I wonder how many people watch this movie, thinking: what's all the fuss about? and give in to the overwhelming praise it receives. But reading again and again about the "masterpiece" and most realistic movie ever made I have to cry out: realistic? no! I mean I get the point. We're out to make the anti-Hollywood-pow-escape-movie. That's fine with me. And it succeeds in some way sometimes. Only it's kind of hypocritical, isn't it? Doesn't the suspense of the movie come from the viewer expectation: Does he make it and how (though we know from the title, that he does)? And NOT showing the violence of killing the German soldier, in which way is this "great"? You could even argue, Bresson just isn't capable of showing this kind of action. And how exactly would he have done it? Killing a male soldier with his hands without a sound - how exactly does this work. Taking under consideration that our protagonist doesn't strike me as the superior close combat type. And it didn't really convince me, that he could build this rope without anybody noticing. First: how to hide it and second: how come absolutely nobody notices the disappearance of all the material needed to make those ropes. But than again: German soldiers were stupid, inefficient and absolutely not to be taken seriously, as we've learned from so many Hollywood war movies of the 50s-80s. I used to rather like this movie - the Le Trou-thing about it - but when I watched it again last night and there was this shot of Devigny going to kill the soldier with his hands raised as if he was Dracula or the Wolfman out to get his next victim, I finally got lost. If you want to watch something that's treating realism in a way I'd say give some of those a try: Le trou; Police, Adjective; Tôkyô monogatari; Day of Wrath; McCabe and Mrs. Miller; A Woman Under the Influence; The Wind Will Carry Us; Louise-Michel.
Review of A Man Escaped
