I'm watching my back, I'm awaiting my visitation

I know a movie Alan Furst certainly watched, probably many times. The late 60s French film, Army of Shadows, is a bleak realist look at life in an underground movement, in this case the French Resistance. Like Furst, it creates a feeling of great tension of against the cruelest regime in history. A number of Resistance team members are captured, some escape, some don't. At one point, the Germans line some prisoners up in a long hall. At one end is a machine gun. They are told if they can make it to the other end, they can live another day. They will just get shot later.

Unlike Furst, the movie takes a bleaker view of the undercover life. In one scene a traitor is executed. In another, a beloved comrade is shot because the Germans finally found a weakness. And none of the overall fates is good. Some of the best parts involve characters feeling out other Frenchman to see where their sympathies lie. When speaking to the wrong person can mean death, it pays to be cautious.

The movie is understated, with only a few scenes qualifying as action scenes. Most of the action is spent avoiding police or trying to find just the right moment to act. There are lots of meaningful glances and stares. At one point, a resistance officer visits London and is clearly unable to take in the difference in the cities. While he fights a quiet war of shadows, the hot war sailors and soldiers enjoy active R&R.

According to the Ebert review, the movie was unpopular upon release because the prevailing leftist viewpoint found the film pro-DeGaulle and hence rightist. From the American 2007 viewpoint, it is difficult to pin any political stance on the film. The ideology appears to be resist Germans (despite fleeting chance for success) and the film has communists and royalists contributing and dying for the cause.