Robert Zemeckis’ new movie “Allied,” starring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard, hits theaters this Friday (read our review). And like many other joyful things in life of late — like the Cowardly Lion from ‘The Wizard Of Oz,” teeny-tiny infant hands, the color orange— its story of two resistance spies who fall in love while battling the Nazis has taken on a slightly different tone since American lost its damn fool mind and voted a deeply corrupt authoritarian reality TV star to be its next president.
Stories of resistance and battling evil empires have long been cinematic favorites, and there seemed to be something in the water even before He Who Shall Not Be Named was elected — for instance, next month’s “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” focuses on the Rebellion’s last desperate action against the Empire. But whereas “Allied” could have seemed like sexy escapism a few weeks ago, it now comes across more as a dire warning of what could occur in the coming years.
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Obviously, we sincerely hope that President-Elect Babadook governs strictly within the bounds of the Constitution and doesn’t mess with foundations like free speech, freedom of religion and equal rights for all. But just in case he does, below you’ll find twenty great movies about resisting fascism, despotism and tyranny, which might turn out to be useful for picking up tips. Check them out while you still can, and let us know your favorites in the comments.
“Army Of Shadows” (1969)
Misunderstood and mistreated on its release —landing in the aftermath of May ’68 in France, the French mostly saw it as a patriotic relic, whereas it wasn’t even released in the U.S. until 2006— “Army Of Shadows” sees Jean-Pierre Melville tackle the occupation of his country for the third time after “Le Silence De La Mer” and “Leon Morin, Priest,” and he definitely left the best for last. Lino Ventura stars as Philippe Gerbier, the head of the resistance in Marseille who escapes from the police in Paris and involves a network of like-minded agents in a plan to rescue one of his men (Paul Crauchet), even as more of their comrades are picked off. Melville was in the Resistance himself, and there’s both a grubby realism and a laudable lack of sentimentality in his depiction of them here: his subjects are heroes, but also hard, ruthless men who’ll brutally deal with betrayal, or even the possibility of betrayal, without a second thought. It grips like any of Melville’s thrillers (and might be more beautiful than any, thanks to cinematography that lives up to the title by Pierre Lhomme and Walter Wottitz), but its unsparing bleakness and fatalism makes it a towering peak of the genre.
“Flame & Citron” (2008)
The Danish resistance to Nazi occupation is rather under-represented onscreen, in part because of the relatively late renaissance in Danish film, and in part because those efforts went oddly under-discussed in that country in general for decades. But “Flame & Citron,” the biggest-budget Danish movie up to that point, finally shone a light on the resistance, and did so with flair, muscularity and nuance. Ole Christian Madsen’s film focuses on two of the best known Danish resistance members: Bent Faurschou Hviid (Thure Lindhart), also known as Flame for his bright red-hair (which makes him look distractingly like pop star La Roux at times), and Jørgen Haagen Schmith (Mads Mikkelsen), known as Citron, as they attempt to make a dent in the occupying forces and those who collaborate with them while debating the morality of their actions and fearing informants. It’s indebted to “Army Of Shadows,” and isn’t quite as effective when it comes to depicting the ambiguity and mistrust among allies, but it’s nevertheless compelling, well-acted (in particular by Mikkelsen, as ever), and fascinating in the way it posits that moral shades of grey may have to be put aside in times of resistance.
“Lacombe, Lucien” (1974)
Like all French directors of his vintage, Louis Malle grew up in a country occupied by the Nazis —he was eight when the country fell in 1940. And like many of those directors, he’d go on to make a film directly informed by his experiences, though “Lacombe, Lucien” takes a very different tack to most, examining the Resistance obliquely, through the story of a young man seduced into joining the Nazi forces occupying the country. The titular Lucien (Pierre Blaise, who was killed at the age of 20 in a car accident the year after the film’s release) is a 17-year-old boy deemed too young to join the Resistance by his schoolteacher. When he’s arrested by the Carlingue (the French Gestapo), he rats on his teacher and becomes a recruit to the collaborator group, only to begin to regret his actions when he falls in love with France (Aurore Clément), a Jewish girl in hiding. Stark, realistic and almost non-judgmental of its subject’s actions (causing some uproar on its release among French critics), it comes across as a sort of dark coming-of-age drama, a self-reflective what-if from Malle —what if he’d been a little older and been attracted by the comfort, ease and power represented by the occupation, and not the struggle of the Resistance? Not an easy watch, but a worthwhile one.