Army of Shadows (1969)
In my humble opinion, not enough movies have been made about the French Resistance. I can’t even begin to imagine how brave those lot were, covertly operating under the pronounced threat of torture and death in a noble bid to overthrow the most disgusting tyranny. I can only surmise that if I’d been a Frog in occupied France, I would have wholeheartedly supported their efforts in principle and carried on kowtowing to the Krauts.
Anyhow, despite the heavy-duty, subtitled subject matter, I was not averse to giving the acclaimed and coolly titled Army of Shadows a whirl. It begins with a static shot of the Arc de Triomphe. Martial music is heard, faint at first and then louder. German soldiers come into view, marching past this most famous of French landmarks. Oh yeah, 1940 and France under the jackboot…
Unfortunately, my anticipation quickly gave way to head-scratching. Shadows is filled with so many pointless scenes that it becomes a shadow of a movie. For the first ninety minutes we don’t see the Resistance do much at all. I was expecting sabotage, code breaking, recruitment, sweat-inducing missions, and Nazis being bastards. When there is some action, such as a traitor being executed, it’s fumbled so badly that it feels like a TV movie.
At one point the action switches to London. Here terrible special effects are introduced that include an attempt to recreate the Blitz and an air-bound plane attracting flak that is so obviously a model you can almost see the strings. Where is the paranoia and treachery and immense bravery and panic and cowardice and electric shocks applied to the genitals? Where is Ilsa when you need her? Instead, our main characters somberly amble around, providing less drama than the average ’Allo ’Allo! episode.
Finally, after almost ninety minutes, a semblance of plot is introduced when a Resistance member gets arrested and carted off to Gestapo HQ. Hooray! Gestapo! Let the games begin! He gets beaten up, but we don’t see it. Another member writes an anonymous letter to the Gestapo incriminating himself so he will be jailed in the same place. He, too, gets beaten up, but we don’t see it. Two other members pose as German paramedics and rock up at the HQ but nothing comes of it. When we do get to see a bit of action via an escape, it’s ludicrous.
And so on.
Shadows would have to be one of the most disappointing flicks I’ve ever sat through. It’s flatly directed, atrociously edited, glacially paced, filled with poorly fleshed-out characters, and does zip with its mouth-watering subject matter. The acting throughout its 145 minutes is of the expressionless sort. It just made me want to reacquaint myself with Lee Marvin, Bronson and co storming that Brittany chateau at the end of Dirty Dozen to kill as many German officers as possible. That’s how to do a WW2 flick, you know? I was left baffled by what acclaimed writer-director Jean-Pierre Melville (a former Resistance member) was trying to achieve with this chilly, low-key approach.
Leave a Reply