LGM Film Club, Part 368: Army of Shadows
By 
I have talked a good bit about the films of World War II and when I did my slightly flawed list a few years ago (you all reminded me of a few that I had forgotten about), I had Army of Shadows at #2 behind only The Burmese Harp. I think that holds up. I watched this Jean-Pierre Melville masterpiece again recently and it is such a brilliant masterpiece. You know what being part of the French Resistance was like? Terrible. Awful. Just the worst. Complete and total desperation, combined with not really knowing what you are doing. In other words, a resistance movement. The lack of romanticizing this stuff is really valuable. We are a long ways from some late 60s leftist propaganda film here. And of course given that you know everyone in this film is going to die, even if they don’t die in the film, all of which is confirmed at the end, it’s just a huge gut punch the whole time, even if you are happy when they kill a Nazi or two.
Just outstanding.