Rating: 
Summary: A passionate history lesson...
Review: The great director, Rene Clement, put his angst to rest with this empowered version of the French Resistance in 1944. Most icons of the French Cinema appeared, including the great Charles Boyer, as well as modern idols Delon, Trintignant, Belmondo and the radiant Leslie Caron. This film was originally made with subtitles all around, except for the few scenes with Americans Kirk Douglas (as Patton via Spartacus), Anthony Perkins, Robert Stack, Glenn Ford and a particularly powerful performance from Orson Welles as Swedish consul Nordling. I was also very impressed with the performance of Gert Frobe (Goldfinger), as the German general with a serious dilemma. The DVD doesn't offer any features, and the entire film is dubbed, which is a great reason to try to get your kids to watch this as a valid history lesson. (I learned more about history from movies than I ever did in a classroom...) It's interesting that the film was written by Americans Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola. Director Clement never failed to show impassioned moments, and all very well played. Terrific crowd scenes were mixed with archival footage. The war-torn Paris scenes were Oscar- nominated for Art Direction, and the seamless photography was also up for an Oscar. ("Virginia Woolf?" won in both categories, though these sets were stunning!). A great wide 2.35:1 Letterbox showed off some wonderful panoramas. Maurice Jarre's score was the icing on the cake! It is another feather in his epic cap (Lawrence, Zhivago, Ryan's Daughter). One line that moved me a bit was when the resistance fighter finally made it to Patton and said "The French people would never forgive the Allies for not coming to their aid." Well, we did. Why do they hate us so much?
Rating:
Summary: Excellent cast and great film
Review: This all star international cast does an excellent job of portraying the events leading up to the liberation of Paris in August 1944. The film tells the story from the perspective of the German and French forces with some participation, it seems, from US forces. This film is a good overview of general activities in the battle but to fully understand the events leading up to the revolt by the French Undergound against German occupation forces, one needs to read the book by the same name and other military history. Internal frictions within the underground is downplayed in the film. The treatment of the German occupation force is good and makes a clear distinction between the military occupation force and the Gestapo in their actions during the battle. This film gives good treatment to a high point in French history and presents a balanced, thoughtful film. The theme music is unforgetable and captures the spirit of Paris in August 1944. This should be in all historical film collections.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent cast and great film
Review: This all star international cast does an excellent job of portraying the events leading up to the liberation of Paris in August 1944. The film tells the story from the perspective of the German and French forces with some participation, it seems, from US forces. This film is a good overview of general activities in the battle but to fully understand the events leading up to the revolt by the French Undergound against German occupation forces, one needs to read the book by the same name and other military history. Internal frictions within the underground is downplayed in the film. The treatment of the German occupation force is good and makes a clear distinction between the military occupation force and the Gestapo in their actions during the battle. This film gives good treatment to a high point in French history and presents a balanced, thoughtful film. The theme music is unforgetable and captures the spirit of Paris in August 1944. This should be in all historical film collections.
Rating: 
Summary: Still No Liberation from the Dubbing Nazis
Review: This has always been an awkward, clunky film that deserves the critical raspberries that have been thrown at it. Still, for a number of reasons (foremost its fantastic score by Maurice Jarre) I have a longstanding affection for it. While the video transfer is reasonably clean, the audio track is a total mess. I say this because there is no way to avoid the skillful (yet hideous) dubbing. You are never offered the opportunity to hear everybody speaking in their native language.
If I choose English audio I get everybody speaking in English. If I choose French with English subtitles I get Kirk Douglas and the Germans speaking French. Why can't I hear the Germans speaking to each other in German and the Americans speaking in English while the French converse in French? I would have thought that the DVD format would have rectified this little bit of linguistic parochialism. But (to quote the late John Belushi) "Noooooooooooooooooo!" Devotees of this film may be happy to see it in DVD, but the continued hegemony of the dubbing Nazis left me in a state of annoyance and irritation.
Rating:
Summary: 5 Stars and Why
Review: This movie will make you feel patriotic about the cause in World War II, eventhough it makes the French the war heroes. The large group of international actors make it a memorable story. Some of Maurice Jarre's best soundtrack music. He has such a talent for passionate anthems (Some new country needs to call him up to write their national anthem). It is worth watching just to hear the The Paris Waltz at the end. And, it was the last war movie I saw with my late-father, who was a World War II hero.
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