Army of Shadows

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Continuing with my exploration of the films of Jean-Pierre Melville is Army of Shadows, which deals with the French resistance during WWII. Melville apparently fought for the resistance during the war, so it's likely that this was a very personal project for him. I heard this one was a lot darker and more serious than Le Samourai or Le Cercle Rouge, and I was pretty much ready for this one to be his definitive masterpiece.

When I started this blog I was really hoping to find some truly amazing movies I had never seen before to write about. So far, my luck hasn't been great, and I haven't seen anything that succeeds past "really, really good." And Army of Shadows is, sadly, no exception. It is a film with many moments of greatness, with scenes that really stick with you, but also a lot of stuff that drags on and doesn't really compel.

Maybe the problem is with me, I don't know. I really wanted to love this one... and I did, at times. But I also felt bored and restless during other areas. One day, I should give it another shot.

Melville seems to have really conflicted feelings about his material, but in the best possible way. He fought for the resistance, but obviously finds himself saddened and disturbed at what they had to do in order to fight. He makes the violence very sad, and ugly, and none of his heroes seem very heroic. The best scenes are the ones that examine the way people can do cold, inhuman things to further a cause they believe in. Maybe it's the "right" thing to do in the larger sense, but brutal and soul-crushing on a personal level.

The best and most heartbreaking sequence of the movie is when some of the main characters are captured by the Nazis. The Nazis line a bunch of them up in a large hallway, with a manned machine gun on the one end. The prisoners are told to run to the other end of the hallway. Anyone who can make it to the end of the hallway without being shot will be spared until the next execution.

The main character tells us, in a voice-over, that he won't run. He refuses to let them steal his dignity and play their game. The bullets start flying, and at first he holds his ground. But before he even knows what he's doing, he's scrambling down the hallway with the other prisoners. He can't help it.

Nobody wants to die, and everyone can be broken. He gives up his dignity to try to save his life, and we'd all do the same. This scene, and a few other moments like it, really penetrate you while you watch.

Again, maybe it was just something wrong with me, but other parts of the movie were problematic and kept me from really being blown away by Army of Shadows. Too many characters involved in too many stories that sometimes seem to drag, or not build up to anything. Too many scenes with characters trading redundant dialogue that doesn't seem flesh out the characters or the story. Too many digressions and detours that I couldn't understand.

This warrants another viewing, some day. It's worth seeing, absolutely, and is a damn good movie if not a great one. Perhaps my expectations were too high, or maybe I was expecting something different.

But, hey, they actually translated the title to English this time. Good job.