Joyeux Noel (Widescreen)
|
List Price: Our Price: $5.94 You Save: $9.05 (60%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $3.97 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Joyeux Noel (Widescreen)
Movie Review: 6 stars - a subtle and thought-provoking film that people will be watching 100 years from now
Summary: 5 Stars
I was fortunate to watch this uniquely outstanding movie on Christmas Day, 2007. The other positive Amazon reviews of this film do not do begin to do it justice. I would give this film 6 stars if I could. This complex, nuanced story of the 1914 Christmas eve truce on the Western front describes the situation on the Western front from French, Scottish, and German perspectives. The main characters in this film are a Scottish priest, a young French officer, and young German (Jewish) officer, and a two German opera singers (one an enlisted soldier, the other his wife). Through their eyes we see a mix of sadness, confusion, sense of duty, and responsibility. On Christmas Eve, 1914, the Germans put Christmas Trees along the top of their trenches. What follows is an outpouring of camaraderies and friendship that transcends uniforms. This is not a traditional war film (there is very little `action'), nor is it a traditional anti-war film that shows the plight of maimed soldiers and broken families. This is a film that will make you stand back and question why the participants chose to fight in the first place.
It has always been my belief that for the average soldier in WWI, there was no point to fight. That is, there was no reason for the man in the trenches (on ANY side) to participate in the fighting. The issues of the war really didn't concern them. No matter who won, their lives weren't going to change much. The only outcome of the war was that many of these average men would be maimed and killed. The primary (but certainly not only) theme of this film is, in my opinion, the folly of unquestioning patriotism and blind obedience. Some of the other reviewers (and comments) have tried to tie this message into a larger anti-war theme (and an anti-Iraq War or GWOT theme). Whether these are analogous or not, I don't know. Watch the film and decide for yourself! All sides try to demonize the enemy in war and say `We Are Right' and `This is only a defensive war brought on by our enemies'. This film presents the view that OUR side (whatever side that may be) may not have `Right' on their side. When we as a democratic society go to war, we have to be damn sure that we understand the reasons and consequences.
Bottom line is that this is a great film. There are so many little things about this film that make it outstanding. Even if you don't want to spend the $20 to buy it, get it as a rental from Netflix. It will definitely be time well spent.
Movie Review: Incredibly brilliant film
Summary: 5 Stars
The setting for this film is Christmas Eve ninety-five years ago on one of the many battlefronts in existence in Europe during the first world war. The grueling trench scenes depicted during the opening sequences of this film, based on true events, gradually give way to the fraternizing of French, German, and Scottish troops - first with an agreement between officers to bury the dead together - that quickly escalates into joining together to celebrate Christmas Eve. Bagpipe music and song from opposing sides is what initiates this event, and the many subsequent subplots make for an extremely moving story that show not only what separates mankind, but what can unify individuals from different backgrounds, even in time of war. Of course, politically speaking this battlefront fraternizing was risky, and a conversation that takes place between two of the lead characters during the closing scenes of this film illustrates quite plainly how feelings amongst the troops were torn between this view and those experienced during the Christmas Eve mass held on the battlefront between the three opposing sides:
"If public opinion hears of this..."
"Have no fear, no one here will tell."
"I hope not! Who'd want to?"
"Want to? The men involved feel no shame. If they won't tell, it's because no one would believe or understand."
"I don't understand you. Carousing with the enemy while the country's partly occupied!"
"The country? What does it know of what we suffer here? Of what we do without complaint? Let me tell you, I felt closer to the Germans than to those who cry 'Kill the Krauts!' before their stuffed turkey!"
"You're talking nonsense."
"No, you're just not living the same war as me. Or as those on the other side."
This is quite simply one of the best films ever made that shows the struggle that often exists between individuals due to differing political and ethnic backgrounds, and the battlefront setting magnifies this struggle due to military orders and religious convictions. Some of the other reviews here written shortly after this film was released a few years ago share their thoughts on how this film was especially meaningful to them given the fact that the United States is currently at war. While it is not clear how fraternizing of the type shown in this film might ensue since opposing sides lack a common culture, this reviewer imagines what this might look like if it were possible. Incredibly brilliant film.
Movie Review: Christmas Eve in Hell
Summary: 5 Stars
"Joyeux Noel" is the French version of "Merry Christmas". The excellent film Joyeux Noel is based on the true story of a Christmas truce that took place in 1914 on the western front of World War I. This truce was not negotiated by governments, but was the result of actions taken by the soldiers in the hellish trenches.
In World War I, the area between the opposing trenches was called no man's land. The film Joyeux Noel tells the story of French, Scottish, and German soldiers who came out of the trenches and met in no man's land on Christmas Eve. The soldiers shared beverages, showed each other pictures of loved ones, and played soccer. Soldiers from the three armies also attended a Christmas Eve Mass together.
The excellent film Joyeux Noel gives the viewer a deeper appreciation of the value of peace and friendship, clearly illustrates the dishonesty of government wartime propaganda, and clearly portrays the perversion of religion by governments. Joyeux Noel gives the viewer a deeper appreciation of the value of peace and friendship by contrasting the fellowship that the soldiers shared during the Christmas truce with the horror of World War I. Joyeux Noel clearly portrays the horror of World War I when it portrays a French assault on the German trenches.
Joyeux Noel also clearly illustrates the dishonesty of government wartime propaganda. The film begins by showing three children. One child is French, one child is German, and one child is Scottish. Each child recites wartime propaganda that demonizes the wartime enemy. These vicious lies about foreigners that children were forced to memorize and recite stand in sharp contrast to the fellowship that the soldiers shared during the Christman truce.
Joyeux Noel also clearly portrays the perversion of religion by governments. This perversion of religion is clearly portrayed by the difference between two religious services. One of the religious services is the Christmas Eve Mass in no man's land that the soldiers of the three armies shared. This Mass is memorable and deeply moving,and it is remarkably different from a second Mass that occurs later in the film. At this second Mass, a member of the clergy tells Scottish soldiers that they are doing God's work when they kill Germans.
Movie Review: A Trenchfoot Peace-Christmas Eve 1914
Summary: 5 Stars
I first heard about this event as a young boy reading "Enemy Ace" comics. The event was given a unique treatment in that comic strip about a German Air Ace in World War I and the story was repeated on several occasions as the character recalled it. I was impressed at the time and being unfamiliar with life and faith, did not fully understand the implication. Then a chance purchase in a bookstore of a book called "Silent Night" by Stanley Weintraub, filled out the particulars. Well, I was overjoyed when it was announced that this movie was being made. Now that I have seen the entire picture in the comfort of my parlor it struck me once again that this war was a type of Christian Civil War, fought by underclasses for an argument not well understood even today. Indeed Ms. Tuchman's Guns of August spent time in that area and we still cannot completely explain it. Yet, on that miraculous Christmas Eve in 1914, common men abandoned their trenches to meet in the middle of no-man's land to sing hymms and (in this movie) attend a "midnight mass". This accent on the Christian roots of all sides involved projects fully the great tragedy that became the Europe of the 20th century. Mass, being in Latin, was understood by all despite French, German and English origins. It is a moving moment in a moving picture and shows us what was truly lost by this war. A connection with God and humanity. Of course, the movie shows that the soldiers who called a truce were punished and relocated, but the event should never be forgotten, nor the men who were brave enough to come together as a brotherhood on what was back then truly a sacred night above the realm of man. With the winters of life now passed as many, I understand that Shakespeare said it best in "Hamlet" (Act 1, Scene 1)when Horatio is gathered on the battlements with Marcellus and Bernardo on the last watch of the night Marcellus: "Some say, that ever against that season comes wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long; And then, they say, no spirit can walk abroad; The nights are wholesome then, no planets strike, no fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm; So hallowed and so gracious is the time" To which Horatio answers: "So have I heard, and do in part believe it." I think that says it all!Movie Review: Best Christmas Movie *Ever*
Summary: 5 Stars
For years I would have put the best Christmas movie as either the 1951 version of "A Christmas Carol" (I believe the name of that one is "Scrooge,") or "It's a Wonderful Life." That all changed this weekend.
Joyeux Noel is without a doubt the best Christmas movie I've ever seen. Why? Because it's real.
Just imagine what would happen in the world if "peace broke out" in the world. Well it did, on Dec. 24, 1914. Joyeux Noel is inspired by the true events of the impromptu Christmas truce during WWI.
Certainly I'd heard of the event, but until you see it presented in such a way, it just doesn't hold the same meaning. These 'enemies' didn't just stop fighting, they became *friends.* They shared drink, they shared cigars, they shared addresses.
Don't get me wrong, it's not all peaches and cream, the military and religious establishment were not happy with these events. God forbid, what would happen if everybody in the world were to recognize that everybody else in the world is just a human being, just like them, and not want to kill one another? Why .... why.... there would be no war!!!! We can't have that, now.
After watching the film, it makes you seek out documentation on the actual event. Of course the film took some liberties (hard to fathom a female opera singer in a war zone in 1914) but they made it work and, really, stayed pretty close to the spirit of the true events.
What I found in researching it was that it wasn't just an event in one small part of the war, it was a synchronistic event that affected something like 3/4 of the people fighting. There are some fascinating things to read out there.
But without this film, I would have never thought to look, and the words wouldn't have meant the same without having been involved with the characters in such a way.
The film was well done with the exception of the singing scenes (very unrealistic) but these weren't so over-powering that they ruined the film.
If you want to see a film that *truly* embodies the *true* spirit of Christmas -- in the *real* world, this is the film for you. I now will never again waiver between two movies about which is "The Best Christmas Movie *Ever*".