SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Purely Joyful Movie!

One of the best films i have seen

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Hugely effective and robust French hybrid of 'The Most Dangerous Game', seasoned with a soupcon of 'Straw Dog's. The blistering and uncompromising 'La Traque' includes a bravura cast of notable French character actors, with an especially sympathetic portrayal of the victim by personal favorite Mimsy Farmer. Serge Leroy keeps the tension ratchet-tight, and unlike many other similarly lurid thrillers of that most exploitative epoch he also pays a great deal of attention to the merits of solid characterization. 'La Traque' is Quite a special film indeed and its cracking Giallo-esque score by Giancarlo Chiaramello should be appealing to most euro-cult soundtrack obsessives; one must also mention the brilliant and evocative photography of one Claude Renoir. (The use of hand-held camera's in the forest chase being particularly striking) Yet another exemplar from the heady 70's that remains unjustifiably obscure)

A group of friends meet to hunt boar in the woods. They encounter a young woman and one of them rapes her. The others decide to do whatever it takes to conceal the crime.There are two hunts going on here. There are the "respectable men" hunting down a defenceless young woman. And then there is director Serge Leroy hunting down the aforementioned respectables to expose the amoral logic and cold-blooded brutality underpinning their social position.The simple story is told with great skill. The tension builds grimly as each man acquiesces to the crime that's unfolding and we realise there's less and less hope for the unfortunate girl. Along the way, we learn more about the hunters: how one of them accidentally killed before and concealed it to avoid a scandal; how another had to pursue and kill a traitor (a woman) in the Resistance. Another is a politician with much to lose if the woman talks; another is an ex-army captain, trained to kill; another is simply a coward. The girl, meanwhile, remains largely unknown to us, as defenceless and pathetic as the animals they casually slaughter.There have been innumerable horror films in which faceless psychopaths pursue women to their deaths. What makes "La Traque" all the more unnerving is that the faces of these hunters are all too familiar. They are the faces of politicians, landowners, war heroes, pillars of the Establishment (and Leroy carefully chooses actors who have played such respectable types in other films). Their actions derive not from a loss of control, but from an excess of it: these are men who have learnt to suppress human compassion when necessary to achieve their goals in life. And murder is the logical consequence of that.Part of the discomfort of watching this film is the sensation of being asked, "Would your friends and neighbours act differently under the same circumstances? Would you?"

Unusual plot. Extraordinary suspense. Mimsy Farmer wonderful. Impact strong, unforgotten thirty years later. Devastating, wholly unexpected end, because no happy end, as is usually the case. The spectator is not satisfied because justice is done, but leaves the cinema totally upset at the bastards getting away with it. This film makes you loathe hunting, machismo and a certain type of humans. A good thing that. A pity that this film is hardly on any more. The final scene cannot be forgotten. I still see and hear Mimsy Farmer after all this time. A powerful movie, an admirable actress, a good cast generally. Associations critical of the Establishent, defending women's rights and animals, should make use of this film in their campaigns.

Serge Leroy has never been a great director but this one is arguably his best.A group of notables go hunting in the woods.A young girl (Mimsy Farmer,who was the star of "More") ,becomes their victim."La traque" (tracking) is not a misnomer cause the girl is tracked down all along the movie which includes violence and murder.It could have been an umpteenth version of "the most dangerous game" ,it is actually much more.Leroy beats Chabrol at his own game when he shows ,as his colleague perhaps never did,how the bourgeois can get away with complete impunity.A solid cast,featuring some of the best actors of the time (Mickael Lonsdale,Jean-Pierre Marielle,Paul Crauchet,Michel Constantin..) gives the characters substance.And Claude Renoir's cinematography brilliantly enhances the silvan landscapes where the unfortunate heroine runs for her life.