In
1962, “The Longest Day” created the subgenre of all-star battle epics. It was a huge hit and naturally it spawned
imitators like “Battle of the Bulge”, “Midway”, “Battle of Britain”, and “A
Bridge Too Far”. All of those were
successes and have their fans, but one movie inspired by “The Longest Day” is
mostly forgotten today. “Is Paris
Burning?” was made specifically to try to duplicate the success of “The Longest
Day”. It was based on the bestseller by
Larry Collins and Domingue Lapierre. It
was an odd choice because although “Battle of the Bulge” had been made a year
earlier, the other battles were available for cinematic treatment, and yet the
producers decided the public wanted to see a movie about a city captured
without much of a fight. And captured by
French forces more than Americans and British.
The film did well in France, but not elsewhere. It was a Franco-American production and
directed by Frenchman Rene Clement. The
screenplay was by Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola (and three others). As usual in scripts, more is not better. Although color was an option, the movie was
made in black and white partly because the French government refused to allow
red and black German flags with their swastikas to appear in the movie. The movie relied a lot on the cooperation of
the French government, specifically Charles DeGaulle. DeGaulle was very controlling and in order to
use the 180 sites in Paris, he vetted the script. He insisted the role of the communist
underground be downplayed. At one of the
sites, an elderly lady suffered a heart attack after leaving her apartment and
walking into a firefight. Orson Welles
did not get along with the director and refused to talk to him. The theory is Welles was upset that the movie
got all the funding it needed when he had trouble getting funding for his
projects. Kirk Douglas was paid $50,000
for one day’s work portraying Patton.
The
movie is basically two parts. The first
concentrates on the resistance efforts to take over the city before the Nazis
destroy it. This is complicated because
there are two competing underground groups.
The Free French resistance (Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo) wants to
wait and see what develops and the communist resistance (Bruno Cremer) wants an
uprising that will seize key buildings.
On the other side, German Gen. Choltitz (Gert Forbe - “Goldfinger”) has been appointed by Hitler
and given the order to destroy the city before it falls to the Allies. Welles
plays Swedish consul Nordling who tries to reason with Choltitz. He also works to release prisoners who are
scheduled to be sent to Germany. The
second half deals with the arrival of French and American troops and Choltitz’s
ultimate decision. A few soldiers are
thrown in, but it is a far cry from “The Longest Day”. The combat is average and there is not much
of it.
It
is no surprise that “Is Paris Burning?” has been largely forgotten. I saw it in the 1960’s and had not seen it
since. In the last few years I have
attempted to view it (without buying the DVD) and had not been successful until
recently. It was not worth the wait. It is much too long and that is coming from a
war movie lover who usually does not care about length. The intermission (remember those?) comes at
the point where a good movie would have ended.
Length is common in the all-star epic subgenre, but boredom is not. The plot is not compelling. This is partly due to the fact that any
informed person would know that Paris is not going to burn. This would have been especially true when the
movie came out. I would love to know how
this movie was green-lit. The cast may
be all-star, but only if you are familiar with French actors. The Americans are mostly cameos, like Douglas
as Patton. Welles gets a lot of screen
time, but his heart is not in it. There
is no villain to hiss at as Choltitz is one of those good Germans common in
films of that era. The dual resistance
arc is confusing because it is hard to tell them apart. The movie is well-made with nice
cinematography from Marcel Grignon, who was nominated for an Academy Award. The movie blends footage well, another reason
for it to be in black and white. The
movie was also nominated for Best Art Direction. Maurice Jarre was nominated for a Golden
Globe for his score.
As
far as accuracy, the movie passes the test.
I have not read the book, but my cursory research shows that it gets the
basics right. Choltitz became known as
the Savior of Paris (although his expressed reasons for not carrying out
Hitler’s orders have come into question since the movie). The movie conforms to Choltitz’s explanation
that he could not condone the destruction of a such a cultural city and he had
come to believe that Germany had lost and Hitler was insane. The conflict between the Free French
resistance and the communist resistance is accurate. Nordling’s role is well done. He does deserve a lot of credit for
negotiating with Choltitz. The events
did start with a general strike led by the police. The communists did take the lead in
escalating this to an armed uprising.
The Free French did join in. The fighting did center on the Prefecture
of Police and Cholititz’s forces were unable to capture the building or put
down the uprising. It is true that
Eisenhower had to be convinced to make Paris a target. The scene with Douglas as Patton was
apparently thrown in to get the actor and general into the movie. Patton was against sending Leclerc in, but it
would have been much better to show the confrontation between Eisenhower and
DeGaulle where the French leader threatened to order Gen. Leclerc and his 2nd
Armor in on his own orders. Ike relented
and the movie accurately depicts the entry of the 2nd Armored and
the American 4th Division.
Choltitz did violate express orders to implement the demolition of
bridges, etc. Some historians believe
now that he was mainly motivated by concern for the treatment of himself and
his family after the war. The movie was
realistic in not enhancing the street fighting as the Germans did not put up
much of a fight. The celebratory
aftermath of Choltitz’s surrender needs no spoiler alert.
GRADE = C-
