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RE-RELASE
2006
ARMY IN THE SHADOWS
Jean-Pierre Melville's Masterpiece,
Long Overdue DVD, January
9, 2006
Reviewer: J. Merritt
(Washington-Baltimore Corridor)
| Philippe Gerbier, a civil engineer, is one of the French Resis- tance's chiefs. Given away by a traitor, he is interned in a camp. He manages to escape, and joins his network at Marseilles, where he makes the traitor be executed... This non-spectacular movie (do not expect any Rambo or Robin Hood) shows us rigorously and austerely the everyday of the French Resis- tants: their solitude, their fears, their relationships, the arrests, the forwarding of orders and their carrying out... Both writer Joseph Kessel and co-writer and director Jean-Pierre Melville belonged to this "Army in the Shadows" |  |
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| Hopefully this film will one day see release on U.S. DVD, because it's one of the most underrated and magnificently shot films ever made about the French experience in World War II. "Army in the Shadows" was a marked departure for director Jean Pierre Melville, who built his reputation on crime-themed noirs such as "Le Samourai," "Un Flic," and "Le Doulos." Nonetheless, for my money, this was his best film, and also his most personal statement: He was, himself, involved in the French Resistance, and he knew that most of war is not about the pageantry, gallantry, and heroism that is depicted in so many flagwaving epics. Instead, Melville attempts a more honest portrayal of people who were afraid, on the run, unable to trust anyone, physically and emotionally exhausted, and all too familiar with the painful task of killing their own as well as the enemy. The result is a film in which the filmmaker's feelings are as evident and moving as his cinematic technique is impressive. A must-own. Once it's possible to own it, that is. |
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