Lucky Luke (2009)

Directed by: James Huth | 104 minutes | comedy, western, adventure | Actors: Jean Dujardin, Michaël Youn, Sylvie Testud, Daniel Prévost, Alexandra Lamy, Melvil Poupaud, Jean-François Balmer, André Oumansky, Gabriel Corrado, Pompeyo Audivert, Atilio Pozzobon, Alberto Laiseca, Mathias Sandor, Carolina Presno, Carlos Kaspar, Mirta Wons, Jorge Noya, Claudio Weppler, Horacio Marassi, Yann Sarfati, Chloé Jouannet, Kalena Bojko, Daniel Campomenosi, Alejandro Zanga, Kazuomi Takagi, Alejandro Wainstock, Luciano Cáceres

In addition to its animated reincarnations, “Lucky Luke” has been brought to the screen in live action form before, including a version starring Terence Hill, but this French production from director James Huth is probably the most successful. The film features a strong cast, quite a bit of momentum and humor, an appealing visual style, and fun nods to the source material. It is no sin that the film will appeal to young people more than adults, even though the director seems to want to reach both groups through his somewhat typical combination of a traditional Western and a crazy (youth) comedy. ‘Lucky Luke’ has enough style, swagger, and intelligence at the right times to make the film an amusing ride.

The opening of the film does not suggest that this is the film adaptation of a comic strip. The way a family stands on the porch waiting for four men on horseback to approach their house threateningly, while little Luke is quickly admonished to hide inside, is more reminiscent of a classic and dramatic Western like ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’. In fact, the tone of the opening scenes of ‘Lucky Luke’ is a lot more tragic than the opening on the platform in Sergio Leone’s classic. Where gunfighter Charles Bronson sparked euphoria and amusement with his one-liner and quick elimination of the villains, Luke (and the viewer) witnesses the murder of his parents: a trauma that will haunt him for the rest of his life. But, apart from a few flashbacks to this moment, and Luke’s return to his parents’ grave, fortunately, after these first scenes, the tragedy and dramatic soul-movements are largely over. From this point on, it’s mostly over-the-top humor and action.

Lucky Luke is known as the man who shoots faster than his shadow and he also shows this ability in some amusing confrontations, but the problem with this of course is that this has essentially made him invulnerable, making any build-up of tension almost impossible. . He will always win a firefight. James Huth has found a handy solution for this. He has decided to rid Lucky Luke of his gun. Obvious, perhaps, but since Luke and his gun are inseparable and it’s kind of bland and clumsy, both within the genre and for Luke’s “manliness”, to just have his gun taken away, it’s quite a challenge to to do this in an elegant way. Huth manages to do this quite nicely by letting the villain play on Luke’s instincts and let him hang up his gun. With this he kills two birds with one stone: on the one hand, the villain now simply hits him in an inner way, and on the other, he makes him physically vulnerable to him and his “colleagues” because he is constantly unarmed.

This approach may sound overly dramatic for a light-hearted film, but Huth generally manages to keep everything very light-hearted. This is not only due to a good portrayal of the main character by Jean Dujardin – who usually manages to keep the good spirits up with his characteristic “yep”, his tough appearance, smile and the twinkle in his eyes – but also because of the presence of Luke’s colorful sidekicks or enemies, including a Shakespeare-citing Jesse James (Melvil Poupaud), a tough, secretly in love with Luke Calamity Jane (Sylvie Testud), and a childish (how could it be otherwise), lollipops and chocolate milk maddened Billy the Kid (Michael Youn). Each and every one of them perfectly cast roles that hold back a bit when the whole thing gets a bit too dramatic or incoherent. Alexandra Lamy as Belle provides the necessary romantic moments (with a sexy musical introduction in which she seductively takes Luke’s gun), which end in little because Luke mistakes her for his horse at night (and of course because he is a “poor, lonesome cowboy” should stay).

There’s plenty of slapstick humor in the film, with wimps hiding in peephole rain barrels, amicable fist and flat hand fights between Luke and his female comrades, and even, in some scenes, a talking horse, but thankfully it never gets too childish. In addition, the increasingly interesting camera work and the beautiful, exuberant sets keep the whole worthwhile. Perhaps there could have been more horse chases and shoot-outs, and a somewhat clearer choice between drama on the one hand and humor and adventure on the other, but this live action ‘Lucky Luke’ is certainly not a failure. Luke could just come back for another adventure.