no criminals, as far as I remember they had decent jobs (though one of them had some serious financial problems.. it's been a few years back since I've seen the movie by the way), they had good times (and bad times) in their lives, they had a certain intellectual level and no matter what, they tried to seek comfort and support among themselves, as what close friends would do.. But the five crooks we have in this movie are extremely ignorant, stupid, without any ideals at all, and the only driving force in their lives is "money money money" (and so is the movie called in US).
Without a doubt, Lelouch criticizes here the time and situation of post '68, in a rather funny way. The main characters are extremely silly at times and yet in the end, we witness the stupidity of nations and people trying to have ideals, idealizing the most visible faults. That can be the only (or maybe the strongest) explanation I can give to the chain of events starting with these guys' decision of changing their "career" from bank robberies to celebrity kidnapping and, in the end, to political misdemeanours.
Tha film's soundtrack is certainly one that deserves mentioning; this is one of Lelouch's 28 collaborations with the composer Francis Lai. I did expect at least one song by Jacques Brel, who acts as one of the five gangs, and whom I dreamed as if he were to crack suddenly and start singing but no, you will see him only acting...
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