The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

I don't even recall how old I was when I saw this movie. Probably 7 or 8 years old. The thing is, I never forgot having seen it there, with a bunch of other kids from the orphanage where I was growing up. And I never forgot that I had one of the best times going to the theater and watching it. But a lot of the story was fuzzy in my memory, as I am 47 at the time of this writing. And watching it again last week made me aware of how much there was that I didn't get at the time... the gravity of what the children had done, repeating the silly behaviors of adult, but with a child's perception of the world. Yes, it is funny, and charming, a close up to children's world, with its naive, fresh outlook, its joys and sorrows. Very enjoyable!!!

Yves Robert died a few days back and I write this comment as a tribute to him:"la guerre des boutons" is a timeless brats movie,which can be watched forty years after with the same pleasure:a blockbuster when it was released in France in 1961,French kids enjoy it at least as much as their parents or grandparents today.Of course,Louis Pergaud's Rabelaisian novel,written at the beginning of last century, was watered down (but not cheapened),or else it would not have been accepted by the censorship:there are lines in this book that would make blush the well-meanings.The words are crude and not prudish at all.The story was much more than a funny joke though:actually,the children aped the grown-ups and THEIR wars:("to think,that later,we will be as stupid as'em!"-this is the last line of the movie).Yves Robert transposed the action to the rural sixties.He gathered lots and lots of children whom he directed masterfully."Magna cum laude",first class honours,for young "Petit Gibus"!anyone who watches the movie will love him:he's so funny when he gets drunk!Shot in black and white,the movie will remind you of your schooldays.Louis Pergaud died in 1915.The war he was waging was not a war of the buttons.

French director are 90 % of the time great for movies with children, because children looks and sounds like real children, not adults in the bodies of childs. I remember seeing this one when I was a kid in the sixties. Years later, I saw it with my adult eyes and the impressions are the same : this is really a film about children! Adults, here, all looks like people from another planet. There are lots a funny gags and we also have the chance to see a forbiddon rural France, very rustic and in relation with nature. Some English director make a remake in the 1990's, but this is the original. A delight!

A real delight. Wistfully nostalgic for the innocence and inspired creativity of childhood. Hilarious in parts. Why is this such an obscure film?