I can opaquely identify the microscopic flaws of the perfect film "Army of Shadows" in meditation, but I can see why it moved me so enormously and thrilled me so intensely, and how it virtually paralyzed me with endless moments of pure soul. It was made by a filmmaker, Jean-Pierre Melville, whose movies are so flawed it's strange that he could produce a film this staggeringly great. I could spot several, whole entire scenes that are massively improvable in his other works, but with this film, not a single glitch is found. The film is about French underground resistance fighters who are not only facing the inhumanity of Nazis, but their own inhumanity. They've been forced to do unthinkably painful things, all out of pure love for their country. Having been a resistance fighter himself, I think Melville was attempting to show how they all thought and felt. He succeeded; you feel the raw emotional intensity in every scene. Ultimately, I sense the true reason it brought me to tears was its consummate depiction of the always sensitive human psyche. These characters are people we understand from the first time they are on screen. Lonely, every-day men predominate the dramatis personae of the film. I relate to Lino Ventura's character without having done an even marginal percentage of what his character has. It's almost like watching yourself in the mirror, without the romanticized self-depiction and vain. And through it all it's still startling how aesthetically alluring the whole affair is. The film's color palate consists of a primarily marble-like blue, with occasional touches of a warmer hue for a subconsciously apprehensive punch. All the shots are arresting and poetic in their abstract austerity, and the movement of actors and objects is so fluid that it never excites solely by nerve-wracking camera motion, but by situational suspense and facial expression. Melville often extends moments to unusual length, instead of condensing shots, which in turn heightens the intensity of scenes to often unbearable proportions. It really is strange that a director so obviously influenced by American cinema would make a movie so quintessentially French, and yet never let instances of tension and sorrow escape its clutches. Even though it's clear where Melville borrowed from his earlier works it's all for the sake of a magnum opus, and it pays off. Army of Shadows is art, and the peak of filmmaking. It's the greatest film I've ever seen.

This is one of the most chilling and emotionless depictions of the french resistance during World War 2 ever put to film.You expect to see ruthlessness from the Nazis shown in this two and a half hour raw representation of 1940s resistance underworld but it's the allied sympathisers whose true colours shine through. The monochromatic palate and the undeniable 1960s filming style reflect the lack of remorse the cold killers of the central "protagonists" posses.The whole film feels like a crisp morning with interspersed action emphasised by the random quick zooms that creates tangible tension. This reminds us of the overwhelming fascist presence and the immediacy for retaliation that this requires.I would highly recommend this film to those who enjoy international films or love period pieces that truly deliver in all aspects in which they require to create a film that keeps you on edge for it's entire duration.

What we would expect when the ideas behind The Army of Shadows are described to us? The image the viewer draws in their head is probably not what's represented in the actual film. The Army of Shadows is a taut film that chooses to represent the ways of secret organizations of France during the time of the Nazis with honesty...some may think with too much honesty, such as the brutal violence that's carried out by our protagonist. The writer and director, Jean-Pierre Melville, conducts his film with the feeling he wants to share with the world about the French Resistance: ambiguity. The writing knows the plot, but leaves much of the answers blank, even at the conclusion of the film to make the audience feel how the members of the Resistance felt. They trusted no one, not even those who claimed to be loyal to the beliefs of their cause. Everything about themselves had to remain a secret, which isolated them from the world to specific measures.The asset that is most surprising, when watching today, is how technically skilled the filmmakers are. The cinematography is beautiful, the sets are realistically scary, the make-up will make your make your stomach churn, and the editing is noticeably advances the story by cusses out the big moments with emotion. It's the French version of Bonnie Clyde with its production values and methods of technology. Army of Shadows has a big story that is told in a small way. It doesn't concern itself with the blockbuster action scenes that we would expect from a Nazi film. Instead it focuses on the conversations and the running of the French Resistance, the moral code, and the day-to-day struggle of trying to move ahead in their lives when Nazis on their tails trying to terminate them. The violence in the film may be more disturbing than huge action sequences because when it's shown, it's deliberately placed to make us react. Rating: 10Grade: A

This is an episodic drama about French Resistance movement during WWII. While the episodes are not bad in themselves, the lack of narrative buildup makes for an uninvolving and unsatisfying experience. The leisurely pace doesn't help matters. Melville does not seem to be a fan of editing, preferring to dwell on mundane scenes like a person walking from one place to another. This approach extends the film to an ungodly length of nearly two and a half hours. The script is rather amateurish, with situations ranging from simplistic to preposterous, including a scene featuring an escape from a firing squad that is laughably ludicrous.