Review – This Land Is Mine

I wonder if this was a more effective movie back in 1943. Because more than six decades after the end of World War Two, the propaganda seems both thick and stiff. In an unspecified, Nazi-occupied country, local reaction to the cruel German overlords varies from collaboration to active resistance, with most of the population mustering ill-tempered tolerance. A cowardly schoolteacher (Charles Laughton) becomes an unwilling player in the drama when he’s taken hostage by stormtroopers in retaliation for a bombing by the underground. Things keep moving fairly well until our hero is placed on trial for a crime he didn’t commit. In the courtroom the picture suddenly turns into a relentless parade of anti-fascist speeches, a trend that continues to the end. The pacing might have seemed natural to director Jean Renoir, but it’s awkward by any other standard. This is a must-see for anyone studying movies designed to bolster the war effort, but for anyone else it’s a see-or-don’t. Mildly amusing