DanTheMan 2
Like so many of Abel Gance's other silent films, J'accuse is a magnificent achievement, stretching the art form to the absolute limit of expressive possibility, putting everyone it can on trial, whether they are ignorant citizens, greedy politicians, or war-hungry businessmen. Despite the threat of the narrative falling into potential banality with all its melodramatic tendencies, Gance sells entirely through conviction and an observant, humane sense of character; there's always a sense of real ambition in his work, with the haunting, inhuman nature of the war and the sufferings it creates coming to the forefront, albeit as corporeal walking corpses. It marries poetry with war and terror with beauty, with a horizon that never seems to show itself, a tribute laced with smouldering anger. Visually arresting in every sense imaginable. A post-war horror as much as it is a plea for peace, the haunting nature of the film is encapsulated in its capture of doomed soldiers on celluloid, the preservation of sacrifices and anxieties as the war machine churned on. Over a century later, film audiences still find terror in the perceived authenticity of found footage, and with J'accuse, Gance's prophetic witness to and warning of unending war remains as relevant, horrifying, and immediate as they were in 1919.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
11/10/25
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Nick M
The title J'accuse is a reference to the famous open letter printed in a prominent French newspaper which is responsible for bringing the Dreyfus affair to the attention of the public at the turn of the 20th century. The film capitalizes on the fame and tone of the letter, but revolves around a love triangle of two French World War I soldiers and a woman married to one and lover to the other. The narrative is strong on paper, but suffers a bit for being drawn out over almost three hours. Mercifully, the acting is an improvement over other French pictures of the wartime years (whose overacting often spills over into the absurd by 21st century standards). The main characters are all played by the cream of the crop of the French cinema and theatre landscape, and while their expressions are frequently larger than life, this reads to me as appropriate for the stage rather than overacting. The story, however, is only a vehicle used to present the horrors of the war as experienced by both the soldiers and the women back home suffering along with them. This is a difficult film to critique from such a historical remove because one has to understand the perspective of the director, who was a French soldier serving in the trenches in World War I. The film itself was shot largely before the armistice, with some scenes being shot on actual live battlefields. The tone is angry. It is such an angry film. The phrase "j'accuse" is presented in multiple special intertitles, uttered by the main character a dozen times, taught to a young child as their introductory writing lesson, and used against everyone from the Germans, to mankind at large. Specific indictments are leveled against members of the French public who chose to carry on living joyously without respect for those suffering, those who profited from the war, and even against the sun for bearing witness to such a tragedy without intervening. The most memorable segment was when a host of dead soldiers rose from a battlefield and marched back to their village to pass judgment upon their surviving family members. Those villagers who've been honoring their sacrifice have nothing to fear, they are told, while those who have not been... The dead soldiers were 2,000 actual service members home on leave from Verdun. After shooting they returned to the battle whereupon, Gance claimed, 80 percent of them would die. This chilling piece of trivia adds to both the gravity and relevance of the film's message. There is real artistry here, but I found it diffuse and out of focus. Somehow the emotionality simultaneously feels both extremely vivid and curiously hollow. My initial interpretation of this impression is that the emotions of the film's creators were still so raw, their own personal experiences with the war still largely unprocessed, that they were unable to depict a fictionalized account that reads as genuine per se. I have to imagine that the making of the film was part of processing their own pain, and the fact that the reception across Europe was so extraordinarily positive suggests that it was also helping audiences process their own.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
09/13/24
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Paulo B
Huge, great, if a little slow. Scary and surprising ending.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/09/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Notable for capturing some of the earliest zombie scenes in film history, J'Accuse is really a war melodrama with a steadfast antiwar message.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/25/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Gance might be the most visionary silent film director outside of the German expressionist movement. Absolutely brilliant!
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/16/23
Full Review
Audience Member
For people who like older movies that today serve as excellent period pieces.....at the time of the piece....and carry a cogent storyline and the appearance of characters that would later become stock characters in film and tv.
Pop up some popcorn, pour a beverage and this movie will serve it justice
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/18/23
Full Review
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