Perhaps one of the most lyrical adventure movies ever made. How can it be impossible to find it in DVD or even on video? It is a film to visit and revisit. Alain Delon in one of his most human performances, Lino Ventura at his very best and Joanna Shikmus (Mrs. Sidney Poitier) is unforgettable. Her burial at sea scene has stayed with me, always. This film is ripe for a revival. I'm sure that a modern international audience would embrace it and put it where it rightly belongs, as one of the best films of its kind.

...the first one being the unsurpassed "Au Coeur De La Vie"

Released when the nouvelle vague was à la mode and when critics did not care for the others (=who were not part of the Godard clique),"les adventurers " has stood the test of time remarkably well,so well that (God preserve us) some producers could think of a remake.

Robert Enrico had already directed "les grandes gueules" (1963) which enhanced male friendships in a Vosges Mountains sawmill and is still watchable today thanks to its good cast(Bourvil,Lino Ventura,Marie Dubois),and Enrico's effective directing.But nothing could have predicted "les adventurers" ,which seems today stronger than yesterday,when so many nouvelle vague "oeuvres " are reserved for highbrows and make too many people take to their heels when they hear about French cinema.

"Les adventurers" was based on the first part of a Jose Giovanni novel(who had written Becker's "le trou";Giovanni himself transferred the second part to the screen as "la loi du survivant").When it was released ,it was a huge popular success,but the critics were a bit condescending.

The Delon/Ventura/Shimkus threesome shines .They are true raiders ,in a way Indiana Jones is not:they have something to lose ,and they are human beings of flesh and blood.Enrico used the film sets with stunning results.He makes the scrap heap where Leatitia looks for waste material as poetic as the fort surrounded by the sea where the tragedy is resolved.François de Roubaix's extraordinary score enhances the scenes as few musicians can do.

The burial at sea is the most beautiful sequence of the sixties French cinema.I cannot think of a more haunting scene :anybody who has seen it never forgets it.Robert Enrico,who is not regarded as an "important" director in France has nothing to be jealous of his peers here.

A work to rival the best of Huston.

After many years, I saw Robert Enrico's "Les Aventuriers" (1967) again. It was like a reunion with an old and dear friend who never changed and only became better with age. Like many years ago, the film brought joy and sadness in the same time. This ode to the friendship which is above everything, to the tender love, to the spirit of freedom and adventure, to the unspoken words, to the magnificent men and the women beautiful like a dream will never get old or outdated. This film is like fresh air, it is a reminder that the adventures will never end as long as there are the adventurers that are always ready "to search and to find, to struggle and to never give up".

I bought a tape with the film dubbed to Russian - that's how I saw it for the first time many years ago, actually. Dubbing is good and the quality is decent but I hope that one day I will be able to obtain the DVD with many features, documentaries, and soundtracks. I also would like to hear the interviews with Alain Delon and Joanna Shimkus - it is sad that she had quit acting; I think she was very talented, and she was breathtaking as Laetitia. I've cried more than once when I saw the film - the burial scene with the Francois de Roubaix's music playing and the final scene were simply heartbreaking.

Fort Boyard, where the final sequences of the film took place, stands in the water like a dream that never came true for the film's characters but it will always be the inspiration for new generations of dreamers and adventurers from around the world.