why La Grande Illusion is a great movie

Rating: Null/10 (1 October 1999)

One could argue about the technical aspect of the film, but I won't. As in many Renoir movies, what is essential is the human content. I think that the title does not really refer to the movie but can be taken as a critical stance concerning this movie. The greatest illusion of it all, is that Renoir displays characters that are fundamentally and primarily good people.No one is bad here, there are no villains, no treacherous minds. the french escape because it is their "duty", just as the german officer shoots Boildieu because he has to do it. But they are all human and honest anyway. That's why it is a great movie: it makes you believe for two hours that the world is filled with people who have a sense of dignity and a code of behaviour that prevents them from doing evil. The second part of the film in the german farm is the real anti-war stance. Gabin could have stayed there and be a farmer, though he is a city bloke, never caring about his being french and her being german. this shows that people are the same everywhere and --just as the last image of an invisible swiss frontier shows it-- that frontiers are only boundaries men invented.