I... for Icarus

In an unnamed country, President Marc Jary is shot dead while riding in an open car. An investigative commission quickly declares the case solved: a lone gunman acted alone and then took his own life. Only Attorney General Volney (Yves Montand) refuses to sign. He reopens the investigation and uncovers contradictions, missing witnesses and a secret service operation code-named “Icarus”. Verneuil transposes the assassination of John F. Kennedy to a fictional country and turns it into a cool, precisely constructed political thriller. Its highlight is a re-enactment of Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiment, which shows in compelling fashion how readily people obey authority. Montand carries the film with stoic integrity, and Ennio Morricone’s score heightens the atmosphere of menace. In film history, the work belongs to the tradition of 1970s European political cinema, which Montand himself had helped shape with Costa-Gavras’ “Z”. At the same time, it reflects the paranoia of American conspiracy thrillers such as “The Parallax View”. A gripping classic about power, manipulation and truth. "Hervorragend inszenierte, sehr fesselnde und nachdenklich stimmende Unterhaltung. (Schweizer Fernsehtitel: "Der Spürhund") - Sehenswert" (Lexikon des Internationalen Films)