Hasn't aged well.

Rating: 5/10 (2 February 2015)

There are certain films that, due to their strong reputation and historical significance, are supposedly beyond criticism. Citizen Kane, Seven Samurai, 2001, The Godfather and many more are examples of films that despite not being necessarily perfect, many say that they are beyond criticism, and that if you do criticism them, you must discuss what masterpieces they are first. One of those films is Grand Illusion. Considered to be one of the first prison escape movies ever made, the film is meant to be one of the best ever made, for not only being the grand-daddy of prison escape films, but for having great characters, an engaging story and a strong anti-war message laying underneath its skin. However, while it does have many positive attributes, Grand Illusion isn't the masterpiece everyone believes it to be, due to poor narrative and being very overlong.
The plot is that after being shot down during an aerial battle, a group of French soldiers are sent to a German prison. Here, they decide to escape, and use many cunning plans in order to do so. That's really all of the story there is here, and while its simple nature makes it seem impossible to screw up, the story is poorly told here. This is due to how there isn't much of a story throughout much of the film, and many scenes consist of characters talking about things not story related or utterly pointless scenes as well (i.e. a scene where the prisoners display a show to the Germans) that should have hit the cutting room floor. Because of this, the film feels very baggy and overlong as a result.
It also doesn't help that the character development is quite inconsistent. While I understand that the film is essentially an ensemble piece, there are too many characters for the film to juggle, leading to few characters we care about or are interested in, and many we couldn't care less about. It also doesn't help that there isn't much threat from the villain characters, as they act very friendly towards the heroes and in a later scene when a protagonist dies, the villain tends to his need. Sure, the scene that this leads to is a wonderful moment (something the film sadly has too little of) and it does represent director Jean Renoir's pacifist views but it fails to create any tension or conflict within the story, and if the audience doesn't care about the events on screen, then what's the point of watching?
The film isn't a complete disaster though. The film is clearly well made , some of the characters are at least interesting and the cast are excellent, with Jean Gabin, Marcel Dalio & Erich von Stroheim in particular giving standout performances. It is also at least an entertaining experience for the most part, and it is also an interesting watch, as it is compelling to see one of the first prison escape films and to see how it influenced later prison escape films as a whole.
It is because of this that while Grand Illusion isn't a complete failure, it is very flawed and it hasn't aged very well, due to its overlong length, barrage of pointless material and lacking any tension or suspense for the most part. However, there are some great moments here and there and the acting is fantastic overall. So in conclusion, what you have is a mediocre film that despite its iconic status is quite problematic. However, it is worth checking out to see one of the forerunners of the prison escape genre, and is occasionally brilliant here and there. If you must get it, get the Criterion version above all others, as it goes into great detail about the film, it's history, cast biographies and Nazi ban. To be honest, the edition gives the film a better treatment than it perhaps deserves.