A Guerra dos Botões

From the moment José Berghmans wonderful music loudly bursts through the opening credits, and we see the French countryside spread out before us, the scene is set for some comedic kid's action. And the film doesn't fail in its presentation of kid's war games as adventures of childhood than the adult realities. Full of French flavour and populated with excitable adults and children, it's a hilarious picture of how children play together. The penalty for being captured is the loss of all your buttons and the method of one gang to avoid this is a hoot! I watched it without sub-titles and although I don't speak French, it still had me in fits of laughter. Petit Gibus is so funny when, plied with Calvados, he gets very drunk and very merry. This is a film that belies the fact that films need computer graphics and violence to be watchable. This film recalls an era when simples games and adventures were all that were needed to fill your days.

Yves Robert died a few days back and I write this comment as a tribute to him:"la guerre des boutons" is a timeless brats movie,which can be watched forty years after with the same pleasure:a blockbuster when it was released in France in 1961,French kids enjoy it at least as much as their parents or grandparents today.

Of course,Louis Pergaud's Rabelaisian novel,written at the beginning of last century, was watered down (but not cheapened),or else it would not have been accepted by the censorship:there are lines in this book that would make blush the well-meanings.The words are crude and not prudish at all.The story was much more than a funny joke though:actually,the children aped the grown-ups and THEIR wars:("to think,that later,we will be as stupid as'em!"-this is the last line of the movie).

Yves Robert transposed the action to the rural sixties.He gathered lots and lots of children whom he directed masterfully."Magna cum laude",first class honours,for young "Petit Gibus"!anyone who watches the movie will love him:he's so funny when he gets drunk!Shot in black and white,the movie will remind you of your schooldays.

Louis Pergaud died in 1915.The war he was waging was not a war of the buttons.

"La guerre des boutons" is based on the same title book by Louis Pergaud, which was published in 1912 - 3 years before its author was killed in action from friendly fire during World War I.

The book and its story, although it can be considered lighthearted and humorous, it is a dark manifestation about the stupidity and the futility of war.

Watching this film, almost 30 years after I firstly read the book (on a Boy Scout summer camp), I remembered not only the joyfulness and the innocence of my own childhood but also themes, points and conflicts from the book, that I couldn't fully perceive them as a child while I was reading it, such as leadership, friendship, camaraderie, tolerance, belonging versus violence, abuse, hating, bullying.

This 1962 film was a nostalgic trip to those years and a fine adaptation of the book.

French director are 90 % of the time great for movies with children, because children looks and sounds like real children, not adults in the bodies of childs. I remember seeing this one when I was a kid in the sixties. Years later, I saw it with my adult eyes and the impressions are the same : this is really a film about children! Adults, here, all looks like people from another planet. There are lots a funny gags and we also have the chance to see a forbiddon rural France, very rustic and in relation with nature. Some English director make a remake in the 1990's, but this is the original. A delight!

I used to watch this film when I was little. My sister and I actually destroyed the tape because of two much use. Some may say that it's only for children, but it's also an obvious and delightful allegory of the two World Wars. Of course, if you're not fluent in French, it doesn't really worth watching it, because everything is in the lines. It's a wonderful tribute to French people, French countryside life, French nation in general. The children are giving great performances, being touching, cute and above all realistic!!! Just watch it and enjoy! Vive la France!