Army of Shadows: Resistance, Rebellion, and Death

Jean-Pierre Melville’s Film about the WWII French Resistance

It occurred to me that it is time to share this essay of mine from Bright Lights Film Journal, originally published in 2006. The reason for its publication then was the rerelease for the first time in 37 years, since its first screening in France in 1969, of Jean-Pierre Melville’s film of the WW II French Resistance, Army of Shadows. It had never before been released in the United States. You’ll read more about all of that below. I republish the essay here in keeping with the commitment of American Samizdat to confront the current national situation in the United States in greater than political terms. It is a theme of the essay below, as it is of the film, that resistance, too, more than a political act, is a fundamental human act.