ViewGuide

Created Mar 07, 2011 09:40AM PST • Edited Mar 07, 2011 09:40AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   A powerful tour de force movie, based on a true story, about a group of Parisians who form a Nazi resistance during the early days of occupied France. Led by the poet Missak Manouchian (Simon Abkarian), the film is creative in showing how the ragtag band of poets, artists, and foreigners faced oppression not only from the Germans, but from French citizens as well. Rather than caving to Hollywood-esque imagery of bravery, this film instead shows how passionate young people struggle to coordinate opposition, trying to maintain a semblance of structure and purpose in their actions.

   The occupying Germans are initially shown as being benign, with no sense of foreboding or sinister actions visible until the film progresses past the midway point. We then begin to see what the resistance fighter had seen in other countries, as hordes of citizens are taken away, and propaganda leads French citizens to turn against the band of immigrants who comprise most of the resistance fighters.

   In spite of the risks involved, each of the fighters plays an important role, and their actions become so successful, that the assasination of a leading general gains the attention of Berlin, who brands them as “An Army of Crime” and goes to great lengths to capture them.

   I found the movie to be refreshingly different in its portrayal of the fighters, effectively capturing the rage and emotions of an angry youth, and showing the struggles to harness that rage into a cohesive fighting unit. It portrays these citizens much more realistically than other resistance-based films, showing them as vulnerable, yet committed to a cause.

   The movie is in French, with English subtitles.

   Watched on Netflix streaming.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

5. Male Stars Very Good 3.5

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    Very Good 3.5

    Real settings and attention to detail are shown throughout this film.

11. Direction Very Good 3.5

    Although a bit confusing at first, the strory gains momentum to the final scene.

12. Play Very Good 3.5

13. Music Very Good 3.5

14. Visuals Great 4.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.3

17. Sex Titillating 1.9

    Full frontal nudity.

18. Violence Brutal 3.0

    War scenes with shooting and grenades. Gruesome torture in a few scenes.

19. Rudeness Salty 2.0

21. Reality

    Natural 1.0

22. Circumstantial Natural 1.0

    Based on a true story, this movie is very believeable.

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0