The Army of Crime

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Nathan H Gorgeous, intimate, and devestating. As the epigraph says, it is a modern legend. It feels like the older sibling of Anthropoid but more rooted and immersive. A spritual companion to Melville's Army of Shadows, but more modern and emotionally perosonal, to gruelling effect. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/18/24 Full Review Adam H Loved the subject-matter; wanted to love the movie more. It had some great moments but many stretches which failed to register emotionally. Politically, this is far more compelling and interesting than Army of Shadows, but as an emotional, psychological, and tonal cinematic exercise, I'd have to prefer Army of Shadows. A few moments that stood out: Manouchian's character arc in the early part of the movie, from pacifist poet to prisoner to resistance fighter; he is totally committed but also realizes that he has lost something, and this is played with a meaningful level of nuance. The general population is portrayed as often indifferent, wanting to get on with their lives, and some actively collaborating. A local inspector seems initially to be played as the "good cop" or at least a human one; he rejects some of the "excessive" forms of anti-semitism, and he seems to flinch at torture. However, he turns out to be the most effective at tracking and betraying the resistance. Worth watching as a depiction of resistance from a largely immigrant, politically marginalized vantage point. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 10/09/23 Full Review Audience Member This movie felt kinda long, draw out and slow, with there being very little of the resistance actually sabotaging and killing. But that all makes for a very realistic movie showing well what it was like to be a resistance fighter. But the fact that they don't officially join the resistance until one hour into the movie is a problem. This leaves the the first half to be a very long lead up to what the movies says its about, although there was some brief independent attacks in it. It is fairly slow throughout however, with the movie focusing more on the fear of getting caught and a resistance fighters problems with his girlfriend more than it focuses on the resistance itself. It did have a great, unexpected ending though, and I can say that they couldn't have ended it any better way. But as a whole they depicted the life of men and women in the resistance the way it would have happened, even if it makes for a kinda slow movie. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Audience Member The French sure love to talk about "their" resistance to Nazis, but that doesn't mean I love hearing about it, especially when it's as tedious as this drivel. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Audience Member Based in real events, this is the story of a group of the Resistance that defied the German occupation of France by committing terrorist acts against German targets. From common privates to high ranks, German army members were killed in the name of freedom. Curiously enough the men were mostly non French, their leader was an Armenian poet but they were also Jews, Hungarian, Polish and Italian. It is good quality cinema with good performances and solid story, but in trying to portray a group we get to see only snippets of their clandestine lives and that make it too diversified, there isn't a true focus, main thread or a "hero" and that is detrimental for the movie. Despite the obvious quality of the film and the remarkable historical research I find my mind drifting off to other matters. If you are a fan of the Resistance and World War II you must watch this film, it is a political statement of a group and an era. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Audience Member The script is quite interesting, and the story does explore some potentially controversial material - for instance, how complicit were the French civil servants really to the Nazi Regime? This film says "quite", and one can't help but wonder what happened to the not so gentle men serving in Marshall Petain's police force after liberation. But even the so called heroes are not very heroic. This film focuses on the Communists, who would, of course, only have replaced one totalitarian system with another if they had had a chance. Also, where is the line between legitimate resistance struggle and terrorism? It's not so clear cut, and in this story we see the resistance fighters violating the Geneva convention repeatedly. Thought-provoking, all in all, though in spite of good performances, the film suffers somewhat from soap-opera style directing in terms of blocking and shot-reverse-shot dialogue. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/15/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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