Customer Reviews

Resistance

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This movie is not too bad. I don't think it was supposed to be a great

war epic. Bill Paxton just seemed like a typical American placed in a war torn, more reserved European culture. He's having some fun and kidding around and everyone else is ravaged by war and scared to death. He just hasn't gotten it yet. The best parts are the romantic ones. Some of it is pretty good. The background for the movie: the old house, the village, the other village people, is all pretty authentic. This is a movie that you can watch just as a story, not about war, not about great acting,

not about special effects. Just a story.

Sorry to say, but this may be the single worst perfomance by a leading actor in a film that I have ever seen, and I have seen thousands of films. Julia Ormand is fine, but Bill Paxton is beyond just bad. This is a movie about the Belgium resistance against the Nazis, complete with the execution of half a village, and here comes Paxton like he is in a Mary Poppins movie. It boggles the mind. Perhaps it is just me. I can't wait to hear what other viewers thought of this film.

This movie is so bad that it is annoying. Bill Paxton plays a pilot shot down over Belgium. Taken to the house of a member of the resistance, he proceeds to have a corny affair with the guy's wife while the guy and other members of the resistance are fighting to protect him.

The basic premise of this movie had a lot of potential, but this one fell flat with me. I think this movie suffered from poor directing, which doomed it to mediocrity right out of the gate. But it was Bill Paxton's performance that made this movie nearly unbearable for me. His performance lacked weight and depth in every way. He was utterly unconvincing as a military officer, a man in love, and someone in touch with the gravity of war and all its ugliness. I was actually embarrassed for him. Julia Ormond, conversely, did a respectable job, but she along with a good concept couldn't mitigate the damage done by Paxton and the poor overall execution of the story.

I like to watch Julia Ormond work. She does her job in this film, but her co-star, Bill Paxton, fails to deliver a believable character. His bluff, ugly and clueless American irritates. I know he can do better than that. Was it the directing?

The film deals with serious things, Partisans and hiding downed servicemen behind enemy lines. It could have had more impact with another male lead.

Went into this thinking this was another from the Hallmark/Lifetime movie mill - and was pleasantly surprised at this primarily French/Belgian production.

Surprise number one - It wasn't an American story that takes place in World War II occupied Belgium. Rather this was a WWII occupied Belgian story with an American element woven into it's storyline.

Surprise number two - I appreciate the fact that a significant portion of the film is spoken in French with English subtitles. Thankfully the filmmakers didn't try to Americanize the characters, which often weakens the performances, even falling into caricature. The cast of Resistance didn't take that route and it's a much better film for it.

And surprise number three - The female cast carries a significant portion of the plot, revealing the strength of women in general - but specifically women who are living in an occupied country. What they feel, how they perceive the same situation differently than men, the core strength that they carry within themselves.

The weak element, and other reviewers have made mention of it, is the almost paradoxical approach that Paxton's character, the lone survivor of a crashed reconnaissance plane, reacts to when he finds himself squirreled away. He doesn't quite understand or appreciate the suffering and sheer terror that the Maquis resistance must face in order to protect him. I can see why some might find it off-putting, and even unrealistic, that he seems to be so disconnected from his situation.

But I would argue that that's the point.

Firstly, he's an American, where suffering constitutes having to use food and fuel script - not subjugation, torture and execution. Second, he's a pilot. Of all the combat forces, it would be the pilots, who (bravely) fought the war tens of thousands of feet in the air; they might not quite understand what happens on the ground - he wouldn't understand it the way an infantryman might. And lastly, he's as American as one can be - eternally optimistic. Those things combined, at least to me, reflects an accurate and truer performance.

Acting, characterization, storytelling - all of solid quality and depth.

I'm not going to say this should've been an Oscar contender - but there is much more here than meets the eye.

-----This movie, "Resistance", with Julia Ormond and Bill Paxton, is well-made and well-acted, but it does not make you feel good. The good guys lose too much; the bad guys win too much. The Nazis do not get hurt enough. Perhaps the movie is too realistic to be entertaining; being in Nazi-occupied France in WW II was not much fun. I was not born then; perhaps the movie does show you what it was like on the individual level. You may not enjoy it, but you will remember it. ---Jim