Best movie of this year hands down!

Amateur movie with Big budget

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

"Army of Shadows" looks like it was made in the '40s. It was in fact made in 1969 by Jean-Pierre Melville. Its timing couldn't have been worse, as De Gaulle was unpopular at the time. This film was thought to glorify the Free French Resistance and therefore DeGaulle. It wasn't until later that it was discovered as a true masterpiece.A little history here - France didn't feel it could beat the Nazis (how many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris? No one knows, it's never happened) but DeGaulle knew that France could and formed the Free French Resistance. The story takes place in France, 1942, during the Nazi occupation. Philippe Gerbier (Lino Ventura), who also narrates, is one of the major heads of the French resistance. He escapes from an internment camp and joins his group in Marseilles. What we see then is the true workings of the French resistance - the daily sacrifices, the loyalty, the arrests, working on escapes, the killings, the hiding, and doing what they must not only to survive but to keep the movement alive. Simone Signoret is Mathilde, one of the bravest and most admired resistance fighter. A wonderful performance as always, that of an earthy woman who seems to be the rock of the group.Lino Ventura, a fascinating man in his own right, is efficient in his performance, so non-spy or resistance-like, demonstrating that bravery and fight are not just for the young.There is nothing James Bond-like here, no CGI, just life for the Resistance during World War II. Torture is alluded to but not shown. One of the best moments is an act of heroism that takes place in prison.The film is based on a novel by Joseph Kessel, which mixed in his own work with the Resistance. Jean-Pierre Melville, the director, aided and abetted by Alain Delon, invented the cerebral hit man. Though best known for his crime movies, this is perhaps his best work. Beautifully photographed in muted colors, the dialogue until the end is spare, as is Melville's clean, straightforward direction.Though this is an exceptional film, I want to point out some others - some reviewers talk about the resistance being glamorized. Perhaps in Hollywood, but I would highly recommend Female Agents and Carve Her Name with Pride as two wonderful films that endeavor to tell the story of true, quiet heroism. Watch it through to the end, as the film gives the fate of many of the characters.Don't miss an opportunity to see this sobering film.

I have now watched this film twice, though I repressed the first viewing and only realized that I had watched it before at a couple of points during the second viewing. The film is well made. The pace of the action and the cinematography are excellent. Why would I have repressed such a film from my consciousness? Probably because it's downright depressing. The plot revolves nearly entirely around a group of French resistance fighters who are depicted doing nothing beyond protecting themselves and their comrades. In the process, they all become killers, and yet none of them is saved in the end by their willingness to dirty their hands. In this way, the film offers a classic portrait of corruption. Men who would never have dreamed of strangling to death a young man, or shooting a woman who actually saved their lives, end up committing such brutal acts of homicide in the name of "the cause"--though often, again, it seems more like self-preservation and perhaps even revenge killing. This is a realistic and, I imagine, controversial depiction of the French resistance, as it suggests that their efforts were largely irrelevant to the defeat of the Nazis. The partisans seem more concerned in this portrayal with protecting themselves than with anything else.I suppose that one might retort that the fact that the action of the film focuses on the resistance fighters' self-preservation efforts does not preclude the possibility that they did lots of good and saved other people's lives at the same time. But it's all left in the shadows, and they do seem rather consumed by their primary focus. Did the defeat of Hitler have anything whatsoever to do with what any of these people did? Or did they become murderers and end up killed as a result for no good reason?Were these killers (all of whom appear to have died before the end of the war) not created in the image of the agents of evil which they claimed to be laboring to defeat?

Probably Jean-Pierre Melville's least likely film. Melville, who specialized in gangster films during most of his career, creates a real classic with this take on French Resistance fighters during WWII. Whether outsmarting Nazis (who've taken over most of France) or delivering internal justice on their own, these freedom fighters prove to be 100% committed to the cause. There's no single story line, instead the film shows what it was like to be constantly on the run, sneaking in and out of your own country and just trying to stay alive. Lino Ventura, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Paul Meurisse and Simone Signoret star. They're all excellent, with Ventura giving a really great performance. Signoret is a very resourceful compatriot. Serge Reggiani has a cameo and there's first rate cinematography (mostly shot a night) by Pierre Lhomme. The film's opening is astounding.

This is an episodic drama about French Resistance movement during WWII. While the episodes are not bad in themselves, the lack of narrative buildup makes for an uninvolving and unsatisfying experience. The leisurely pace doesn't help matters. Melville does not seem to be a fan of editing, preferring to dwell on mundane scenes like a person walking from one place to another. This approach extends the film to an ungodly length of nearly two and a half hours. The script is rather amateurish, with situations ranging from simplistic to preposterous, including a scene featuring an escape from a firing squad that is laughably ludicrous.