10 Gut-Wrenching Moments In War Films

Jean-Pierre Melville is cool cinema incarnate. His characters dress in noir attire, wearing trench coats and bolder hats that mask their grey morals and presented in stylish Rembrandt lighting. His lesser known film, Army Of Shadows, is cinematic masterpiece that deromanticizes heroes in war played in a noir dressing. It showcases the prominence of moral relativism in resistance, and what anyone fighting a cause would ask: will anything amount to anything or will it be in vain?

Upon escaping from a Gestapo prison in France, French engineer turned resistance fighter Philippe Gerbier reunites with his crew. He's quickly informed that he had been sold-out and betrayed by a younger operative named Paul Daunot he enlisted not too long ago.

To secure their identities and protect the resistance movement, the group decides the only measure left is to kill him. Only problem is, neither of the crew had killed before; they're all everyday people turned resistance fighters. The group openly discuss eliminating Paul Daunot as he stands in the same room listening to the men as if they're merely discussing something mundane. Aloud they muse whether the knife they have is too dull, a gunshot would be too loud, or the attic would reverberate through the apartment.

The fear in everyone's eyes as they realize what they're doing is a point of no return is heartbreaking as each member is confronted with something they didn't think of losing: their humanity. With little options to make and constantly being pinned against the wall, do they really have a choice or are they fated within the structures in play?