"I think we can do nothing to stop the march of time"

Rating: 8/10 (11 February 2009)

Re-reading my review of 'Stalag 17 (1951),' I see that I referred to it as the template for every prisoner-of-war film that followed, including 'The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)' and 'The Great Escape (1963).' Once again, my relative inexperience with cinema seems to have caught me out; this film from Jean Renoir uses a similar formula, and predates it by almost fifteen years. Billy Wilder must certainly have seen 'The Grand Illusion (1937)'  since it features Erich von Stroheim, whom he himself used in 'Five Graves to Cairo (1943)' and 'Sunset Blvd. (1950)'  and so Renoir's influence is present throughout. It's a WWI film, but we see no combat. Whereas most anti-war films illustrate their stance by pounding the all-too-familiar adage "war is hell" through images of death and destruction, Renoir's approach is considerably more understated. He highlight the futility of war through human interaction, both between the captured French prisoners and between the Germans who watch over them.
Just what is "the grand illusion?" Renoir derived his film title from "The Great Illusion," a 1909 non-fiction book by Norman Angell, in which the author argued for the impossibility of a large-scale European war for economic reasons. That WWI broke out five years later obviously proved detrimental to Angell's arguments, and Renoir deliberately plays on the irony of this knowledge. More significant, however, is that the book was released in a revised edition in 1933, the general argument modified to assert the utter utility of waging war, a theme that supports Renoir's stance: this would not be the "war that ends all wars." With WWII just around the corner, there's an bitter urgency to what the film has to say; just three years later, the director would be fleeing France. The topicality of the film's message proved especially successful overseas, and 'The Grand Illusion' was unusually nominated for the Best Picture Oscar in 1939.
Of course, no Jean Renoir film is complete without some class-related social critique. Most striking in this regard is the relationship between Capt. de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay) and Capt. von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim), from which, scandalously, it is implied that one's class forms a more binding camaraderie than that of nationality. Boeldieu and Rauffenstein, both multilingual upper-class aristocrats who sense their social dominance is drawing to an end, seek solace in each other's company, and feel closer to one another than to the lower-class men of their own armies. However, there is hope in Renoir's vision of society. The age of aristocracy is coming to a close, and a new social order  in which all men are accepted as comrades  is at the cusp of existence. Boeldieu accepts this inevitability, and, despite the initial suspicion of his fellow Frenchmen, ultimately offers his life to allow two "lower-class" companions to escape. He betrays von Rauffenstein in favour of duty to his country, even if his death provides only temporary relief from the inescapable futility of war.