This is a film about real heroes. Not the flashy Rambo kind, but ordinary men and women who did extraordinary things in a time when France had already surrendered to the Germans. They only numbered a few hundred at most, and they walked in the shadows around France knowing that they would certainly die before it was over. Yet, they moved on and did what they had to without complaint or regret.

You won't see bombs blazing and blood and gore. What you will see is real people who agonize over every death that they are forced to carry out. People who knew that every corner held danger and that they could be betrayed at any time.

These are real heroes and this film portrays them as they were in a somber, intelligent, and dark fashion. The film was made and released in 1969, yet it's awards are in 2006 and 2007, when it was restored and finally presented in this country.

As the films of Jean-Pierre Melville are made available, we are able to share in seeing one of the truly great directors in the world. The pleasure is immeasurable.

Jean Pierre Melville, writer/director of Army of Shadows, has said in interviews that the book of which he based his movie from is considered THE book on the French resistance in the second world war. While I can only speculate as to this film being THE film of its category, as I've yet to see other films on the resistance, it sets quite a high standard for painting a very calculated, perfectly cool (or cold on your POV) piece of film-making on the subject.

It's basically as if Melville, having lived through the period- this being perhaps an even more personal film than his other crime films- still takes on some of the true knacks of what he does in the rest of his oeuvre. Taking characters who go by codes of loyalty, professional as can be, and in a true underground in society. However this time their opponent being the Germans instead of the police the stakes are raised. Even as a couple of parts in the middle seem to shake with the deliberate pace Melville sets a couple of times, the main core of the story and the characters is remarkable, and honest in a dark, bleak way.

Lino Ventura is at his best as Gerbier, a main man in the French resistance movement, who gets more involved in the proceedings following a brief prison-camp stint (the escape from which is one of the most daring in any film). The film is fairly episodic, however encompassing a group of the resistance people, including Mathilde (Simon Signet, very good as always),Le Masque (Claude Mann),and Jean-Francois (Jean-Pierre Cassel, at a peak as well in his own way).

Some of their operations are simple, like retrieving weapons or finding more support through certain channels. Though here and there some payback is in due to the traitors. This becomes a higher issue as the film rolls into its final act, as alliances come into question, and the real ties of humanity together are tested in the midst of the German occupation.

As usual with Melville all of this is told, in its own way, fairly simply- almost clinically- by Melville's camera. There are some zooms here and there, some very intense camera positions (though not awkwardly),and exciting when need be. At the same time, there are some scenes like a short scene on a beach (all blue) or a few others at night or in different lighting modes that are the best Melville's done in the midst of a color scheme used perfectly to correspond with the mood; it works just as well if not better than how he uses it for his crime films.

But one of the pleasures of seeing a film like this by a real kind of maverick of European cinema is seeing how much room he gives for his actors. These are not performances that become over-sensational in the slightest. On the contrary, what adds sometimes to the tension in some of the scenes, or the outright tragedy, is how the actors just play as they do professional-wise, sometimes with what's not said meaning more (and how the Melville gets these quiet moments is fantastic). Featuring a superlative musical accompaniment by Eric De Marsan, this is one of the best directed anti-war films ever made.

I sure wish that Jean-Pierre Melville had lived longer and been more prolific during his career. In 27 years, he only wrote and directed 14 films--a very modest output indeed. Yet, despite this, he was responsible for some of the very best films of his era--BOB THE GAMBLER, THE FINGER MAN, THE SAMURAI, SECOND BREATH and this film, ARMY OF SHADOWS--among others. What they all have in common is a wonderful sense of understatement and restraint. In none of these films is there any unnecessary adornment, excess dialog or pretense. They are direct but also a bit muted--making them seem quite real. Because of this, it's understandable why he was so strongly associated with the French New Wave. However, his films really aren't like those of other New Wave directors--lacking the sentiment of Truffaut or Rohmer as well as the bizarreness (and pretentiousness) of Godard. For me, his is my favorite of these directors--making simple and darn good movies...period.

ARMY OF SHADOWS is a very simple story of a man who was one of those in charge of the French Underground during WWII. While it could have been glamorized, or "sexed up", instead it was done in a straight forward manner--and the film worked wonderfully. Lino Ventura was great as the leading man--ordinary looking yet also tough and weathered looking. He was very much in his element playing this role. And, aside from Simone Signoret (sort of like a French version of Honor Blackman),the rest of the actors also have an ordinariness about them that makes the film work well. All were excellent actors, but no matinée idols good looks among them. In particular, Paul Meurisse was a wonderful supporting actor as the man in charge, though his was a smaller role than Ventura's.

Simple, gritty and very deliberately paced, this film is simple yet terrific.