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Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

This is a rarity -- a genuine anti-war film that is also a genuine work of art. Gance's protagonist is the only member of his battalion to survive the trenches of WWI. The experience so horrifies him that he is driven to develop technology he hopes will prevent all future war. On learning, in 1938, that his native France is again preparing to send its young to the slaughter, he summons his outrage and grief for all his fallen comrades and calls on the war dead of 1914-1918-- from France, Italy, Britain and Germany -- to rise from their graves in rebellion against the horror. Sounds naff? Watch it, and think again. Any filmmaker or lover of cinematic art who reviles the current state of the world could learn from this film ... technically as well as thematically. Gance includes graphic and enlightening footage of the armies of France preparing for the second imperialist onslaught. That alone serves as a refreshing visual antidote to the decades of mind numbing propaganda that would have us believe there would never have been a WWII had Germany not existed.

This film is an anti-war film about a man who served in WWI and sees that further wars are approaching because we never learned the lesson. Despite his rants, people seem to think war is a GOOD option, so the film ends with his unleashing an object lesson everyone won't soon forget.Wow, did this film attempt something different! It was a remake of an earlier silent version by the same director. However, despite its STRONG IMPACT and imaginative script and cinematography at the end, the film was far from perfect. My first complaint is the quality of the camera work. While, as I said above, the end is spectacular, a lot of very grainy old vintage WWI film is inter-spliced into the film. It just doesn't look very seamless, as the quality is dramatically worse than the movie itself. It could really use a remastering--using computer technology to clean up and restore the old footage. My second complaint is the length of the film. For once, I actually think the film would have been better if it would have been shortened. The plot in the middle of the film greatly detracted from the emotional impact of the beginning and the end. Third, while the director was very sincere and was right that WWI was a pointless and stupid waste of life where no one person was truly to blame, his message of moral relativism probably contributed to the French ethos that led to their quick capitulation to the Nazis in WWII. World War II was NOT morally equivalent, as Hitler was indeed evil and the cost in human life to stop him EARLY in the war would have been well-worth it in the end (i.e., taking a pacifist stand allowed Hitler to do FAR more damage to mankind than standing up against him in 1939-40). I admire the effort, but wonder what would have been the result if this film had NOT come out just before WWII.Do not assume I am gung-ho about war. Most wars are pointless and WWI is the greatest example of the stupidity and waste of war. For an even better film about this, try watching the original ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930). Another excellent anti-war film is THE EAGLE AND THE HAWK, also set in WWI.4/28/08--By the way, I just saw the "original" version of this film by the same writer/director. Despite BOTH having the same name, the films are very different. While J'ACCUSE (1919) is more of a spectacle and was more innovative for the time, J'ACCUSE (1938) is much more watchable today and has a much clearer anti-war message. Also, there is a movie by the same name from 2003 and a mini-series from the 1990s--but both have nothing to do with the French films.

This film is a masterpiece with extreme social relevance for the human race. Try to rent it if you can find it. It is still relevant even almost 70 years after it was made. It may be hard to find but it is worth it. Enjoy!!!

J'Accuse surely ranks as one of the most stunningly effective anti-war films ever made. Its early scenes involve a group of French soldiers who are compelled to go out on a hopeless and utterly pointless patrol. The men are instantly slaughtered by the Germans. The next morning, an armistice is declared. The men on patrol were the last to die. Think of the great anti-war films you've seen--like "Paths of Glory" or "All Quiet on the Western Front." In my opinion, Abel Gance's "J'Accuse" ranks with these masterpieces and, in its final scenes, even surpasses them. Jean Diaz is the sole survivor of the doomed patrol. Before the men leave the trenches, Diaz swore to his colleagues that their sacrifice would not be in vain--there would be no more wars. Diaz devotes his life to achieving this goal for which he sacrifices everything. Of course, he fails miserably, as the European powers prepare for a new and even more catastrophic war. In the final scenes, Diaz plays his last and best card in scenes that will not be soon forgotten by those who are fortunate enough to see this great film.