DVDs:

	Les Carabiniers Albert Juross, Marino Masé Fox Lorber, 2001 average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
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But, it's no great shakes. It seems based around a treatise that war is bad, because the masses are being exploited. There is no acknowledgement that war is sometimes reasonable or necessary, in the face of aggression. It's just the same old "the ruling classes are bad, and here are some glimpses of abject ugliness presented as proof" that was in vogue during the 60's and 70's.

Extremely dated, with a few clever and/or memorable moments. Points up for the attached commentary track (on the DVD) during which a critic who admires Godard's work tells us what he sees the film as being about.

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Attracted By Anarchy

To me Godard is much more of a thinker as opposed to a filmmaker or a storyteller. That could be considered to be an insult, if you'd like, but the overwhelming power of his intellect easily outshines his cinematic skills. Here he screams about the evils of war and imperialism that by the end nearly turn into a cry for Communism. At the conclusion of the film our two protagonists, Ulysses and Michelangelo, share the wealth they have procured throughout their time in the military with their girlfriends. Much to the chagrin of the ladies all they produce are a heaping pile of pictures of all the wondrous things to be found in this world. The point being that your riches lie in the world riches, and as a regretful capitalist I am very sympathetic to the idea. A more interesting idea for me was the way that war actually cultured these Neanderthals. Sure it resulted in mass murders in the name of a power hungry king, but what is more important the lives of those individuals or a more educated, albeit smaller, society?

The film follows a very simple outline; idiotic peasants go off to fight in a war they know nothing about because the King's cronies promise them Carte Blanche to burn towns and break the arms of children. They are supported by their girlfriends because they see this as an opportunity to improve upon their physical beauty (in their minds their studs would pillage towns and obtain beautiful clothes for them). So off they go, following their reptilian brains and holding tight to their letters from the king which they believe to be their free pass to do whatever they please. And let us not pretend, please, that our current society is any better. These two fools in this film were won over by a generic letter from the king; here in the US many of our troops were won over by grandiose speeches by Bush calling them into action to fight evil doers and terrorists. And in both cases that power ran amok. Godard shows his men slaughtering innocents and attempting to buy a Maserati with the letter, in the real world we were left with the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. Both are cases of a society promising an individual more power than they can actually grant and then shaking their collective head when the miscommunication actually has consequences. Kill the bad people just don't humiliate them and take pictures of it. Well why not?

The film ultimately didn't work for me for a number of reasons, though it is not one of Godard's bigger disasters. I found it heavy handed that he would have us believe that Michelangelo was so stupid that he would fall through a movie screen trying to fondle the starlet. Also, the endless listing of photographs at the end went on way too long. Sure the point is that the world is filled to capacity with amazing objects, manmade and otherwise, but it really got to a point where he was beating a dead horse. At one point Ulysses and Michelangelo come across a female soldier who is trying to kill them. She starts quoting Lenin and is quickly thereafter shot. . .more for boring her audience than for dropping profound truths on them. Sadly I feel a connection to that scene because as I felt intellectually enriched by watching this film I was also bored and thus have to resist the urge to recommend it. **3/4

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When a good idea vanishes!

Sans souffle would be the most appropiate title to intend describe the efforts made for Godard in this film built with a very good proposal that soon it decays in the boreness due the lack of intention .
Imagine a flight without any plan . This picture describes the merciless behavior of the war , but Godard emphasizes the insanity of this social phenomen abusing of cliche .
The script is extremely flat and predictable . And really nothing happens . A dissapointed movie in the filmography of one of the New Wave pioneers who gave with this issue the first signals of lack of creativity concerned with the world in that age .

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reviews: page 1, 2

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