Vaincre ou mourir

French cinema tends to be the same theme over and over again. Here however it is a topic hardly ever mentioned and just for that it makes the film worth watching.

Now personally I found the first half of the film extremely hard to watch as we are shown the atrocities of the war, the barely armed peasants sent to be slaughtered by the 'hero' of the film. Then there is the counter attack where non fighters (elders, children and women) get slaughtered and we know it happened.

We mostly follow the side of the Vendeans at a time period called "the Terror" for how people in the same side would cut the heads off their former ally and now rivals, at a time revolutionaries were trying to fight most of Europe with under trained people through sheer numbers. Needless to say the resistance from the Vendeans was not appreciated and the 'solution' to it, as shown in the film, was brutal and merciless.

Be aware it is not a feel good film, it's about dark times and the film shows that well.

I strongly suggest people to watch the film to make their own opinions since many critics put it down for choosing a different topic or being done by a studio which is not vetted by established French studios.

Some left-wing people would have us, French citizens, think that revolutionaries were saints and that French History began in 1789. This movie reminds us that all was not black and white, and that there were heroes, and bad people and good people, in both camps, royalists and catholics as well as revolutionaries.

I don't know how much of Charette's private history is known to historians so I would call this movie a biopic rather than a documentary. And this movie was first meant for television before making it to the screen, so maybe it will disappoint the cinema viewer. However, I didn't find it without merit and ambition compared to the usual french comedies and societal movies. And I should say that the viewers' rating in France goes far above the critics' rating and the movie was applauded when I went to see it.

So... give it a try and make your own opinion.

An amazing movie. In France the movie industry is hugely the results of a leftist propaganda resulting in really bad movies. Nobody really cares about the French cinema for several decades now, but here we go. Fantastic actors, true story, hidden to the French People for so many decades. It is joyful to finally get such a great moment of art. The entire French critics got insane when this movie was release and the entire press went 100% when for the public it was as a fantastic moment of real French grandeur. My 3 kids loved it, an occasion to revisit the bloody French history and the terrible propaganda we, French People, got sunken into from our childhood.

A beautiful movie for a low-budget film shot in just 18 days!

A big unexpected success in France

A film about a very sad part of the history of France that the french republic has always sought to conceal.

Go and watch it, so that the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Vendeans will not be forgotten in the face of a republic which organized a real genocide (which is tried to be hidden...)

I hope that this theme will be discussed again because this period of history should not be forgotten.

Many other great Vendée generals also deserve a film about their history.

We will not forget all those who fought to defend their king, their religion and their freedom against the barbarism of the republic.

It may seem ankward from time to time, but this movie tells the story of an army lead by a true hero an army whose destiny is to be beaten, smashed, an army which fate was to lose. I have always been in love with such plots. Plots in the BRAVEHEART scheme but with less budget and such a dedication in terms of production design, care in directing. However this story was produced by LE PUY DU FOU, some producing firm whose DNA, spirit, soul is entirely dedicated to the "ideas" of those warriors of the late 1790's.... So the point of view may be realistic, no doubt, but not that factual, the Revolutionary troops are shown as evil and the Royalists - our heroes - the good guys. Because the good guys here were FOR THE KING; the total contrary to what we could have expected....and that's precisely for this reason that this movie is really worth watching. Remember BRAVEHEART, ROBIN AND MARIAN, Luc Besson's JEANNE D'ARC. It is a shame that this feature was not longer. If you like this war in Vendée, you also can try CHOUANS, from 1988. I would have prefered this awesome film produced by Gaumont, then it could have been impartial and just, but LE PUY DU FOU.... The same as if Poutine produced a film about war in Ukraine; I doubt that the Ukrainians would be shown as victims...But that doesn't mean that the Republican troops in the 1790's did not commit atrocities against civilians and populations.... But from Gaumont production, that would have been more believable.