J'accuse!

Plot synopsis:
In a Provençal village in the south of France, the villagers welcome the declaration of war with Germany in 1914 and flock to enlist. Among them is François Laurin, a man of jealous and violent temperament, who is married to Édith, the daughter of an upright veteran soldier Maria Lazare. François suspects, correctly, that Édith is conducting an affair with the poet Jean Diaz who lives in the village with his mother, and he sends Édith to stay with his parents in Lorraine - where she is subsequently captured and raped by German soldiers. François and Jean find themselves serving in the same battalion at the front, where the initial tensions between them give way to a close friendship that acknowledges that they both love Édith.
In 1918, Jean is discharged through ill-health and returns to the village, to find his mother dying. Édith reappears from captivity, now with a young half-German daughter Angèle. Her father, Maria Lazare, immediately leaves to avenge the shame to the family name. When François comes home on leave, Jean and Édith fear his reaction to the illegitimate child and try to conceal her from him, which merely revives his jealous suspicions of Jean, and the two men fight. When the truth is revealed, François and Jean agree to seek their vengeance in battle and both return to the front.
In a great battle, in which a mythical figure of Le Gaulois leads on the French forces, François is wounded and dies in the field hospital. Jean, meanwhile, is so shell-shocked that he becomes insane. He returns to the village and gathers the inhabitants together to tell them of his vision on the battlefield: from the graves of the dead, soldiers arise and gather in a great cohort that marches through the land, back to their homes. Jean challenges the villagers to say whether they have been worthy of the men's sacrifices, and they watch in horror as their dead family and friends appear on the threshold. The soldiers return to their rest, and Jean goes back to his mother's house. There he finds a book of his own poems which he tears up in disgust, until one of them, his Ode to the Sun, drives him to denounce the sun for its complicity in the crimes of war. As the sunlight fades from the room, Jean dies.

Tags: anti war

Review:
Startling and impassioned plea for peace!.
Abel Gance, undoubtedly one of the greatest film-makers ever, made this extraordinary film as he saw Europe rushing toward World War 2.
It is a remake of a film he made when he was in the trenches of World War 1.
At its core is the magnificent performance of Victor Francen as the only survivor of a World War 1 patrol who is determined to prevent war ever happening again.
With photography and amazing mis en scene, Gance evokes the waste of war and the terrible effect it has on its survivors.
The climax involves Francen conjuring the dead of World War 1 to stop World War 2.
This is stunningly shot and extremely powerful.The only faults this film has is the over reliance on stock footage (I assume because of budgetary problems), and a romantic sub-plot that doesn't quite work.
But this is a true work of art - highly political and visionary, and fascinating historically.
What a shame humanity didn't listen in 1938!.
Powerful.
J' Accuse!
is one of those imperfect films that have so many captivating and remarkable scenes as to burn them into memory forever.
From the first 45 minutes concentrating on the battleground of the first World War that rivals All Quiet On The Western Front to the final half hour of surrealist horror/fantasy that evokes the groundwork for such films as Night of the Living Dead there is much to love about this work.The editing and use of actual stock war footage actually brings the viewer a historical grounding for the social and moral stance the film takes.
The special effects are in grand display for a film of the 1930s and eerily successful during the climax which is one of the truly great accomplishments in cinematic history.The only drawbacks for the film is depending on your version/copy you may have re-edited scenes which create an odd linear flow to the film and which are also quite obviously placed.
Also, the middle of the film does get bogged down in a romantic sub plot that does not seriously work and all too often finds the actors suffering from melodrama.However, the historical significance of this film's anti-war message should not be detracted from the horrific circumstances surrounding WW II.
The film's message actually centers on the scientific advances of the well played lead, Victor Francen, who allows his country (in this case France) the perception of a military advantage to consider war as beneficial.
You can easily see this film speaking to the scientific community in any country of the time - especially Germany.
Politics aside, the message is clear and as haunting as any you may find in the annals of cinema..
Abel Gance is a titan..
Titan is the right word for a director who is the French equivalent of a David Wark Griffith.He borrowed from Zola his famous sentence "I accuse!" which comes from the Dreyfuss affair.(people should try to see William Dieterle's "life of Emile Zola" which focuses on it)."J'accuse" is one of the most convincing and impressive pacifist film of the whole history of the seven art.I'm sure its first half-hour influenced Kubrik's "paths for glory".There are three versions of it:the 1919 one,now forever lost,the 1922 one,with a new and watered-down ending,because of the military censors.Then the 1938 one,which is,to my mind ,the best.The historical context was so threatening that Gance's movie seemed like a cry of terror.IT was terribly different of what was going on in the French cinema at the time :Marcel Carné used to hide his fears behind metaphors for instance The first half-hour depicts life in the trenches.Some lines are as provoking as you can imagine.A soldier:"soon there won't be enough trees to make crosses".A little girl:"I want my dad to bring me back a gun to kill the war".The armistice may come quick in the movie,but you must remember that Gance had a message to send to the world.Armistice scenes are astounding:a bugle call resounds while the camera shows a dying soldier.The crowds rejoice as the soldiers salute the dead in voices chocked by emotion.The aftermath of war as filmed by Gance had certainly a strong influence on later movies.The essential of the movie takes place 20 years later .A survivor,played by Victor Francen,had sworn his soldiers pals who died there would not be another war.Then he begins his incredible task.I want to insist on that:Victor Francen is so good,so sublime,that you must see this movie in French,with English subtitles.Dubbed in English,Francen 's tour de force would lose most of its strength.You should hear him screaming "J'accuse!
J' accuse!" People around him thinks he's gone nuts.One breath-taking scene shows him breaking everything in sight.A sublime shot:he's just brought under control, then a gun hanging on a wall comes down and fall.For the last part of his movie,Gance outdoes himself;using horror movie codes,stupefying(for the time) special effects, Francen's extraordinary tragedian skills,and an editing to rival David Wark Griffith's "intolerance",he leads us to believe the unbelievable.The Dead awakening will haunt you long after you've seen the movie.The use of the Verdun memorial and its tower make me think of movies that were yet to come!("2001" and its monolith,for instance)French movies had never been better than in the thirties.I wish I could find a mathematical formula to prove it..
A stunningly effective anti-war classic..
J'Accuse surely ranks as one of the most stunningly effective anti-war films ever made.
Its early scenes involve a group of French soldiers who are compelled to go out on a hopeless and utterly pointless patrol.
The men are instantly slaughtered by the Germans.
The next morning, an armistice is declared.
The men on patrol were the last to die.
Think of the great anti-war films you've seen--like "Paths of Glory" or "All Quiet on the Western Front."  In my opinion, Abel Gance's "J'Accuse" ranks with these masterpieces and, in its final scenes, even surpasses them.
Jean Diaz is the sole survivor of the doomed patrol.
Before the men leave the trenches, Diaz swore to his colleagues that their sacrifice would not be in vain--there would be no more wars.
Diaz devotes his life to achieving this goal for which he sacrifices everything.
Of course, he fails miserably, as the European powers prepare for a new and even more catastrophic war.
In the final scenes, Diaz plays his last and best card in scenes that will not be soon forgotten by those who    are fortunate enough to see this great film..
very good anti-war film that COULD use a remake.
This film is an anti-war film about a man who served in WWI and sees that further wars are approaching because we never learned the lesson.
Despite his rants, people seem to think war is a GOOD option, so the film ends with his unleashing an object lesson everyone won't soon forget.Wow, did this film attempt something different!
It was a remake of an earlier silent version by the same director.
However, despite its STRONG IMPACT and imaginative script and cinematography at the end, the film was far from perfect.
My first complaint is the quality of the camera work.
While, as I said above, the end is spectacular, a lot of very grainy old vintage WWI film is inter-spliced into the film.
It just doesn't look very seamless, as the quality is dramatically worse than the movie itself.
It could really use a remastering--using computer technology to clean up and restore the old footage.
My second complaint is the length of the film.
For once, I actually think the film would have been better if it would have been shortened.
The plot in the middle of the film greatly detracted from the emotional impact of the beginning and the end.
Third, while the director was very sincere and was right that WWI was a pointless and stupid waste of life where no one person was truly to blame, his message of moral relativism probably contributed to the French ethos that led to their quick capitulation to the Nazis in WWII.
World War II was NOT morally equivalent, as Hitler was indeed evil and the cost in human life to stop him EARLY in the war would have been well-worth it in the end (i.e., taking a pacifist stand allowed Hitler to do FAR more damage to mankind than standing up against him in 1939-40).
I admire the effort, but wonder what would have been the result if this film had NOT come out just before WWII.Do not assume I am gung-ho about war.
Most wars are pointless and WWI is the greatest example of the stupidity and waste of war.
For an even better film about this, try watching the original ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930).
Another excellent anti-war film is THE EAGLE AND THE HAWK, also set in WWI.4/28/08--By the way, I just saw the "original" version of this film by the same writer/director.
Despite BOTH having the same name, the films are very different.
While J'ACCUSE (1919) is more of a spectacle and was more innovative for the time, J'ACCUSE (1938) is much more watchable today and has a much clearer anti-war message.
Also, there is a movie by the same name from 2003 and a mini-series from the 1990s--but both have nothing to do with the French films..
Masterpiece With Social Relevance.
This film is a masterpiece with extreme social relevance for the human race.
Try to rent it if you can find it.
It is still relevant even almost 70 years after it was made.
It may be hard to find but it is worth it.
Enjoy!!!.
A near classic..
An important film for its time with a powerful message that only fell on deaf ears when World War II went ahead.
Unfortunately, the film was technically flawed with some campy moments and a messy story structure.
Still, the ending is a classic..
Stop Perpetual Useless War!!.
A plea from beyond the graves of 53,000.000 who died in WWI, this movie eloquently watches 12 men as they prepare for what they know will the last patrol of their life.
120 men have already gone to their deaths in their 3 years at Verdun, on the same patrol.
As two men argue over their love for one's wife, the husband is suddenly bound to forgive the other and makes him pledge to mail letters to the other's wife should he die, at 2 week intervals to keep her thinking of him alive.A few subplots involving a chanteuse who has all the men singing while the bombs explode around them in a town that is wiped out by the barrage.
The scene in which the dead answer the call of the scientist who has worked for 20 years to bring back his friends and others has been often copied in far lesser films since.
The dialogue in this movie is of great impact, made more so by the fact that my son has just returned from the slaughter in Iraq.
A eye for an eye makes everyone blind, and no movie makes the point as well as this one.
The death scene may deliberately be set up to make you think of Jean D'Arc, but it just reminded me of how mindless the masses are, no matter of what nationality.
The brainwashed American public is a case in point.
Oh, for a decent educational system.
Maybe we should give up and just show movies like this one, 'Paths of Glory', 'Attack' and 'Deerhunter' all day.
Whoever puts up statues to military, writes military marches and glorifies marching off to war should have to tell all the widows their loved one has died for nothing, only repeats of death---be it through war or 9/11s..
Genuinely internationalist, genuinely anti-war and genuinely cinematic art..
This is a rarity -- a genuine anti-war film that is also a genuine work of art.
Gance's protagonist is the only member of his battalion to survive the trenches of WWI.
The experience so horrifies him that he is driven to develop technology he hopes will prevent all future war.
On learning, in 1938, that his native France is again preparing to send its young to the slaughter, he summons his outrage and grief for all his fallen comrades and calls on the war dead of 1914-1918-- from France, Italy, Britain and Germany -- to rise from their graves in rebellion against the horror.
Sounds naff?
Watch it, and think again.
Any filmmaker or lover of cinematic art who reviles the current state of the world could learn from this film ...
technically as well as thematically.
Gance includes graphic and enlightening footage of the armies of France preparing for the second imperialist onslaught.
That alone serves as a refreshing visual antidote to the decades of mind numbing propaganda that would have us believe there would never have been a WWII had Germany not existed..
Even in a shortened for this is a powerful cry for the end of war.
(There are spoilers ahead) I saw a short American cut (75 minutes or so) of Abel Gance's anti war film.
Made on the eve of the second world war this tells the story of an inventor who survives the trenches and vows never to let war engulf the world again.
Twenty years on as the world marches toward war he is horrified to discover that the same people who fought in the last war and also vowed never again are marching us toward another war.Abbreviated or not this is a kick in the head.
Not so much a plea for peace as a long scream this is a film that some how transcends it's sometimes silliness to become a something that will rattle your soul.
Gance pulls no punches and tells it like it is.
War sucks and the thought of ever waging it is insanity.The end of the film, where the war dead rise up is chilling.
These are not people made up, these are the battle scared marching towards us in a disturbing in your face manner.
I really liked the film both intellectually and emotionally.
Its not perfect but it is a kick in the head and the heart.
(Gance's full version runs over two hours.
I haven't seen that version of the film, I've read that it includes a several characters who counterpoint the main story.
I haven't seen it so I can't compare but this short version really made me say Wow.).
A powerful statement from the past.
I saw a clip of this movie in a documentary about horror films and it prompted me to obtain it.
I am so glad I have seen this movie.
As a history buff who is interested in the First World War (the Great War) it appealed to me on that level.
Jean-Diaz lost most of his friends on the last patrol on the final day, and that sums up the futility and waste of WWI.
Some have criticized the use of stock footage, but in this case I think it works.
This is a movie about war after all, and you don't get any more powerful than the real thing.
Also, given the technology of the time it would have been difficult for the crew to recreate the war.I agree with other reviewers, there are problems in the middle.
The romantic subplot with Flo just doesn't work at all.
I also wish they would have given us a closer look at what Jean-Diaz was doing in his workshop.The final scene at the Verdun cemetery is among the most powerful I have ever seen.
When he calls out to the dead in French, English and German that is moving.
He calls them his friends -- he is one of them because in a sense he died in the war.
At the opening a credit is given to the group, "Mutiliated Veterans of the Last World War".
Those were real WWI vets playing the part of the ghosts who rise from the graves.
Their scars are real.
Haunting!
See this movie if you have a chance.