Dirty Hands

In the original play form, Jean-Paul Sartre's Dirty Hands was hailed throughout the free world as a powerful indictment of the Communist Party's credo--"The end justifies the means." But the play, and certainly the movie, gain their force from a dual message--the search of the individual for faith in himself as well as for faith in the Party.

In his search for self-respect and truth, the young hero, Hugo, leaves his father's house and joins the Communists of his Nazi-occupied country. "Here I met men who didn't lie...I could breath." But even within the party there is a liar--Hoederer, their leader, intends to join conservative groups in an anti-Nazi coalition. To save Party purity and to take the step which would prove himself, Daniel accepts an assignment from Hoederer's opponents within the Party to assasinate the leader.

But Hugo becomes confused when he finds Hoederer a fascinating and thoroughly likeable figure--even if he is more concerned with gaining power than with how the party does so. "Tactics are important," Hoederer explains, "but our end is the same." Hugo wavers in confusion when the leader explains that what the young man really wants is not Communism, but an ideal--love for principles and not men.

Hugo does, however, make a decision. In the meantime the Party decides that Hoederer was not a traitor, but a hero--leaving Hugo as a man alone. The irony of the end reflects upon the Party and Daniel--the corrupt and the native, and not upon Hoederer. His brand of opportunism was never effectively contradicted. Sartre condemns the Party, but not the Communist.

The plot is carried well by the actors. Daniel Gelin gives a believable portrayal of the confused intellectual, while Pierre Bresseur, as Hoederer, is powerful and sensitive at the same time. Both Claude Nollier, as the faithful party workers, and Monique Artur, as Gelin's less faithful wife, are excellent.

While the acting is above reproach, the photography and background music add little when they are not distracting. The technical qualities of the film are not helped by splices and cuts. The flashback technique is effective, although the point of view is not maintained faithfully throughout. The film is most effective in the intimate scenes when the internal conflict of Hugo can be felt most dramatically. As such moments comprise the better part of the film, Dirty Hands is powerful not only as an insight into Communism, but also as a drama of an individual searching for himself.

The forcefulness of Dirty Hands is matched by the delicacy of the accompanying short--Pantomimes, by Marcel Marceau. Including his now famous "David and Goliath" and the "Butterfly," the film shows how much can be said through silence.