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Army of Shadows
Army of Shadows Image
Metascore
99 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 24 Critics What's this?

User Score
8.1 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 63 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Summary: Making its U.S. debut, Jean-Pierre Melville's 1969 Army of Shadows is an intimate epic of the French Resistance in WWII.

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 24
  3. Negative: 0 out of 24
  1. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    100
    It's a white-knuckler all the way, with most of that tension coming from the smallest facial expressions exchanged in uneasy silence between compatriots who knew what they were getting into, but were nevertheless unprepared for the moral and emotional fallout of their patriotic actions.
  2. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    100
    A film masterpiece, restored more than three decades after its French release, "Army" remains a superb, coolly accurate portrait of a living hell recalled by two men who knew it well and record it truly, Melville and novelist Joseph Kessel.
  3. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    This restored 35mm print, now in art theaters around the country, may be 37 years old, but it is the best foreign film of the year.

See all 24 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 36
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 36
  3. Negative: 1 out of 36
  1. ryancarroll88
    10
    This film is one of the darkest, uncompromising and unsettling movie products of the 1960s - a war movie with no bars and a moral prerogative as gray as the walls of the many prison cells we find the characters in.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. AndrewO.
    5
    "It's a white-knuckler all the way..." "a brilliant and relentless thriller..." "excruciatingly tense and never less than heartbreakingly human..." ??? I wish I had seen the movie these folks had seen, but guess I missed it. You'd have to be a Franco-cinemaphile of the first order to derive that much enjoyment from this movie. Or it may be a serious case of the emperor's new clothes, I'm not sure which. Apart from the admittedly fine cinematography, I found this film to be meandering, turgid and uninvolving. To each his own, I suppose, but beware the hype.… Expand
    • 1 of 1 users said yes
  3. AlyoshaM.
    3
    I almost fell asleep watching this film. It has caused me to distrust the Metacritic ratings.
    • 1 of 3 users said yes

See all 36 User Reviews

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