IMDb RATING
8.1/10
23K
YOUR RATING
An account of underground resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied France.An account of underground resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied France.An account of underground resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied France.
IMDb RATING
8.1/10
23K
YOUR RATING
- Director
- Writers
- Joseph Kessel(novel)
- Jean-Pierre Melville(adaptation)
- Stars
Top credits
- Director
- Writers
- Joseph Kessel(novel)
- Jean-Pierre Melville(adaptation)
- Stars
- Awards
- 4 wins & 1 nomination
Videos1
- Director
- Writers
- Joseph Kessel(novel)
- Jean-Pierre Melville(adaptation)
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
- All cast & crew
Storyline
France, 1942, under German occupation. Philippe Gerbier, a civil engineer, is a French Resistance commandant. Denounced by a French collaborator, he is interned in a concentration camp. He manages to escape, and rejoins his network in Marseille, where he has the traitor executed. This movie reveals rigorously and austerely what life was like in the French Resistance: the solitude and fear of its members; their relationships with one another; the constant threat of arrest by the Gestapo; the Resistance command structure and the way its orders were carried out. Head writer Joseph Kessel and co-writer/director Jean-Pierre Melville were both veterans of the "Shadow Army". —Yepok
- Taglines
- Betrayal. Loyalty. Collaboration. Resistance.
- Genres
- Certificate
- Not Rated
- Parents guide
Did you know
- TriviaDuring the shooting of this film, Lino Ventura and director Jean-Pierre Melville did not speak to each other; they only communicated through assistants.
- GoofsIn the London WWII sequence, double yellow lines are visible on the road. These were only introduced in the UK in 1956 and didn't become common until the 1960s; a few of the street signs have a style not known before the 1960s.
- Quotes
Philippe Gerbier: See you later, Comrade.
Legrain: ...You're a communist?
Philippe Gerbier: No. But I can still have comrades.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Mémoires pour Simone (1986)
Top review
Heroism in its ugly glory, as history tells it
Based on truth, the Army in the Shadows takes the French men and women of the Resistance as its theme, at a point near the end of the war when the Resistance movement and Nazi intelligence about its work and staff are both firmly established. As well as giving a thrilling history lesson in the workings of the Resistance, from the rural ladies who operated safe houses, to the chateaux-dwelling aristocrats whose lawns played host to light aircraft smuggling collaborators in and out of France, it also is a fascinating essay on the gruesome realities of heroism: including moments of hopelessness and complete failure of nerve. Events test our group of collaborators, so that each one bumps up against his or her personal limit, as to what they are intelligent enough to understand, brave enough to endure, and determined enough to achieve. Excellently acted and directed, it is a classic uncompromising Melville thriller.
helpful•422
- rory-campbell
- Feb 12, 2008
Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $771,956
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $12,620
- Apr 30, 2006
- Gross worldwide
- $840,830
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