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Army of Crime(L'Armée du crime)

✭ ✭ ✭ ✭   Read critic reviews

France · 2009
2h 19m
Director Robert Guédiguian
Starring Simon Abkarian, Virginie Ledoyen, Robinson Stévenin, Lola Naymark
Genre War, Drama, History

An Armenian-born woodworker and political activist leads immigrant laborers as they carry out operations against the Nazis in 1943. The Nazis branded the group an Army of Crime, an anti-immigrant propaganda stunt that backfired as the team's members became martyrs for the Resistance.

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What are critics saying?

70

The Hollywood Reporter by

Though it drags here and there and is a bit flat in places, the film is solidly made and for the most part quite involving.

90

Salon by Andrew O'Hehir

This is a solid, spellbinding drama based closely on real history, which along the way offers a not-so-subtle commentary on the diverse, immigrant-rich society of contemporary France.

75

St. Louis Post-Dispatch by Joe Williams

This true story does a great service by honoring the memory of 22 brave men and women and by dramatizing the internal debates within the French population. But in staying true to life, it sacrifices some of the pacing and clarity of a conventional thriller.

60

Variety by Jordan Mintzer

Guediguian's lengthy period yarn features a wide array of characters filmed with his habitual simpatico eye, but loses the dramatic thread in too many plots, too little action and not enough originality.

40

Time Out by Keith Uhlich

There's no sense of the oppression France felt under Nazi rule. It's all just play-acting in period-specific attire. You can almost hear the AD calling lunch.

60

Empire by Phil de Semlyen

Compelling performances and beautifully told heroics but the pacing is flawed in terms of a thrilling cinematic experience.

100

The New York Times by Stephen Holden

Was it all for naught? Only weeks after the 23 partisans were arrested (and all but two promptly executed), Paris was liberated. Army of Crime is a passionate act of remembrance.

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