After several indifferent movies,Boisset came up in 1981 with his best film since "Dupont-Lajoie" (1974)."Allons z'enfants" is Boisset doing what Boisset does best:activist militant cinema.

Yves Gibeau's novel was tailor-made for him.Anti-militarism is the keyword.Rarely (with the exception of "RAS" (1973)) Boisset had displayed such hatred for the army.The "Enfants de Troupe" ,those military secondary schools which lasted till the early sixties in France ,are unthinkable today.The hero,who is an intellectual (he loves cinema,literature) and a sensitive -but not a sissy- guy is sent to one of those schools by his father (a great Jean Carmet);it's a place where childhood is stolen,where the iron discipline rules everywhere,where you cannot think ,where you cannot read what you want: Erich Maria Remarque who was both a pacifist and a German and his "im Western nicht Neues" are not the welcome in the barracks.Neither is Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" which ,in the hospital,the mother superior considers an adulteress affair.

Remarkable scenes:

-the beating up in the gym.

-the scene in the cafe where the owner blames the father :"you're not a father to him,you are his warrant officer!

-the funeral and the takeover by the army of Chalumot's death ,a "hero" ,who "sets an example of patriotism for the young generations to come". Boisset is at his most vitriolic style.Let's mention the dad's final line,the dad who does not shed a tear over his unfortunate son and who draws a heavy sigh "He coulda been an officer".

"Allons z'enfants" are the first words of the French national anthem "LA Marseillaise" .

NB:To reward his men,the officer shows them Raymond Bernard's "Les Croix de Bois" as an example of patriotic movie.This film showed the soldier's bravery,that's true,but Bernard's purpose was to stigmatize the horrors of war ,in an almost documentary style.