Rebellion

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité. But already a few years later the ideals of the French revolution were reduced by Napoleonic despotism. In modern times, the downsizing took place on several occasions, see the Algerian war until its involvement in Libya. There is talk of realpolitik! Uncomfortable film, but not only for the French (understood as politicians), but for all (always politicians) belonging to the western democracies. Sinks the knife on the use of violence by politics in a cynical and hypocritical way, betraying the paragraph of this discussion. "If truth hurts, lies will kill." Films to be offered in schools during history!

I stumbled upon this one while browsing through Matthieu Kassovitz's filmography only because i've been acquainted with his previous work. However, it seems that Hollywood remains merciless and after one not-bad movie like Gothika (2003) and one sub-par like Babylon A.D. (2008) Mathieu had to turn back to France for funding.

Rebellion (L'ordre et la morale) is as dramatic but not as much action driven as, for example, Black Hawk Down (2001) or Saving Private Ryan (2008), yet we know almost everything about the latter movies and virtually nothing about Rebellion. And at times it paints the big picture as monumental as Apocalypse Now (1979). So, i tried to understand why is this movie kept below radar level.

Probably the main reasons are that it's in French and portraying events on an almost forgotten island in Pacific Ocean. But as the story develops we encounter all axioms of colonialism (ore deposit, indigenous people striving for independence, disinterested politicians, trigger-happy military) creating a powder keg bound to explode.

Trapped in the middle is a negotiator played by Mathieu Kassovitz himself. He is usually good at what he's doing, but politicians would like to see a quick solution in the light of impending elections. Military is excited to see some action and there is little need for a negotiator that would like to resolve the deadlock by talking to the rebels.

This is enough to give you a flavor of what you see in Rebellion, but also leaves you with a question why we don't know about it. Obviously, there are other things that make a movie popular apart from good script, captivating photography and exquisite performance by the actors. Yet i always feel bad when a stupefying blockbuster gets more media attention than a masterpiece like Rebellion.

This based-on-fact docu-drama about a 1988 hostage crisis in tropical French New Caledonia was apparently a pet project of some years prior for director/producer/writer and lead actor, Mathieu Kassovitz. In bringing the issue to the screen he bases the story around and himself plays, the chief gendarme GIGN Captain Philippe Legorjus, who with his unit and 300 French soldiers are sent out to quell an uprising occurring after local separatists took over a police station. In doing so the militant Kanaks killed four police officers and took hostages.

There is no doubting the film is extremely well made. The aerial footage of the Pacific islands and their oceanic surrounds is outstanding. Kassovitz has clearly attempted to frame his story around many of the known facts following the uprising, as a number of real life photos screened post credits attests to. In telling his story Kassovitz focuses tightly on investigative procedure as Legorius works to extract those captured, while doing to his best to avoid further angering locals sympathetic to the militants' causes.

However the focus on the procedure is too tight. This is a long film, which feels longer, arguably because of the insertion of too much in the way of procedural facts. We understand very early on that the army and police see very different solutions to an affair that is vexing their French political masters, who face a general election in the near future. We don't need continual repetition of the same sort of thematic details. What is surprisingly lacking in the film is any real backgrounding to the events leading up to the uprising. We only pick up random details from some of the supporting local Kanak characters, as the story plods slowly along in a countdown of days before a somewhat chaotic jungle battle, where the insurgent group are overpowered and suffer heavy casualties.

Kassovitz is unflinching in adopting Legorius's critical perspective of the affair. That's fair enough, it is his film. At the same time, in his portrayal, he does demonstrate that Legorius wasn't necessarily the most heroic and wise leader of his men. We do see him doing some really odd things for a commander of an elite police unit. It's not a great surprise, though unmentioned in the post credits information scroll, that he was essentially sacked from his job after collective pressure from his subordinates, on returning to France.

Rebellion is an admirable and sometime interesting offering from Kassovitz on the negative influence of French colonial power in the Pacific, but a good deal of judicious editing was needed to fashion a more involving and entertaining film. For those interested in a non-spoiler follow-up to this 2011 release, a referendum was held in 2018, which resulted in quite a comprehensive defeat for the pro-independence movement.

'Rebellion' is an account of events in the French South Pacific territory of New Caledonia. In 1988 a group of indigenous New Caledonians storm a police station in the territory, killing some police officers and taking still more hostage. Events quickly become caught up with the Mitterand v Chirac presidential election and the Parisian police sent to New Caledonia to deal with the situation find the army have taken over the operation - and the military's methods of tying village chiefs to trees and beating up women are turning the local population even more against the French.

The military are portrayed as gun-totin' buffoons without a shred of humanity and the politicians as self-serving vote-seeking machines. On the other hand, the police are self-sacrificing good guys and the terrorists family-loving, intelligent, reasonable chaps just one step below sainthood. This is not an unbiased film! It is also difficult for those not versed in French politics of the late 1980s to follow everything, not least because the English-language sub-titles use acronyms instead of the full, descriptive names of various organisations. The close, hand-held camera-work used during the forest battle scenes gives a good feel of how it must be in those confusing, noisy situations - but also makes it difficult for the viewer to follow events. Overall I enjoyed the novelty of a film set in the modern(ish) South Pacific, but this is far from unflawed.

It's April 22, 1988. Three or four gendarmes are dead and 30 kidnapped by Kanak separatists on the eve of the presidential election in France. They are sending in a platoon of 50 paras to New Caledonia. The PM sends in the Army to take control. There is a political competition between Mitterrand and Chirac, and everything is caught up in it. GIGN Captain Philippe Legorjus (Mathieu Kassovitz) and his men end up following the Army's orders. But soon they have to struggle against the army's barbaric tactics.

It's a good historical drama. It's a bit simplistic with the Army being all bad. I'm not familiar with any of this story to have an opinion about its validity. All I can say is that it works as a dramatic movie.