Army of Shadows (1969, Jean-Pierre Melville)
Sooooo bleak. Not the normal kind of resistance movie. Their struggle is necessary but hopeless. Movie opens with our main guy escaping from a camp, then having the guy who ratted on him killed. Many small triumphs and large defeats later, we end with the gang shooting one of their own then driving away as the titles tell us how each of them later got killed in the struggle.
Hardly any non-diegetic music, superbly shot, dark and dreary but not in a tiring way, more of a matter-of-fact “this is how things are” straightforward way.
These are not heroes in the regular movie sense of the word. Theirs is not a glorious fight… it’s hardly a fight at all, more a struggle for survival. The problem is that it would be easier to survive by living ordinary lives, by cooperating with the nazi regime, by ratting on their fellows, by doing any of a number of things they refuse to do, by giving in. The movie is about how much it can suck to be moral, to stick to your convictions. While those in the resistance who survived the war can’t have much to be proud of… unlike most residents of their country, they also can’t have much to be ashamed of. A great, great movie. Nice contrast to the portrait of resistance to nazi occupation in Black Book this year.
Dave said,
March 29, 2010 @ 5:11 pm
Love the site man! 2 other films direcetd by Melville are “Le Samouraï” & “Le Cercle rouge” (currently being remade). I love them both. Alain Delon is way cool. No dialogue in the opening of “Le Samouraï” for maybe 15 mins and Delon is very good there. The DVD extras about Melville on both the Criterions for these 2 films are great.
Brandon said,
March 29, 2010 @ 9:47 pm
Seen ‘em both – they’re quite wonderful. It’s fun to watch Le Samourai together with Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog.