Product Details

• Actors: Simon Abkarian, Virginie Ledoyen, Robinson Stevenin, Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet, Lola Naymark
• Directors: Robert Guediguian
• Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Surround Sound, Widescreen
• Language: French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Lorber Films
• DVD Release Date: January 18, 2011
• Run Time: 133 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0048FQFI4
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #149,334 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Review

The Real Inglorious Basterds... A Spellbinding Drama. --Salon

Gripping and Passionate. --The New York Times

Product Description

In Paris, 1941, Armenian poet Missak Manouchian leads a motley crew of foreign-born resistance fighters in clandestine battle against the Nazi occupation. An initially reluctant Manouchian and his team must resort to guerilla tactics and radical measures in the name of liberty. News of their daring attacks, including the assassination of an SS general, eventually reaches Berlin, and the Manouchian group ultimately have to answer for their brutal role in defending France as the cradle of freedom. SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE: Interview with Director Robert Guediguian, Interviews with stars Simon Abkarian and Virginie Ledoyen, Trailers and more! OFFICIAL SELECTION: CANNES FILM FESTIVAL, THE NEW YORK TIMES-CRITICS PICK!

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving Protrayal of Occupied France & Resistence March 31, 2011

By Terry W. Barnard

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Great movie about the resistence - especially the fact it demonstrates how in the beginning (before it was clear the Germans would lose WWII) the "cooperation" that existed between the French authorities and the Germans. In fact, the movie makes a point when one SS office states how the French authorities did things the Germans themselves would have been cautious about doing.

This movie while highlighting the contibutions of the foreign immigrants in France to help fight against Nazism, helps put to rest the myth that all the French were part of the underground or actively working against the Nazi occupation.

In fact, the first year of occupation there was very little resistance activity - it only started in earnest after the invasion of the Soviet Union in June, 1941. In the beginning, a high percentage of the underground were communists who initiated this fight in solidarity with the Soviet Union.

IN this movie, the brave souls portrayed who were not born in France took up arms and fought - and died - to protect that country - even if it meant fighting against the French born collaborators. This fight eventually cost them their lives and their recognition for their services and sacrifices needs to be acknowledged - something this film does very well.

32 of 37 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A SUPERB AND BRUTAL TRUE STORY July 17, 2010

By sabu

Format:DVD

THIS TRUE STORY OF HOW A PEACEFUL POET AND HIS FRIENDS+COMPATRIOTS WHO ,AFTER WITNESSING COUNTLESS HORRORS PERPETRATED ON THEIR COUNTRYMEN BY THE NAZIS, ARE FORCED INTO BECOMING ONE OF THE MOST FEARED AND VIOLENT GROUPS IN THE FRENCH RESISTANCE. THIS IS A MESMERIZING STORY.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "At the moment of death, I proclaim that I have no hatred for the German people..." November 20, 2011

By C. O. DeRiemer TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:DVD

The camera pans slowly from face to face...22 men and one woman. Some look out the window of the transport they're seated in. Some seem angry, others resigned. As the camera pauses at each face, the person's name comes up, followed by "Died for France." The time is 1944. They are the members of the French Resistance, the Manouchian Group. Many of them seem very young. In a few hours the men will be executed by a German firing squad. The woman will be taken to Germany where she will be beheaded with an axe.

Army of Crime tells the story of this group. They all lived in the same Paris neighborhood. Missak Manouchian, an Armenian, a poet and an intellectual, a man who was first ready to die but not to kill, becomes their leader. He learns to kill very well. The group is made of Frenchmen, Italians, Poles, Armenians, Spaniards, Hungarians and Romanians. All are Communists. Many are Jews. Hours before his death, Manouchian wrote this passage in a letter to his wife:

"My dear Melinée, my beloved little orphan,

"In a few hours I will no longer be of this world. We are going to be executed today at 3:00. This is happening to me like an accident in my life; I don't believe it, but I nevertheless know that I will never see you again. What can I write you? Everything inside me is confused, yet clear at the same time.

"I joined the Army of Liberation as a volunteer, and I die within inches of victory and the final goal. I wish for happiness for all those who will survive and taste the sweetness of the freedom and peace of tomorrow. I'm sure that the French people, and all those who fight for freedom, will know how to honor our memory with dignity. At the moment of death, I proclaim that I have no hatred for the German people, or for anyone at all; everyone will receive what he is due, as punishment and as reward. The German people, and all other people, will live in peace and brotherhood after the war, which will not last much longer. Happiness for all ... I have one profound regret, and that's of not having made you happy; I would so much have liked to have a child with you, as you always wished. So I'd absolutely like you to marry after the war, and, for my happiness, to have a child and, to fulfill my last wish, marry someone who will make you happy..."

How did it come to this? Some young men in Manouchian's neighborhood, infuriated by the arrogance and injustice of the German occupiers, began finding ways to strike back...shooting down German officers, throwing a grenade, leaving a crude bomb. Manouchian, once arrested by the French police and tortured, was released. He could see that organizing a group with selected targets would be more effective than individual and uncoordinated strikes. He was encourage to do this by the senior leaders of the Resistance, all Communists, too. Before long, the Manouchian Group was blowing up troop trains, killing quantities of Germans in broad daylight, even assassinating a German general.

The group was slowly hunted down... not by Germans, but by the collaborating French police. (Himmler sent praise to them after they rounded up thousands of Jews and departed them east. His praise? That not a single German soldier was needed. The French police did it all.)

Army of Crime concentrates on perhaps a dozen of the members, and we get to know well three or four of them. The movie is tense and intense as they plot, kill and put not only themselves at risk but also their mothers and fathers. The movie also is disturbing, in that it tells a story that for years the French did not want to face up to. Those pursing the Manouchian Group were French policemen. Those who captured the members were French policemen. All were tortured, by French policemen. They were turned over for execution to the Germans by French policemen.

After the members of the Manouchian Group were shot, German propagandists blanketed France with red posters showing their faces, listing their "crimes" and calling the group just an "army of crime."

Two things remain in my mind after watching this movie. First, how brave ordinary people can be when faced with brutality and injustice. Second, how easily it can be for some police forces to see their job not as protecting the people and insuring that justice has a chance to work, but of protecting the status quo, of beating, spraying and imprisoning those who are considered by their leaders as not being docile enough or who simply exercise their rights.

Among the many fine actors are Simon Abkarian as Missak Manouchian and Virginie Ledoyan as his wife, Melinee. Robert Guediguian is the director..