Definitive World War I Film

Rating: 8/10 (23 January 2015)

During the First World War, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German POW camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are sent to a seemingly impenetrable fortress which seems impossible to escape from.
This is regarded by critics and film historians as one of the masterpieces of French cinema and among the greatest films ever made. Orson Welles named "La Grande Illusion" as one of the movies he would take with him "on the ark", and even Woody Allen named it among his favorites.
Director Jean Renoir uses the First World War (1914–1918) as a lens through which to examine Europe as it faces the rising specter of fascism (especially in Nazi Germany) and the impending approach of the Second World War (1939–1945). Indeed, this is what makes the film so great... Europe between the wars, especially coming from France, which is like Ground Zero for the Second World War.