98% La Grande illusion (The Grand Illusion)

All Critics (59) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (57) | Rotten (1) | DVD (9)

It's among the most understated anti-war films ever made, effortlessly humanistic but far too subtle to indulge in preaching.

A model of simplicity and grace, with emotional effects that move you when you least expect it, the kind of great film that only a master can pull off.

It's still one of the key humanist expressions to be found in movies: sad, funny, exalting, and glorious.

It's an excellent film, with Renoir's usual looping line and deft shifts of tone, though today the balance of critical opinion has shifted in favor of the greater darkness and filigree of The Rules of the Game.

An artistically masterful feature, the picture breathes the intimate life of warriors on both sides during the [First] World War.

Renoir has created a strange and interesting film, but he owes much to his cast.

a monumental humanist work

Its very simplicity of utterance gives it a purity that makes other films that try to express similar sentiments feel forced and obvious.

Funny, heart-wrenching, nail-biting, caustic and profound, touting the futility of armed combat while turning imprisonment and escape into a microcosm for society's aspirations and contradictions.

Renoir's 1937 anti-war masterpiece created a new genre, the POW movie, and with his 1939 La R?gle du jeu constitutes a diptych of unparalleled excellence.

A timeless classic of acting and filmmaking genius that uses the artificiality of war to explore the very construct of society, and is a classic must-see.

The great illusion is that these men of the officer class are somehow different from the masses who suffered the bloodiest of wars. Renoir proves that they are not.

A vividly humanist, anti-war classic.

A sorrowful, acutely thoughtful, and wholly imperishable masterpiece...

Tragic. Moving. Funny. A pure joy.

The film makes its moral point about the futility of combat by emphasising the interconnectedness of all humanity via such shared experiences as hunger, desire and friendship. It's also a ripping yarn with a vein of charming and sometimes risqu? humour.

La Grande Illusion retains its power as an example of European camaraderie and co-operation.

It ranks proudly alongside The Rules Of The Game as Renoir at his stunning best.

La Grande Illusion is a sublimely poignant and lucidly insightful commentary on the social legacy of the Great War in Europe.

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