Joyeux Noel

Joyeux Noel (2005)
Director: Christian Carion

This is the best "anti-war" movie I have ever seen. But in a good way. Normally I don’t care for movies that try to tell me how horrible war is. How stupid do they think people are? "It is bad when people are killed" or "war is horrible" the movies tell us. Oh really? Well thank you Captain Obvious. "Joyeux Noel" takes an entirely different approach.

Would you want to kill someone with whom you had shared a glass of champagne just minutes earlier? Would you want to kill someone who had been on your soccer team just minutes earlier? Would you want to kill someone who had just given you a chocolate bar and returned your lost wallet? When was the last time you heard questions like that asked in a war movie. I’m going to bet never.

This movie is the true story about the Christmas truce in December of 1914. The Scots, The French and the Germans all laid down arms Christmas eve and Christmas day. It started out with each side singing Christmas carols and ended up with the soldiers on all sides joining on the battlefield to exchange food and drink, play cards, play soccer, and on and on.

You know how when you are traveling and you meet someone who is from your hometown, or you meet someone who is friends with one of your friends, there is this almost instant bond created? That’s what this movie is all about. Its about soldiers coming face to face with "the enemy" and finding friends. The ultimate "anti-war" sentiment lies in knowing that under different circumstances you would be good friends with the people you are trying to kill.

One of the more interesting (and sad) parts of the movie is how the war officials on all sides responded to the Christmas truce. But you’ll have to watch the movie yourself to see what happened.

There is not much action or violence in this movie; if that is what you are looking for you should go somewhere else. You should see this movie. It is one of the more powerful movies I have seen in the last several years.

My rating: 5 out of 5