This is a brilliant film in the lineage of Big Parade, and All Quiet on the Western Front, but with the spectre of Nazi Germany right on the horizon. And it’s a french film, not american.
Whereas Life of Emile Zola did not mention the word "Jew" Grand Illusion did. Rothchild was a Jew for the reason of bringing that conversation into public as the issue of Jews in Europe was becoming more and more prominent. It was made by Jean Renoir whose Boudu Saved from Drowning, and A day in the country already were in line with the French movement of realism and challenging the aristocratic and social nature of europe. France was also much closer to Germany and thus Renoir had more incentive to bring about actual conversation in a film about potential war with Germany.
You have to imagine this film being made close to the outbreak of war but still far enough from it that hopes of "appeasement" would work to prevent another war like WW1. This film is quite unique in it's predictive nature and how it dialogues with history by culturally bridging the gap between WW1 and WW2 through art before the war even happens. There's a prophetic nature to the film in talking about the past as a means of reflecting on the immediate future.
The film talks about class difference, the futility of war, about Jews, and the changing nature of society. This was wholly french and exactly the sort of film that was being avoided in America during the 30’s.
It is one of the Classics of film history, a film that soared out of its time and necessity to bring you a movie that not only delivers an exceptionally entertaining prison break film but also a movie that drew a definitive line in the sand of the times by saying that the Modern world was born out of the death of the old Aristocratic order in WW1.
All of this french filmmaking in the 30’s is called Poetic Realism, it led to Italian neo-realism, and subsequently French new wave.
On a visual level, the sequences are highly detail oriented. This film is great for setting up spatial reality within the prison camp, showing where the weakness are in the security system and how the prisoners could conspire to break out. The film really digs into process by focusing the camera on the parts of the set that were pivotal to the escape.
The performance from Erich Von Stroheim is incredible. He plays the antiquated and dying aristocrat very well. And Jean Gabon's rugged, new age man acts in stark contrast to Stroheim's elegance and sophistication.