An interesting film on many levels

Rating: 7/10 (19 January 2004)

First there's the whole class structure theme, and the changes in the European economic classes. There's a theme about how regardless of class or race we are all brothers, regardless of what side we are on.
I'm sure that this must have been one of the first films to address all of these issues. They would later creep up in a dozen Hollywood films.
This is a very hard movie to critique. The first 30-40 minutes is very trying and painful to watch at times. I'm not sure if Renoir didn't know quite how to lay the foundation of the story, or what the reason is. It clubs you over the head with its obvious statements about the absurdity of war (which I think is told better in "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "The Big Parade"). And as one other person wrote, there is hardly an exterior scene in the beginning. It's almost as if there were a different director at the helm.
About 45 minutes into the film, after the drag show, it starts to click. The story is clearer, and more interesting. The performances are better, also. By the time von Stroheim returned I was fully absorbed into the story.

His performance of a German officer who knows that his time has passed is honest and heartbreaking. I found the most profound moment to be his clipping of the flower after Boeldieu is killed. I think that it is one of the strongest performances on film.
At first I couldn't warm up to Jean Gabin as Marechal. Perhaps he was not involved enough, until his time the jail(which wasn't made clear as to why he was in solitary, was it because he made the announcement at the show?). After the escape however, his performance was superb.
I think I can understand why this film is considered such a classic. I just wish that Renoir could have done a better job of getting through the first third of the movie.
7 out of 10