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 Sal boche! Feb 17, 2010
...that is what Mama used to say, Sal boche!!--when she was cursing an uncooperative kitchen appliance. My mother was half Belgian and Jewish.
This absolute classic film is fantastically critiqued and reviewed here. As usual, I will add personal observations for the discriminating film buff.
I found "Army of Shadows" to be an existential masterpiece, because it was done at a time when the makers knew the subject first-hand. It does show the desperation of a tiny part of the WWII Underground, the stupidity that sometimes forced them to assassinate each other--because they had to, it was war.
However, the film does get a bit tired in its painfully slow desperation. It would have been easy to see, even when it was being made, that they could have thrown some positive light onto the storyline--which I think they did, but not enough. For example, the courage of the captured spy who wouldn't run like the nazis told him to...he ran finally, at just the right moment, only to be rescued as a result of his losing his nerve. Was it God, the fates, chance? Was cowardice the ultimate weapon?
Then there is the crazy brother of one of the spies, who ends up being the mastermind. I think it is amusing--the French must also have thought it--that this goofy academic was calling all the shots. Message?--perhaps that goofy academics should not call the shots?
This film is haunting in its beauty, in its silence, and its stark noir accents. Though the Resistance is perforce killing many of its own, they often hang their heads, indeed, some weep at the loss and tragedy. They keep going, and it keeps this remarkable film going.
This film, which I seriously do not think Kurosawa could have done nearly as well, is a study not only of the world of the Resistance close-up; it is also a study of why humans think and act as they do in extremes. Why cowardice instead of valor? Why does it work out better that way most often? And the characters ask themselves: how can we stop now?
This is a question all films should ask, one way or another. BUY THIS!! Do not miss it for the world: it is the tale of people who saved this world...or at least thought they could.
 The Price Of Victory... Feb 11, 2010
Occupied France, October 1942: Philippe Gerbier (Lino Ventura), civil Engineer and suspected DeGaullist sympathiser, finds himself spirited away to a Nazi detention camp pending investigation of his affiliations and associations; an affable, softly spoken man possessed of a modest bearing and a studious, bespectacled countenance, Gerbier appears to be the antithesis of the impassioned resistance fighters who are waging a war of desperation against the occupying forces, but deception is the chief weapon in the arsenal of this shadow army, and Gerbier, who is actually a high-ranking officer in the resistance, is far from finished waging his war and patiently sets about facilitating the next phase of his campaign...
Jean Pierre-Melville's "Army Of Shadows" is a film about the human cost of defiance: Philippe Gerbier and his compatriots exist in a world in which anonymity is a given by matter of necessity; paranoia is a way of life; alliances are conducted with caution due to the potentially dreadful repercussions of association, and lives are ended with perfunctory, necessary brutality. It is a film about ordinary people driven to make hard decisions under extraordinary circumstances, the privations which they must endure and the sacrifices which they must make in order to secure a freedom which often seems like a futile dream.
Melville, who fought in the resistance himself, and who adapted this film from a novel by Joseph Kessel (which is considered to be the definitive account of the resistance by those in the know), is not concerned with bravado or the glorification of this struggle. There are no heart-pumping action sequences, no histrionics and no impassioned patriotic speeches, merely the depiction of the harsh realities experienced by a dedicated group of resourceful people who are committed to the overthrow of an occupying army often at the expense of their own lives.
Performances are stoic, understated and magnificent. The late Lino Ventura surely deserves a posthumous Oscar for his turn as the owlish and implacable Gerbier. He delivers a performance which can switch from morose introspection to steely resignation to passionate despair in a second through a subtle rearrangement in his craggy features. Likewise both Paul Meurisse and Simone Signoret shine during their respective turns as an intellectual dilettante and an inscrutable housewife who are both more than they seem.
"Army Of Shadows" was castigated upon its release in France in 1969 as being pro-De Gaullist propaganda by the left wing student community with whom the patrician president and war hero had fallen out of favour. It was little seen and, for many years, it was consigned to obscurity and thought lost. However, a copy was found in the mid-noughties and was painstakingly digitally restored with the assistance of original cinematographer Pierre LHomme. It is not only a film that deserves to be seen because it is a brilliant film, but because it is probably the most fitting tribute paid to those in the resistance, many of whom would not live to see the end of the war, ever committed to celluloid.
UW Classic Jan 21, 2010
This movie captures the French resistance or any resistance for that matter in a gritty un-romantic frame. An action film it is not, driven by tension and dialog. A classic in every sense.
Amazing film; ironic introduction Jan 06, 2010
Ironically, I was in the middle of changing discs while watching a 'Hogan's Heroes' marathon when this came up on IFC. I started a bit late, but was drawn in to the end. Needless to say, my afternoon of HH re-runs ended abruptly. This film brought me back to reality. It reminds me of an Ealing Studios classic, 'Against The Wind', also with Simone Signoret, which was always a favorite of mine. This was much more intense. One of the best films I have ever seen. I must watch it again now, and I am going to order this Criterion release to add to my collection.
3 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Not bad, but overrated Dec 15, 2009
I noted that there are a lot of people who really love this movie (or feel that they have to appreciate it), and some get upset when any criticism voiced. Many think that, because the movie's style is rather sober and the mood grim (without thick Hollywood style sentimentality), it must be a realistic, authentic movie. While the movie is austere and stylistically clean, the main characters remain schemes of pure virtue, without much development during the long movie (as much as of course the Nazi villains are superefficient cookie cutter villains, acting without doubt, reflection or even without any flaws like drug addiction, sadism or corruption). Therefore, despite some gripping (at times overly melodramatic) moments, "Army of Shadows" cannot be considered a convincing character drama ... ... and is probably not a realistic depiction of resistance activities either (yes, director Melville was a resistance member, but that does not guarantee authenticity, and the script is based on a novel). If one thinks about it, it almost ridicules the resistance for being so ineffective, because in this movie, basically no insurgent activity is shown (no sabotage, no guerilla war, no spreading of propaganda), and if there is any resistance action, it is confined to saving other resistance members. I don't think that's all the resistance was about.
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