TrueHello
Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
filippaberry84
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Tayyab Torres
Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
elvircorhodzic
LA GRANDE VADROUILLE is an adventurous war comedy that breaks the political and military myths while glorifying the heroism of ordinary citizens. Of course, in a hilarious comic way. The aim of this film is, perhaps, to return a smile to the face of generations who has survived the occupation during the World War II.A Royal Air Force bomber becomes lost after a mission and is shot down over Paris by German flak. Three of the crew, parachute out over the city and manage to hide from German soldiers. They found allies in a romantic painter, nervous conductor, resourceful puppeteer and brave nun, who have decided to help the airmen in their escape to a free zone...This film has offered a kind of comic tension, which is closer to a Hollywood blockbuster than a European film. The scenery is very rich, while the photography is beautiful. The plots, although predictable, are very exciting. National stereotypes, although the protagonists are the French and the British, did not become a subject of comedy. That's good, because, a comedy of absurd is presented in an universal way. There is some truly hilarious situations as a homoerotic encounter in a Turkish baths, a spectacular chase, or a "fiery" night in a hotel. The characterization is not bad.André Bourvil (Augustin Bouvet) and Louis de Funès (Stanislas Lefort) are two artists, who are constantly in a petty-bourgeois conflict. Their struggle is the most entertaining aspect of the film.This is a very good comic contrast, which is, from time to time, complete with exciting action sequences.
FilmCriticLalitRao
It is true that in recent times many French films (Bienvenue Chez Les Ch'tis and Les Intouchables) are breaking box office records in France but the importance of "La Grande Vadrouille" cannot be neglected. It was the first major box office success which treated the serious theme of war in a light manner. Its significance to French culture and civilization continues to grow with the passage of time as it is a perfect film which can be shown to students learning Molière's language "French". About war, it is said that when one has common enemy, one has to forget individual difference to defeat the common enemy. The entire film is based on this statement. French actor Bourvil remains an important element of this film. His performance as a simple man in love remains this film's key element of attraction. Lastly, Gérard Oury has given a humane face to the theme of war in his film as it depicts how ordinary Britons and French collaborate wisely in order to get rid of cruel Germans.
br-auger
Just a precision about La grande vadrouille. This movie was during a long time the most successful movie in France with 17 millions of people who saw it in cinemas until ... Titanic of course. More than 20 millions persons saw the movie of Cameron in France, which is an incredible record.About the movie, we can say that it's one of the best comedy ever made in France. Gerard Oury, the director of La grande Vadrouille, is a specialist of this kind of movies. He worked again with Louis de Funes and Bourvil during the movie Le Corniaud which is, like La Grande Vadrouille, a classic of the french comedies. One of those movies that you can watch again and again, with the same pleasure.
writers_reign
This was the 'old-fashioned' film that finally sunk the New Wave in 1966 and has gone on to become - with more than 17 million paid admissions - the most successful/popular French film ever. It proves, if proof were needed that Truffaut was full of merde when he attacked so viciously just this kind of film and film maker in his infamous essay 'A Certain Tendency ...' and it leaves his own pathetic efforts like the 400 Yawns dead in the water. Actually if you hold it under a strong light there's nothing here that we haven't seen before indeed its roots stretch extend deep under the Atlantic and surface in Hollywood in the Silent Era. It's secret is possibly no more than it came at the right time; in 1966 French moviegoers had had enough of the anti-films being ground out by the Godards and Truffauts and were staying away from the box-office in droves. But give them two superb comedians (Bourvil, Louis de Funes) at the top of their game, a 'professional' script by Daniel Thompson (her first, and what a debut) and equally professional direction by her father (Gerard Oury) and it didn't much matter that the rest of the cast were fifty per cent wood, fifty per cent plastic - to get an idea one has only to think of Terry Thomas, a so-called comedian who was about as funny as an AIDS outbreak in a monastery. William Marshall inherited none of his mother's (Michele Morgan) talent and even less from his half sister, Tonie Marshall but that doesn't really matter because the momentum is kept aloft by Bourvil and de Funes. The plot, for what it's worth, has an English bomber crew baling out over Paris and attempting to reach the Free Zone aided by Bourvil's house painter and de Funes's orchestra conductor. I doubt if any of the gags, whether verbal or physical are really that new but, like the man said, it's the way you tell 'em. Timeless comedy.
