Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Fantastic!

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Les Carabiniers is the fourth feature film French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard made, as he took the sixties by storm with his convention-defying techniques and incredibly layered content that derived greatly from traditionalist French ideas. I can imagine some of the shockwaves this film in particular sent through France and its neighboring lands. The film is essentially a critique of war done with the familiar tunes of satire to some discernible effect. I will say that after watching Godard's incalculably disappointing eight-part series Histoire(s) du Cinéma, sitting down to watch another Godard film wasn't in my best interest, but it paid off considerably this time around.The film tells the story of two poor souls who are ordered to serve in battle. They are Ulysses (Marino Mase) and Michelangelo (Albert Juross), who were attracted to the job under the false pretenses that it would bring them wealth and sustainable happiness in the world around them. Their wives, Venus and Cleopatra (Catherine Ribeiro and Genevieve Galea) are doing nothing but encouraging them after hearing about the riches that are in order if they do fight. The two men set course for the battlefields, destroying and complicating every situation in their path, recounting their experiences through postcards through their wives that express the horrors and unforeseen ugliness of battle they weren't prepared for.Watching Les Carabiniers in 2014 America as a teenager, where for more than half of my life my country has been involved in an overseas war, the film undoubtedly expresses ideas that aren't foreign but frighteningly close to home. In a country that provides subpar care and opportunities for its struggling veterans and where families are distraught every day through deaths overseas, the film provides for a painfully familiar idea to people that war is hell and there's no way to sugarcoat it. Even more surprising is that this commentary is pretty extractable because anybody who knows Jean-Luc Godard, clarity and straightforward formulation of thought are not what he likes to do.There isn't much to say about the film other than it isn't as serious as it may seem; several small chuckles and jokes are made during the film but serious conversations are had between characters that, in turn, replicate a sad reality many have gone on to accept as the norm. This is just one of the many examples of Godard showing that he was ahead of his time and, look, he didn't have to make a message so alienating and ambiguous after all.Starring: Marino Mase, Albert Juross, Catherine Ribeiro, and Genevieve Galea. Directed by: Jean-Luc Godard.

Carabiniers, Les (1963) * (out of 4) Um, okay. Jean-Luc Godard film about two farmers who are picked by the King to join the war. The two aren't that interested at first but soon become very interested when they're promised that they can rape, murder, steal from and torture anyone they please since "that's what war is all about". I've seen plenty of anti-war film but there's no doubt this is the worst of the bunch. I'm going to go out on a limb and say this film is directed well since there's no way in hell, not even Ed Wood, could have made a film like this without it being on purpose. I wasn't shocked to learn that this film was bashed and bombed when it was first released in France only to gain popularity four years later in America. With all the anti-Vietnam stuff going on there's no wonder they ate this film up. The whole message was just downright stupid and if it was meant as satire then it didn't come off too well. The only nice scene is one where one of the soldiers goes to the movies for the first time. I wouldn't even call this thing technically well made like the previous film I watched. Compared to Paths of Glory this sucker is on the level of an Ed Wood film.

I don't understand how or why this movie was so much criticized. I just saw it on DVD and found it excellent. It's completely different of what Godard usually does : I tend to be a little disturbed by his systematic use of quotations (a good example is the recent "Eloge de l'amour"), and there is no such thing in "Les Carabiniers". The dialogs are completely pure, and there is a very clever use of enumerations, which seldom happens in a movie. Great scenes, like when the girl demands to tell a poem before she's executed, when Michel-Ange discovers the cinema, when Ulysse and Michel-Ange show Cléopâtre and Vénus the treasures they brought back from war... It's simple and beautiful.

If someone were to make a parody of the stereotypical French New Wave Film of the 1960's, Les Carabiniers would be it. I've read Godard has this supposedly great sense of irony, but I think he was dead serious with this piece of garbage.The film was on TCM last night, so I figured, hey it's Godard, I'll broaden my cinematic resume. I shouldn't have bothered. The badly overdubbed soundtrack, the cliched narration, the dumb poetry reading, the ham-fisted anti-war polemics, it was all there. The scene where the younger soldier sees a movie for the first time is quite funny, but the rest of the movie is interminable. The scene where the two soldiers return home with thousands of postcards for their wives (girlfriends, sisters?) seemed to take an hour. Godard's point is as follows: young people are duped into fighting wars by the government telling them they can steal and plunder the world, but in the end you wind up with nothing. Deep, real deep Jean.My rating, 3/10. For the cinefiles out there, see Godard's "Breathless" and then check Godard off your list and move on to someone else.