Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Hayleigh Joseph This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

shelley-bourdon I was looking forward to watching this film. I had read that "Le Grande Illusion" is considered to be a classic anti-war film. I was expecting something along the lines of "All Quiet on the Western Front" (a truly classic anti-war film, in my opinion), but "Le Grande Illusion" misses the mark when it comes to presenting the dark side of war. The only reason I gave it a rating of 2 instead of 1 is that on my copy of the DVD I watched there is a short message, an introduction, from the film's director Jean Renoir (son of the famous impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir). It was of slight interest for me to learn that Jean Renoir was a pilot during WWI and that some of the scenes in the film are based upon the stories of a pilot-friend of his, though who knew stories from a WWI pilot could be so boring? I had to fight to stay awake during this entire movie. At the end of the movie, I was reminded of the old Hans Christian Andersen tale "The Emperor's New Clothes." People, this film ain't got any clothes. It was a complete waste of my time.

Lee Eisenberg The past year has seen remembrances of the first global war, now known as World War I. This worldwide conflict, one that eventually dissolved empires and set the stage for a second global war, senselessly took the lives of millions of young people all over Europe and spawned a lost generation.But amid this pointless war, there were instances when people managed to find their common humanity. Jean Renoir's anti-war masterpiece "La Grande Illusion" looks at how a collection of POWs do this. Even the German captain (Erich von Stroheim), presumably the enemy, manages to have some humanity.It was ironic that the movie got released just as Europe was about to get plunged into a second massive war. One might see it as a warning about what could happen, and that could apply even in the present. Probably the most important scenes are at the end: Maréchal (Jean Gabin) and Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio) spend time with a German woman widowed by the war; and then they cross into Switzerland, headed for an uncertain future.Really good movie.

Ilpo Hirvonen Jean Renoir's "The Great Illusion" (1937) is often celebrated as the greatest anti-war film. It takes place during the First World War and was made just before the Second. Back in the day, Franklin Roosevelt stated that everyone who believes in democracy should see the film. Detaching from such political idealism, one might claim that every human being should see it. It's the film in which Renoir's humanism crystallizes, showing that humanity can preserve even in the darkest of nights. A story about POW camps and people escaping them is a tale of eternal love, friendship and yearning for freedom. A proof of its cinematic power is that without showing a scene of actual combat, "The Great Illusion" is the most accurate portrayal of WWI. It seems that every film about the First World War much deal with its mythological position as the death of cultural innocence. Although "The Great Illusion" begins with the war already going on, its opening scene works as a metaphor for the period before the war. We see a man singing in a café when all of a sudden he is called for a mission to transport a general which sounds easy and quick, but then turns into a long and unpredictable chain of events -- talk about dancing off to war. Not only does Renoir reach the fact that WWI was pointless and a consequence of ostentatious nationalism -- arms race, alliances and hostilities -- but also the feeling of transience as aristocracy begins taking its final breaths. In the hour of disappearance, two aristocrats, Bouldieu and Rauffenstein (aptly played by Erich von Stroheim), unite. The old general in "The Rules of the Game" (1939) might say that they are a vanishing breed. It is beautiful and moving that Renoir's nostalgia considering this social transition has no irony whatsoever, despite Renoir's apparent sympathy for the working class. The nostalgia is very tender. All that matters to Renoir is humanity. It is precisely this human sympathy which is the strength of Renoir's cinema. This is present in Renoir's characterization, treatment of the class theme, and his anti-nationalist philosophy of the great illusion. André Bazin's timeless words are worth repeating at this point: "the grand illusions are the illusion of hatred, which arbitrarily divides men who in reality are not separated by anything; the illusion of boundaries, (...) the illusion of races, of social classes (...). The war, the product of hatred and division, paradoxically reveals the falseness of all the barriers of prejudice separating man from man."One of the many reasons for the survival of "The Great Illusion" in the test of time is its realism (that is not afraid of poetry) which travels from the director's style to his world view and attitude towards life in general. Bazin thought that the film was based on the authenticity of human relations. I believe this is a key into understanding the film and its legacy. War is the great illusion because it separates us from one another. Yet, despite darkness and disappointment, Renoir continues to believe in love and humanity.

orzy That seems to me, the appropriate translation for the french title. MOst reviewers appear to think, that the depicted life in a German prison camp for officers shows the real thing. Of course not! Therefore, the film seems to me more of a fairy tale -depicting, on purpose, the romanticized view of the general public in the 1930 's of such a place. An ironic fairy tale, that is. Hence the title: La Grande Illusion.The horrors of the First World War seem too heavy to be treated as a feel good comedy, with only a title as a reference to something else. Maybe this review is influenced by the viewing of WEstfront 1918 by WG Pabst, one week earlier. That film depicts the real war, in the trenches.