One of the Greatest Films Ever

Rating: 10/10 (24 March 1999)

When we talk of the "Golden Age" of films during the late 1930s, it is easy for fans of cinema to become myopic to American releases. But not all golden celluloid comes from southern California, nor even the USA.
THE GRAND ILLUSION comes from France and is without a shadow of the doubt one of the greatest movies ever made. The story was thoroughly engrossing and entertaining. The acting was superb. The directing was outstanding. The camerawork was always on bullseye.
The bill calls this an antiwar film. Frankly, I didn't see that at all. It was, however, honest and real about the first World War. To interpret that as pro- or anti- is to project a personal bias. There are no blood and guts. No gore. Rather caring personal relationships are made and then shattered, across social, political, and racial lines.
Orson Welles, Francois Truffaut, Ingmar Bergman, and on and on, they all referred to this as one of greatest, important and most influential movies ever. It demands not be missed.