GRAND ILLUSION (1937) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge
Director: Jean Renoir Writers: Jean Renoir and Charles Spaak Starring: Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, Marcel Dalio, Julien Carette, Erich von Stroeheim, Georges Peclet, Dita Parlo
Jean Renoir's "Grand Illusion" is pretty much unanimously praised as one of the greatest films ever made, as well as one of the greatest war movies. But why is a film that seems like an arty french old version of "Hogan's Heroes" and "The Great Escape" so amazingly praised? Well, for one it's a lot more structured and complex than a "Hogan's Heroes" episode, and makes a wonderful statement about war. I mean, this film is so deceptively complex that the laserdisc we saw it on had a track for a guy to narrate everything that goes on as the film plays (we turned him off).
In" Grand Illusion," it's just before the first World War, and a couple of french pilots (Jean Gabin and Pierre Fresnay) are shot down over Germany, and subsequently taken into a POW camp. The weird thing about this film is not only is this the only real instance of war we see, but that the german who shot them down (Erich von Stroeheim, who would later star in "Sunset Boulevard" - the movie) actually invites them to a dinner before they are hauled out to the prisoner camp. "The Hanoi Hilton" this is not.
The various prisoners quickly get to know eachother, and form a bit of comraderie. In the camp are a varied group of people: Lieutenant Marechal (Gabin), a French plebian; the French aristocrat de Boeldieu (Fresnay), who kind of isolates himself from the others; a hyperactive actor (Julien Carette); and French jew Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio). They work on some escape tactics, but never go too far, sometimes getting cold feet someway through, and usually getting cut off by the germans.
We follow some of them as they go to another POW camp, this time in a giant castle, and headed by none other than the German soldier who fed them after he shot them down (von Stroheim). The film follows them working on some more escape attempts, as well as building a wonderfully-crafted relationship between the von Stroeheim character and the Fresnay one. They seem to be the two most alike characters in the film, and the only difference seems to be their nationalities.
"Grand Illusion" paints a kind of surrealistic world where the soldiers actually realize that they're all part of the same race, but are trapped by nationalities and "duties." A powerful moment towards the end perfectly illustrates this, causing one of the few very sad moments in the film, which is often mounted in some good old character comedy, though not like a sitcom (this is the last time I mention "Hogan's Heroes"). The very final scene is also poignantly representing what the film is trying to prove.
What's cool about this film is you hardly even know there's a war going on. If you missed the beginning, you probably wouldn't even know they're prisoners of War. This makes sure that they can build up the characters, and create parallelisms between the prisoners and their german captors. The film paints a world where everyone is kind to one another, although they are somtimes held back by their nationality.
Even for those of you who would think a 30s french film about POWs would be boring, "Grand Illusion" is not what you're gonna find. It's an always fascinating flick to watch, filled with a great sense of humor that never makes this overly surreal, a dramatic edge which never feels forced, and emotion that never feels hokey or melodramatic. The ending is brilliantly done, with a scene which might never really take place, but it's a film, and it's trying to make a point.
"Grand Illusion" is one of the greatest films ever made, and a trend setter in the tradition of the sub-sub-subgenre of POW camp films, like "The Great Escape." And it's a lot more complex than I originally thought it was, making me want to see it again just so I can concentrate more on the film's subtexts. A good POW camp film is a horrible thing to waste, and this is the best one of those I've ever seen.
MY RATING (out of 4): ****
Homepage at: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/8335/
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews