The ending (which echoes to the first sequences ) seems to indicate that ,when you were born on the wrong side of town, you got a raw deal ,and whatever you may do to escape from a doomed fate,it 's in vain .
In 1966 ,this movie was at odds with the whole production : a chronicle of underdogs in a drab urban area (always present ;when the hero and his girl friend have a walk , a panoramic shows the suburban area just behind them.
When you're just out of jail ,it's hard to integrate into a society where young men were born silver spoon in hand (see the ball scene with the guys in suit and tie ; the girl getting in a rich kid's sports car) and always have a papa who can take them off the hook with a good lawyer. But your dad is an alcoholic on the dole and mom 's complaining she's the only one to work -the parents have only one scene ,and it sums up the young hero's plight in an admirably succint style .
Even when he finds a job as a roofer , he meets the generation gap : their elder can't stand the wild pop music and dance to the musette (popular dance to the accordion).
The sequence of the ball may be too long ,but it allows the social mixing:theres's nothing in common between the clean-cut kids and the riff-raff , the sixties music ,contrary to received ideas , doesn't create a bond between them .
The girls are treated as sex objects whom the boys share with their pack ; when the hero realizes that ,without a true love of his own, he's always so left alone ,it will to be late ."I can take my pick too" the girl says ,but it's not really women's lib (it's historically too soon) :she'll opt for another boy (maybe the leader of the pack) or flirt with the rich boy in this brand new car (to whom she's only a prey he will leave after he gets what he wants),but she'll end like the hero's mom .
After this black and white realistic movie ,far ahead of its time , Edouard Luntz never confirmed his promises ;"le dernier saut" was a most inadequate follow-up to "les coeurs verts"
