Malik is a nobody that has committed a petty crime and found himself in prison for six years. He’s nineteen and scared out of his mind. When he’s approached by a group of Italian men about murdering a fellow inmate, it starts the change of his young life. Once the deed is done, Malik begins to gain trust from his bosses and with the new found trust comes rewards. Going from rags to riches, Malik begins to build his power in the real world while in prison. Regretfully his shady dealings with the Italians catches up with him and he soon must find a way out of the hole he has dug for himself.
A Prophet is an interesting, brutal film about one man’s transformation from nothing to something. It’s incredibly compelling as a new age ‘godfather’ type of film. Director Jacques Audiard’s vision of how easy it is to build power from virtually nothing is frightening proposal. He goes through some pretty realistic steps on how Malik (played by Tahar Rahim) climbs his way through the ranks through various connections and jobs. While Audiard’s effort is a good one, he doesn’t come close to the eloquent transformation that Michael Corleone’s character experiences in the Godfather series; that’s the point, though. Audiard didn’t seem to want to go that eloquent route. Instead, Audiard seemed to prefer his viewers to see a harsher transformation from the outside of an Italian mob, rather than the inside. In my opinion it’s certainly a more powerful effort, as you literally cheer on (silently, of course) the ever upward swing of Malik becausee you literally have take the ride this kid has and you understand the loneliness he feels in the situation he starts in. By the end of the film you understand Malik and that character understands himself more. Audiard did a great job in making sure that the story was carefully crafted and balanced to fit the need of Malik’s growth. How can I tell this? By the end of the film I’m walking away satisfied. It ended when it needed to end and didn’t try to be more than it was. Many movies have the ‘needing to end here’ problem.
It’s superb film from beginning to end, but be warned it’s harsh. A razor blade in the mouth, more than a few people shot and beaten with batteries; there’s plenty here to cringe at, but the journey is worth the scarring.
What’s even better is that you get to experience all this harshness in fabulous HD via Blu-ray. For a Sony Pictures Classic, that has probably seen a few countries before it made it to Blu-ray, this picture is incredibly detailed and sharp. I’m not sure what they were shooting with to make the film pretty grain free, but it worked pretty well. In the darker scenes of the film you won’t get much, if any, graininess. The lighter scenes, especially when Malik takes a free day out, provide you with an opportunity to experience some gorgeous shots of the French countryside; it almost makes me want to live in Europe.
On the audio side of the things you get a very subtle soundtack with occasional bursts of rap. The last song is interesting as well, but I won’t ruin that one for you. Anyway, the audio sounds damn sharp on the Blu-ray.
As for the features, you get some solid commentary from director and actor. You also get some deleted scenes (that are somewhat underwhelming) and some rehearsal and screen tests. That’s about it for special features, which is slightly disappointing. I would have really loved to see some solid ‘making of’ featurettes; maybe learn a little bit more about the locales and visit them. Nothing of the sort, though.