4.17.2005
quick thought on grand illusion
my favorite thing about jean renoir's film grand illusion is that it's the only war film i've ever seen without an antagonist. "war," as construed in the film, is not so much a struggle as a predicament. throughout the narrative, characters on both sides of the conflict (world war I) make continuous attempts at an agreeable co-existence. they interact with one another. they act out of a sense of duty, instead of righteous hostility. one gets the sense that war is an awkward fit to them, both physically and psychologically.
in this sense, i think that grand illusion is not only more effective, but also more radical than the "anti-war" films i've come to expect from the 1970's onward. renoir's war is external instead of internal; physical, rather than moral. whereas the wars of coppola, stone, etc. caution society against its own barbaric id, renoir's war is something that could done away with entirely. in this sense, it is fitting that grand illusion is ultimately an escape film. on many levels, it assumes the potential of an exit strategy. renoir's characters are manipulated by the abstract mechanisms of power that give rise to state conflicts. they fight a war which lacks their own fingerprints. they jettison the existential guilt integral to the assumption that "war" is a truism of human existence.
in this sense, i think that grand illusion is not only more effective, but also more radical than the "anti-war" films i've come to expect from the 1970's onward. renoir's war is external instead of internal; physical, rather than moral. whereas the wars of coppola, stone, etc. caution society against its own barbaric id, renoir's war is something that could done away with entirely. in this sense, it is fitting that grand illusion is ultimately an escape film. on many levels, it assumes the potential of an exit strategy. renoir's characters are manipulated by the abstract mechanisms of power that give rise to state conflicts. they fight a war which lacks their own fingerprints. they jettison the existential guilt integral to the assumption that "war" is a truism of human existence.
