While I had read a lot of praise for Jean-Pierre Melville’s French Resistance drama, Army of Shadows, but I was startled and transfixed by the film. It’s a precise and distinctly unsentimental vision of war and the people who are caught up within it. Shot in a sparse style in muted colours, the film is filled with long takes and amazing direction that enhances the experience. The film is just about perfect with a solid cast and an intricate structure that kept me watching in amazement throughout the whole film. I only wish that I was able to see it in a theatre during the recent North American release. An overlooked classic that seems timeless now.

Extremely subtle, one of the most real takes on human existence during horrific conditions that I have seen, Army of Darkness succeeds where many war-films have failed by capturing the human spirit while encapsulated by a mission, forcing the individual to forsake her/his own self for the sake of others, and telling how far one can bear existence before transforming completely. Direction, colours, acting, photography, script, soundtrack and plot all adds up. Brilliant. And you must pick up the Criterion edition of this film.