Day of Atonement/
                          Le Grand Pardon/Judgement Day

Hate never sleeps.
Honour never dies.

Raymond Bettoun ist Anführer eines Clans. Er sitzt für 10 Jahren hinter Gittern wegen eines Rache-Mordes, den er begangen hat, um die Ehre seiner Familie zu retten. In dem Jahr, in dem sein Enkelkind volljährig wird, kommt er wieder raus, er will sich auf keinen Fall mehr an Verbrechen beteiligen und sein Leben leben, so gut es eben geht. Sein Sohn Maurice hat es inzwischen zu einem großen Bänker geschafft, ist in der Gesellschaft auch hoch angesehen und, ganz klar, ganz reich. Doch Raymond bekommt heraus, daß Maurice ganz groß im Drogengeschäft ist. Er weiß nicht so recht, wie er sich verhalten soll, da es sich ja um seinen Sohn handelt, auf der anderen Seite aber Geschäfte mit Kokain auch in den Augen des Clans unehrenhaft sind. Doch er gerät ungewollt immer tiefer in diese Geschäfte hinein. Dann wird Maurice von der Polizei verhaftet, ein paar andere Gangster haben ein Komplott gegen ihn geschmiedet, welches ihn hinter Gitter bringen soll. Da greift der alte Mafiaboß Raymond in das Geschehen ein und räumt ordentlich auf... (..) --Haiko Herden

Chris als undurchsichtiger Fädenzieher, wie üblich Mobster-Gentleman-like und nobel, mit einer Vorliebe für Windhunde (-Rennen), die er eigenhändig füttert (und vorkostet), zynisch und überheblich, in einer ziemlich kleinen Rolle, ansonsten das übliche Mafia-Gaballere und -Getue.


DAY OF ATONEMENT, 1992 crime thriller directed by Alexandre Arcady, is just another example how advertisement can create expectations completely different from the actual products.
Those who watched the trailer for this film expected low-budget action film dealing with Latino gangsters in Miami and featuring Christopher Walken as its principal star. When they watched the complete film, they got something else - expensive and at times quite spectacular sequel of French crime epic about family of Algerian Jews in which Christopher Walken appears just as one of many supporting actors in rather minor role. Rather complicated plot (which is in many ways incomprehensible to those who haven't seen the first film) revolves around Raymond Bettoun
(played by Roger Hanin), former boss of Parisian Jewish underworld who has just spent ten years in prison for following old code of honour. After release Bettoun comes to Miami where he is greeted by his son Maurice (played by Richard Berry), now a wealthy businessman. Raymond doesn't
need much clues to figure out that the source of his son's wealth came from money laundering and participation in booming cocaine trade.
 It is obvious that Arcady, inspired by Coppola's GODFATHER saga, tries to give epic scope to the plot and characters while giving it a setting similar to de Palma's SCARFACE. Unfortunately, unlike Coppola and de Palma, he has some problems handling an material that would work much better in mini-series than in feature film format. There are simply too many characters and subplots for two- hour film to handle it properly. The actors, especially Roger Hanin as dignified crime lord, are good, photography is fine, some action scenes are handled very well, but all those elements fail to connect into coherent whole. As a result, DAY OF ATONEMENT is a film that, despite of its relatively high budget and great display of various talents, looks like a cheap and not very inspired copy of American originals.--Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
 

Christopher Walken in another great psycho role: "I should have known--never work with Jews" and "I'm gonna give you three days, but if you don't bring me the coke, I'll hand you your son's head in a plastic garbage bag"