Time soaked in dirt and blood... Only I, like all Frenchmen, love heroes.
The subject of surrender is painful for the French. The war affected almost everyone, leaving a deep scar in the memory of the people. As a former soldier, who also received a dangerous wound in the First World War, Jean Renoir could not remain indifferent to this topic. “Spinned corporal” seems to continue the theme he started once in the famous “Great Illusion”. But if such a serious work as “The Great Illusion” is made in the style of poetic realism, then this film is shot somewhat in an ironic manner and organically combines the elements of drama and comedy. Take at least, the colorful "Guillaume" Jean Carme, never parting with his cheese grater. However, it is clear that in a camp for prisoners of war, it is essentially not needed by anyone.
Like many other works of Renoir, the picture is a reflection of his thoughts, aspirations and preferences. Here his personal theory of the division of the world according to social characteristics is clearly embodied. Private Dad refuses to run away with the corporal, because he does not believe that in Paris they will eat soup from one bowl. The Gasman character says, “Freedom doesn’t have to be on the other side of the barbed wire, I’m much more a slave in Paris than I am here.” And while bombs are being blown outside the camp and entire states surrender, here, in this small, isolated world, most prisoners do not care. Even a German soldier, in response to the news of one of the victories of their most powerful “war machine”, says that he does not care. At the moment, he is only interested in an itchy toothache and he dismisses his colleague as an annoying fly. “I realized that no one wanted war except a handful of generals and capitalists,” Renoir wrote after World War I.
While shooting, Renoir always had a special love for close-up faces. In this sense, the dramatic scene of the shooting of a corporal friend is particularly revealing. And although we do not see the scene, but only hear the sound of gunshots, all this is very expressive on the face of Jean-Pierre Cassel. The idea of the dependence of the individual on external circumstances, which often leads to an understatement of the role of the individual, is also considered here. The director clearly demonstrates his favorite theme of the unity of the world, when the character does not oppose the surrounding reality, but is its organic part. For example, most captured soldiers refuse to flee, having gradually adapted to life in the camp, and some even gladly serve the Germans as “Ajutan”. But it's not all that bad and there's still hope. As well as the character from another Renoir film “This Land is Mine”, the coward “gasman” Claude Risch, in the face of death, will still find the strength to take heart.
Besides, like any true Frenchman, Jean Renoir could not help but be proud of his own nation. And the phrase put into the mouth of one of the characters: “Only I, like all Frenchmen, love heroes”, undoubtedly confirms this. And in every picture, despite the large number of antagonists, the protagonist must have been present. Such in this film is the hero “corporal” performed by the talented Jean-Pierre Cassel. In his tenacity, reminiscent of “Moth” Steve McQueen, repeatedly unsuccessfully trying to escape. He does not want to adapt to a quiet life behind barbed wire, and his freedom-loving soul is eager to free itself and nothing can break it. It is worth noting that the cast is damn good. And names like Cassel, Brasser, Karme and Bedo speak for themselves.