The Grand Illusion Is That Folks Think This Is a Great Movie

Rating: 2/10 (22 September 2015)

I was looking forward to watching this film. I had read that "Le Grande Illusion" is considered to be a classic anti-war film. I was expecting something along the lines of "All Quiet on the Western Front" (a truly classic anti-war film, in my opinion), but "Le Grande Illusion" misses the mark when it comes to presenting the dark side of war. The only reason I gave it a rating of 2 instead of 1 is that on my copy of the DVD I watched there is a short message, an introduction, from the film's director Jean Renoir (son of the famous impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir). It was of slight interest for me to learn that Jean Renoir was a pilot during WWI and that some of the scenes in the film are based upon the stories of a pilot-friend of his, though who knew stories from a WWI pilot could be so boring? I had to fight to stay awake during this entire movie. At the end of the movie, I was reminded of the old Hans Christian Andersen tale "The Emperor's New Clothes." People, this film ain't got any clothes. It was a complete waste of my time.