Salon’s Andrew O’Hehir says Army of Crime is “a solid, spellbinding drama which along the way offers a not-so-subtle commentary on the diverse, immigrant-rich society of contemporary France.” He also notes the threads connecting this real-life story of WWII French resistance with one of last year’s most rousing Best Picture nominees:
It’s entirely possible that Tarantino had the Manouchian group in mind when inventing his fictional Resistance cell for “Inglourious Basterds.” They had no training, few resources and were not especially well organized, but they flew so close to the ground — and got such good leaks from sympathetic French authorities — that they bedeviled and embarrassed the Nazis for years, finally staging a big attack that Berlin could not ignore. No, they didn’t assassinate Hitler and prevent the worst crimes of the Holocaust. But as “Army of Crime” demonstrates, they did lay down their lives courageously, on behalf of a nation that wasn’t entirely sure it wanted them to.