Summary
This film relates the exploits of French railway workers supporting the activities of
the French Resistance during the Nazi occupation of the Second World War.
The film begins with the start of the occupation and ends triumphantly with the Liberation,
demonstrating the invaluable part played by the railway workers in opposing the Germans.
The latter half of the film focuses on an attempt to sabotage a German convey heading
for Normandy.
Review
Now regarded as a classic of French cinema, La Bataille du Rail was almost universally
praised when it was released in 1946. It won the Grand Prize at the first Festival
of Cannes in 1946 and established René Clément as a great director.
Whilst it is undoubtedly an impressive film, it is probably its historical significance
that gives it its legendary status. Filmed immediately after the end of the Second
World War, with the full support of the French Railways company and the French Resistance,
this is unquestionably the most accurate and realistic depiction of the secret war against
the occupation in film history, and possibly the most accurate war film ever made.
This is actually a film of two halves, which came about because of a two month hiatus
in making the film. The first half appears like a documentary, whilst the second
half resembles more a conventional war film, with plenty of action. Fortunately,
Clement’s direction and Henri Alekan’s photography are of such a high calibre
that the film does not appear too disjointed. On the contrary, there are some very
gripping, and some deeply moving moments in both halves of the film. The most memorable
scene is where, as a reprisal for a train being derailed, six railway workers are
randomly chosen and shot by a German firing squad. The scene is made more poignant
by the sound of a train whistling in the background.
This is a surprisingly honest depiction of the war. In stark contrast to subsequent
war films (particularly those from the other side of the Atlantic), there are no single
heroes in the film, and no individual villains. Young men, old men, French and German,
soldiers and civilains – all are shown to play their anonymous part in the struggle.
Many are killed, a few survive – the victors to savour their triumph, the vanquished
to mourn their defeat. The depiction of the war is almost prosaic in its realism,
and that gives the film its edge. This is not fantasy; this is the way things were,
during one of the worst periods in human history. As a result, the brutality of
the battle scenes, where scores of French resistance members are slaughtered, is as about
as harrowing and moving as it is possible to achieve in the medium of film.
La bataille du rail: a great film that brings home the horrors of war and venerates
the contribution of the railway workers in the French Resistance.
© James Travers 2000
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