The 400 Blows is brilliant, unflinchingly merciless, unpredictable. If Hollywood made The 400 Blows, it would be trite & ultimately heartwarming, but because the director basically filmed what he knows with no apologies, efforts at redemption or explicitly bad characters, that’s why so many people love this movie–there are no easy answers, just flawed human beings. Deserves to be called a classic.