Wooden Crosses
Synopsis
Set during WWI, the story concentrates on a handful of French draftees, including an idealistic student named Demachy (Pierre Blanchard). Marching off to war with joyful patriotic fervor, the men are quickly disillusioned by the appalling realities of total warfare. When they aren't enduring ten nonstop days of enemy bombardment, the soldiers must sweat out the horrible realization that their trenches are being mined from underground. Nor are they given any relief during those rare lulls in fighting. At one point, the men are yanked away from a much-needed furlough to march in a victory parade for the entertainment of their callous, fat-cat superior officers. One by one, the men are killed off, until only Demachy remains -- but, tragically, not for long.
Credits
Director (1)
Actors (16)
Production and distribution (3)
- Executive Producer : Pathé-Natan
- Film exports/foreign sales : Pathé Films
- French distribution : Pathé-Natan
Full credits (10)
- Adaptation : Raymond Bernard, André Lang
- Screenwriters : Roland Dorgelès, André Lang
- Dialogue Writers : André Lang, Raymond Bernard
- Director of Photography : Jules Kruger
- Assistant Director : Lucienne Grumberg
- Editor : Lucienne Grumberg
- Sound recordists : Antoine Archimbaud, Reginald Campbell, Roger Loisel
- Author of original work : Roland Dorgelès
- Camera Operator : René Masson
- Production Designer : Jean Perrier
Watch this movie
Watch Wooden Crosses in VOD
| Platforms | Model | Price | Quality |
|---|
Sorry, your search returned no results.
| Platforms | Model | Price | Quality |
|---|
Sorry, your search returned no results.
| Platforms | Model | Price | Quality |
|---|
Sorry, your search returned no results.
| Platforms | Model | Price | Quality |
|---|
Sorry, your search returned no results.
Media Gallery
Technical details
- Type : Feature film
- Genres : Fiction
- Sub-genre : Drama, War
- Production language : French
- Original French-language productions : Unspecified
- Nationality : 100% French
- Production year : 1931
- French release : 17/03/1932
- Runtime : 1 h 50 min
- Current status : Released
- Visa number : 13220
- Visa issue date : 28/08/1952
- Approval : Yes
- Production formats : 35mm
- Color type : Black & White
- Aspect ratio : 1.37
- Audio format : Mono
Box-office & releases
TV broadcasting
This content is for registered users only.
Are you a member? Please login to view content.
News & awards
About
Les Croix de Bois (Wooden Crosses) may well be the most powerful anti-war film ever made; certainly it is the grimmest and most uncompromising. Starting with an impressionistic shot of a gloomy hillside studded with white grave markings, the film delineates the hopelessness and horror of war in such explicit terms that at times it's nearly impossible to watch.
Such was the impact of Les Croix de Bois, that, when it was shown on French television in the 1970s, a WWI survivor who watched the film for the first time was so overwhelmed by despair that he committed suicide. Generous portions of the film's battle sequences were later incorporated in the 1934 John Ford film The World Moves On and the 1936 Howard Hawks production The Road to Glory.
