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Histoire du caporal
A quiet French peasant has spent three years as a corporal on the front lines in World War I, and one day he cannot take it anymore and goes AWOL, escaping into the Alps in the southeast of France. He first takes leave of his wife before heading into the mountains and manages to survive in the breathtaking, vast landscape while using all the knowledge and wiles under his command. Even though the area around him is fairly isolated, another deserter arrives on the scene -- but he cannot take the solitude and leaves. As the peasant diligently works at his own survival, the police from the region know he is hiding out somewhere within their jurisdiction, and so his future is anything but secure. This subdued, pacifist film strives for distance rather than emotional involvement, so as to present a pacifist cause as reasonably as possible, but as a consequence, the routine of the deserter's existence verges on a grinding boredom.
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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Memorable, crazy movie
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Critically and commercially speaking "Histoire du Caporal" was greeted with a poor reception.Retrospection illumines different aspects ,unavailable,contextually,to critics of the time of issue.After all,it was Rambo's time ! What? A deserter's story?Even the (champagne) socialist France would not want to hear a coward's tale.The film is divided into two parts:the war and the desertion.The choice of a peasant as the hero is not gratuitous;the farmers are said to be good soldiers,"the blood tribute" is sacred,they make it a point of honor to serve their country.But not this one.When he reads the papers,he knows everything is brainwashing.But the church bells have rung:WW1 which will put an end to wars (sic) has begun.The war scenes are ,admittedly ,the weakest link .But the furlough brings excellent scenes: the fat shirker in the train,the guys in the bistro who claim to give pieces of advice whereas they are far from the front which they do not know.The corporal deserts.He lives in the Provence mountains ,surviving wintry wilderness,hunting and fishing,in a Rousseauesque way.The nature,the buzz (which we heard during the cast and credits ),the magnificent landscape shows Robert Enrico's first effort's influence "Au coeur de la Vie" (which included the celebrated "occurence at owl creek bridge").If it weren't for the coming of a gendarme (which gives a very strong scene:"do you wanna know what war is?" says the corporal,as he begins to shoot all around the cop),we would forget everything about the war THEY are waging with their human cattle.Even more absorbing: the article about the battles the soldier reads in his cave is written in the past historic ("Passé Simple" ) The use of the perfect tense ("Passé Composé" )would have created a connection between the deserter and his compatriots.The historic past tense depicts events which seem to come from another world.Although inevitably too slow,"Histoire du Caporal" is definitely a movie to rediscover.
