Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Dave from Ottawa The point here is that, in a clash of foreign colonial powers, the locals inevitably get the worst of it. This point is made early on and gets little further elaboration as the drama plays out. Giving the Oscar for best foreign film to a movie which was, let's be honest, a decent enough but obvious and not unusually clever satire on a serious topic (WWI), had to be some misguided exercise in political correctness before such nonsense had been given a name. Yes, it is fairly remarkable that a film with international appeal could be financed and shot in a place like the Ivory Coast. We get this. But an award for BEST foreign film, at a time when many national cinemas (Germany, France and Italy especially) were churning out a pretty impressive product, seems like tokenism. There. I said it. Go ahead and be offended.The film itself is watchable enough but ordinary. The pacing is slow, the characters are not particularly sharply drawn, and the plotting - mostly a series of military misadventures and misunderstandings - is nothing really clever. It works well enough, but had me neither slapping my knees in merriment, nor nodding in acknowledgement of its cinematic skill. If Hollywood had cranked out something along the same lines we would have expected a higher level of creativity. It has unexpected moments of simple entertainment thanks to some old-fashioned knockabout comedy, but even this is executed with no display of unusual skill on the part of the film's makers. Everything manages to hold together well enough and move the story along - the cinematography of the African locations looks good - but there is just nothing here that is special enough to elevate the project above the realm of the merely good and giving it such a prestigious award as if it does seems dishonest. Watch it, but don't let the Oscar voters snow you. It's an okay movie, and an honest attempt at creating international cinema in an unexpected place. It's just not THAT GREAT.

Lee Eisenberg In this biting satire on war, colonialism and racism, French troops in 1915 Gabon learn that their country has declared war on Germany. Knowing that there are German troops nearby, they decide to train the colonized Africans to fight. Only one person in the French contingent seems to have an iota of reason to his thinking.I think that "Noirs et blancs en couleur" (called "Black and White in Color" in English) shows imperialism in its most pathetic, depraved form. Not only do the colonizers want the colonized people to fight for the empire, but there's one scene that especially emphasizes this. When some rich people go out for a picnic, they watch the fighting as though it's a spectator sport; a form of entertainment, if you will. But they get mighty shocked when they see how violent it is. Apparently, these colonialists are so completely brainwashed by their own pro-war, nationalistic propaganda, that they fail to realize how ugly war actually is, and they're in for a rude awakening when they find the truth.Anyway, this is definitely a movie that I recommend. We could use some advice from it, what with the mess that we've made in Iraq. Certainly a good one for Jean-Jacques Annaud, and it definitely deserved Best Foreign Language Film.

deng43 i've read thru the other comments twice now and think perhaps most did not see the same film i did. this doesn't quite click in my head as just an anti-war film; it is something else, a darker thing that aims at a soft rot inside us all.the development of the character of the geographer, fresnoy, was like a rusty nail hidden in the pudding. he was in the beginning so likeably idealistic; we hoped for him.out of date papers arrive and "war" is discovered in an old issue. in a sudden fervor of nationalistic spirit the colonials are senselessly eager to march into conflict; they are a barely controlled mob. all but one; fresnoy stands apart and counsels talk rather in lieu of instant bloodshed. he is the human voice, his the ignored pleas.after the 'defeat' the fresnoy gets another hearing and with forceful initiative takes charge of a situation seen as hopeless by the others; while they quibble and cavil he begins to organize the outpost for war. he is quite good at this and earns everyone's grudging respect as the fort takes on a martial aspect and the idea of safety once again takes hold.but something happens to fresnoy. most of the colonials are slapstickish fools first, foremost and forever. but fresnoy develops slowly from idealist to man of authority. with power he evolves into a dark shadow of his former self. it is not unlike the descent of kurtz in apocalypse now/heart of darkness. his black mistress openly flaunted, his imperious air, his elevation of africans into minor positions of power all might be seen as his being a moderating and liberating force. i don't think so. i think he has begun to be eaten from the inside by the power he has tasted and that his life will never be the same. the end, where he is seen as almost a twin to the German officer and they both admit to being socialists, is meant only, i believe, as bitter irony.

Brabo Fall of 1914. French and Germans, living in colonies side by side (Togo or Cameroon, take your pick), feel compelled to be at war with each other since that is what's happening back home, too. Naively and almost playfully at first, until the game starts getting uglier and they experience the horror of casualties nobody had really wanted. Both sides get professional help and they become hardened by the everyday routine (the Germans winning, because their officer studied in Heidelberg...)and start killing each other more efficiently, until finally the war ends and the British arrive to restore law and order in the territories. The long column of British troops, all Africans and Asians, is led by one junior officer on horseback - who when his face is eventually revealed, turns out to be Indian.Annaud shot the film in the Ivory Coast, then a very staunchly pro-French country. He refused to show anybody the script and pretended he was shooting a very different type of movie. At the gala premiere performance in Abidjan, when the French officials realized the entire picture was a spoof on French colonial policies, they walked out, much to the embarrassment of the Ivorians, who were just as unaware of what Annaud had been up to...