ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Bereamic Awesome Movie

TeenzTen An action-packed slog

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Knox Morris I can opaquely identify the microscopic flaws of the perfect film "Army of Shadows" in meditation, but I can see why it moved me so enormously and thrilled me so intensely, and how it virtually paralyzed me with endless moments of pure soul. It was made by a filmmaker, Jean-Pierre Melville, whose movies are so flawed it's strange that he could produce a film this staggeringly great. I could spot several, whole entire scenes that are massively improvable in his other works, but with this film, not a single glitch is found. The film is about French underground resistance fighters who are not only facing the inhumanity of Nazis, but their own inhumanity. They've been forced to do unthinkably painful things, all out of pure love for their country. Having been a resistance fighter himself, I think Melville was attempting to show how they all thought and felt. He succeeded; you feel the raw emotional intensity in every scene. Ultimately, I sense the true reason it brought me to tears was its consummate depiction of the always sensitive human psyche. These characters are people we understand from the first time they are on screen. Lonely, every-day men predominate the dramatis personae of the film. I relate to Lino Ventura's character without having done an even marginal percentage of what his character has. It's almost like watching yourself in the mirror, without the romanticized self-depiction and vain. And through it all it's still startling how aesthetically alluring the whole affair is. The film's color palate consists of a primarily marble-like blue, with occasional touches of a warmer hue for a subconsciously apprehensive punch. All the shots are arresting and poetic in their abstract austerity, and the movement of actors and objects is so fluid that it never excites solely by nerve-wracking camera motion, but by situational suspense and facial expression. Melville often extends moments to unusual length, instead of condensing shots, which in turn heightens the intensity of scenes to often unbearable proportions. It really is strange that a director so obviously influenced by American cinema would make a movie so quintessentially French, and yet never let instances of tension and sorrow escape its clutches. Even though it's clear where Melville borrowed from his earlier works it's all for the sake of a magnum opus, and it pays off. Army of Shadows is art, and the peak of filmmaking. It's the greatest film I've ever seen.

reidy-05321 This is one of the most chilling and emotionless depictions of the french resistance during World War 2 ever put to film.You expect to see ruthlessness from the Nazis shown in this two and a half hour raw representation of 1940s resistance underworld but it's the allied sympathisers whose true colours shine through. The monochromatic palate and the undeniable 1960s filming style reflect the lack of remorse the cold killers of the central "protagonists" posses.The whole film feels like a crisp morning with interspersed action emphasised by the random quick zooms that creates tangible tension. This reminds us of the overwhelming fascist presence and the immediacy for retaliation that this requires.I would highly recommend this film to those who enjoy international films or love period pieces that truly deliver in all aspects in which they require to create a film that keeps you on edge for it's entire duration.

GManfred Nowhere in this film is the Cross of Lorraine, the symbol of WWII French resistance, mentioned or even displayed. Obviously,this is not a Hollywood movie but as close to reality as it gets on film. I grew up on French underground movies like "Joan of Paris" and, coincidentally, "The Cross Of Lorraine" and they were entertaining. They had identifiable heroes.'The Army Of Shadows" was for me a whole different way of looking at the resistance movement. I know I am late weighing in but I was so impressed by the way in which director Melville approaches the subject. I learned he was a member of the movement during the war and he is telling it as an 'insider'. His version is marked by desperation, betrayal and paranoia and actors portraying people united by a common enemy and they are, above all, ordinary. Ordinary people with ordinary faces who do heroic things because they are patriots - a dying breed in 2015. A terrific film which is staying with me and I thought it was fascinating for the reasons mentioned.

Tom Dooley "L'armée des ombres" was made in 1969 to tell the true story of part of the French Resistance during the Nazi occupation of World War II. It centres around Philippe Gerbier and his cell of operatives. He is given up by a traitor and sent to a concentration camp, but he manages to escape and takes up the fight again.This documents the very real way that they had to operate and it is done in a completely unvarnished way. They had to be ruthless but often lacked the efficiency and / or training to do things properly. It is filmed in a way that emphasises the coldness of the time. There is a constant sense of unease and looming disaster throughout that keeps you entranced. At one point Gerbier says 'all debts are paid in the end' in a prophetic statement of their inevitable fate.Starring screen great Lino Ventura as Gerbier who apparently refused to talk directly to the director for the duration of filming. Brilliantly supported by Simone Signoret as Mathilde in a role where she simply steals every scene and this is where minimalism is the by word, so some achievement. There are a number of films that all cinephiles need to see and I believe that this is arguably one of them it is certainly one of French cinemas finest films and a very fitting tribute to the members of the Resistance that are depicted here.