The title of the film comes from the 1909 book The Great Illusion by British journalist Norman Angell, which argued that war is futile because of the common economic interests of all European nations.

[6]During the First World War, two French aviators of the Service Aéronautique, the aristocratic Captain de Boëldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, set out to investigate a blurred spot found on reconnaissance photographs.

Boëldieu and Maréchal are then taken to a prisoner-of-war camp, where they meet a colorful group of French prisoners and stage a vaudeville-type performance just after the Germans have taken Fort Douaumont in the epic Battle of Verdun.

As a result of the disruption, Maréchal is placed in solitary confinement, where he suffers badly from lack of human contact and hunger; the fort changes hands once more while he is imprisoned.

Nursed in his final moments by a grieving Rauffenstein, Boëldieu laments that the whole purpose of the nobility and their usefulness to both French and German culture is being destroyed by the war.

They take refuge in the modest farmhouse of a German woman, Elsa, who lost her husband at Verdun, along with three brothers, at battles which, with quiet irony, she describes as "our greatest victories".

[13] Renoir depicts the rule of the aristocracy in La Grande Illusion as in decline, to be replaced by a new, emerging social order, led by men who were not born to privilege.

[11] Both Rauffenstein and Boëldieu view their military service as a duty, and see the war as having a purpose; as such, Renoir depicts them as laudable but tragic figures whose world is disappearing and who are trapped in a code of life that is rapidly becoming meaningless.

[14] Both are aware that their time is past, but their reaction to this reality diverges: Boëldieu accepts the fate of the aristocracy as a positive improvement, but Rauffenstein does not, lamenting what he sarcastically calls the "charming legacy of the French Revolution".

[15] Renoir's message is made clear when the aristocratic Boëldieu sacrifices himself by distracting the prison guards by dancing around, singing, and playing a flute, to allow Maréchal and Rosenthal, members of the lower class, to escape.

But for you and me, it's a good way out", and states that he has pity for Rauffenstein who will struggle to find a purpose in the new social order of the world where his traditions, experiences, and background are obsolete.

The critique of the romantic idealization of duty in La Grande Illusion is comparable to that in the earlier film All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque.

His biographers believed that Renoir created this character to counter the rising anti-Jewish campaign enacted by Adolf Hitler's government in Nazi Germany.

[15] Further, Rosenthal is shown as a symbol of humanity across class lines: though he may be financially wealthy, he shares his food parcels with everyone so that he and his fellow prisoners are well fed — when compared with their German captors.

[16] In La Grande Illusion Renoir seeks to refute the notion that war accomplishes anything, or that it can be used as a political tool to solve problems and create a better world.

For instance, Elsa, the German widow, shows photos to Maréchal and Rosenthal of her husband and her brothers who were killed, respectively, at the battles of Verdun, Liège, Charleroi, and Tannenberg.

Through this device, Renoir refutes the notion that one common man's bravery, honor, or duty can make an impact on a great event.

[17] Through Albert Pinkévitch,[21] an assistant to the financier, Frank Rollmer,[22] and the attachment of Jean Gabin, private producers finally supported a small production budget.

According to Renoir's memoirs, Stroheim, despite having been born in Vienna, Austria (then the Austro-Hungarian Empire) did not speak much German as he had been living in the United States since 1909, and struggled with learning the language along with his lines in between filming scenes.

Fearing a decline in fighting morale, French authorities banned the film in 1940 pour la durée des hostilités (for the duration of hostilities).

[32] La Grande Illusion, released by World Pictures Corporation[33] in the U.S. premiered on 12 September 1938 in New York City; Frank S. Nugent in his review for The New York Times called La Grande Illusion a "strange and interesting film" that "owes much to his cast",[34] Erich von Stroheim's appearance as von Rauffenstein reminds us again of Hollywood's folly in permitting so fine an actor to remain idle and unwanted.

At the time of its release, John Ford, impressed with the film, opted to remake it in English but was urged by studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck not to.

Its greatest dramatic heights seem to occur almost effortlessly, as a tale of escape derived from the experience of one of Renoir's wartime comrades evolves into a series of unforgettable crises and stirring sacrifices.Film critic Roger Ebert also reviewed the film after its 1999 re-release, and added it to his list of The Great Movies:[29] Apart from its other achievements, Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion influenced two famous later movie sequences.

Whatever it was, it died in the trenches of World War I.Filmmakers such as Akira Kurosawa and Billy Wilder cited La Grande Illusion as one of their favorite films.

[40][41] In the 2012 edition of the annual Sight And Sound poll in which directors are asked to select their favourite movies, Woody Allen picked La Grand Illusion as one of his top ten.

For many years, the original nitrate film negative of La Grande Illusion was thought to have been lost in an Allied air raid in 1942 that destroyed a leading laboratory outside Paris.

[2][42] In August 1999, Rialto Pictures re-released the film in the United States, based on the Cinémathèque negative found in Toulouse;[29] after watching the new print at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, Janet Maslin called it "beautifully refurbished" and "especially lucid".