"La Grande Illusion"

Wow, back to the French stuff, huh? Well, yes. I had received the Blu-ray of this one and wanted to give it a quick spin to view video quality....and of course, enraptured in the first five minutes, watched the whole thing. And I've seen this movie a couple of times before. Many call it the greatest anti-war movie ever made, and I'd find it hard to disagree. It might even be the greatest war movie ever made, even without any combat footage. I find it interesting that when the three French soldiers are captured in the first ten minutes, it isn't shown. You only see the aftermath.

It would be hard to describe this movie, and not because of any big spoilers, really. It's just better absorbed and enjoyed. There's a little text and a lot of subtext concerning the European class system that may not play so well stateside. The two soldiers we spend the most time with are Maréchal (Jean Gabin), who has a common background, and de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay), who is from aristocracy. Erich von Stroheim knocks his part as a German prison camps head out of the park. There is a complete shift in location for the final 20 minutes of the movie but absolutely no change in tone. I find that remarkable.

This is one fine flick.