Forerunner of Escape Movies and Social Satire

Rating: 5/10 (20 January 2004)

The Grand Illusion, a forerunner of escape movies as well as a social satire where the three French prisoners represent each own class, consists of roughly three parts which are slow and incoherent with each other. The desire for escape is not compelling while the prison room is huge and luxuriously furnished. The intense screen presence of Austrian director/actor Erich von Stroheim as an evil German soldier may be the best part of the film.