Friday, January 20, 2006

La Grande Illusion

Others must see what I don't. Jean Renoir's supposed classic has a reputation as a great indictment of war. But the film does not make a strong show of the deep cost of war in death and destruction. At most, we see the burden placed upon the individual in war, but the ultimate tragedy here is (again) an individual misfortune--not the colossal tragedy of nations that WWI truly was. The story includes some interesting ruminations on the folly of class consciousness, but nothing that speaks directly to the modern viewer. Perhaps something gets lost in the translation. You're on your own here.

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