In the middle of the night, armed men in brown uniforms come to an apartment building.  They are there to deal with people the government has labeled as undesirable.  Children, parents, and the elderly are all brought out into the streets where there are trucks.  Some will be dealt with immediately, and others will be sent away.  I am talking about the film Resistance (2020), but sadly it could describe something happening today in American cities.  The Church has spoken out against these atrocities, no matter the time period you are talking about, and I pray they come to an end.  Today’s movie has an important title for both eras.  Most people think of gun battles, or using some other weapon to physically fight back against authoritarianism.  Sometimes, that is warranted.  However, there are other methods, and today’s review will highlight them.

Though General George S. Patton’s (Ed Harris) method of Resistance is more warlike, he has come before a group of his soldiers at the end of World War II to tell them the story of Marcel Marceau (Jesse Eisenberg).  Thus, the rest of the film is a flashback, although his introduction is not the first scene.  Instead, we get the scene described in the introduction.  Young Elsbeth (Bella Ramsey), a Jewish teenager living in Munich in 1938, is about to fall asleep when her parents are taken outside and killed in front of her.  Elsbeth and a number of children are then deported across the border to Strasbourg, France.  Living there is Marcel, then Marcel Mangel, a struggling actor in a profession of which his parents do not approve.  Neither does his brother, Alain Mangel (Félix Moati), who is a guard on the French-German border.  Everyone agrees that Marcel is self-absorbed, including the woman they hope he marries, Emma (Clémence Poésy).  He is defensive of his work, but an opportunity to prove that he is more than an artist comes when the trucks full of children, including Elsbeth, cross into Strasbourg.  Marcel is there when this happens and surprises Charles and Emma by springing into action, despite previously expressing an aversion to children.  As they are settled into a castle and the adults are trying to get them to calm down, he finds a way to entertain them by performing a mime act.  Before long, he is a regular at their shelter.  However, as we enter 1939, the talk begins to center on Nazi Germany and their imminent invasion of the rest of Europe.  It is a concern for Jewish populations given Adolf Hitler’s (archival footage) antisemitic rhetoric, blaming Jews for Germany’s problems and accusing them of a vast, international conspiracy.  With Strasbourg’s situation on the border, it is decided to begin preparing the children to leave.  When the time comes, they depart for the southern part of the country, which, after 1940, becomes known as Vichy France.  Once there, they shelter in an underground facility in the countryside, but it soon becomes apparent that this will not remain safe forever.  For further protection, they disperse the little ones around town, including with the local Catholic Church, which warmed my Catholic heart.  This is where Emma and Marcel take Elsbeth, and afterwards they are stopped by Vichy policemen.  The way he handles the brief interrogation convinces him that he is ready to join the Jewish French Resistance.  Alain, Emma, Alain’s girlfriend Flora (Martha Issová), and Marcel make their way to Lyon where Charles is almost captured, but is rescued by Marcel.  Immediately after being taken to their headquarters, Marcel is asked to continue his work as a passport forger, having done so with his own document, which is how he became Marcel Marceau.  He goes with some of the cohorts to await a drop from the Allies.  In his absence, their hideout is raided by Gestapo forces under the command of Klaus Barbie (Matthias Schweighöfer), whom history knows as the “Butcher of Lyon.”  I hope me giving you his unfortunate nickname gives you a sense of his character.  During the attack, Emma and Flora are captured.  In order to give up where the rest of their comrades are, Klaus skins Flora alive while Emma is forced to watch.  Though neither seem to not reveal anything, so distraught is Emma that she is about to throw herself in front of a train before she is saved by Marcel.  Afterwards, she wants bloody revenge on Klaus, but he emphasizes the importance of saving the children.  Hence, he goes to Georges Longier (Géza Röhrig), Marcel’s cousin who is keeping watch over the little ones they are protecting, to propose a plan to get them to Switzerland.  Georges is hesitant, not believing Marcel can do it.  As a counter, Marcel says he will attempt to take a small group at first, and Georges agrees to this scheme.  Dressing as a scout troop headed to the Alps for a hike, Alain, Emma, and Marcel are their leaders when their train is stopped along the way.  Boarding for an inspection is Klaus, which makes Emma panic.  She manages to hide in the bathroom while Klaus has a tense exchange with Marcel.  Marcel talks his way out of danger, and eventually they get to the mountains.  However, in Lyon, the priest that had been hiding Elsbeth has been arrested and confesses under torture that the ones with Marcel and company are Jews.  Klaus and other Gestapo personnel go after them.  Though Marcel’s people manage to initially stay hidden, they are found and chased.  Coming to a cliff with the bottom shrouded in fog, they decide it is better to jump than be captured.  Before leaping, Emma is shot and dies at the bottom of what turns out to be an advantageous slope.  The Germans give up, thinking them dead.  In the morning, Marcel is tapped by a Swiss farmer, and they learn they have reached their destination to much rejoicing.  The film concludes in 1945 with Marcel putting on a mime show for the American soldiers.

What is remarkable about Resistance is that for all Marcel’s post-war fame playing the clown, what he did during the war was deadly serious as portrayed in the film.  What is equally incredible is how he managed to stay true to non-violent acts.  As I said in the introduction, there is more than one way to go about the title activity.  I also mentioned that sometimes violence is unavoidable, but it is not the preferred Christian method of dealing with any situation.  This is why I admire Marcel for persuading Emma not to go after Klaus.  His argument is a pro-life one.  Granted, killing the Butcher of Lyon would have put a dent in the Nazi regime in France.  However, he reminds her that they have the opportunity to save even more lives, those of the children, who had been under their care for so long anyway.  Another way of looking at Emma’s desire can be related to something I heard in the homily today at Mass.  During it, Father reminded us about how Faith is not meant to be a transactional activity.  In other words, just because you do something, it does not necessarily mean that you are owed something in return.  It also works in reverse.  Emma had something horrible done to her, and wanting to get even for her treatment is understandable.  Marcel’s words speak to the true nature of faith.  It is designed to be transformational.  God’s love for us has no equitable recompense.  There is nothing we could do to earn it, and it is freely given all the same.  The reason He does this is because He hopes to transform your heart into one that seeks Him about all things, and from which all good things flow.  In the same way, what Marcel does for those children could never be repaid.  Him discussing this with Emma transforms her heart into the right way of thinking.  That is faith in action.

I hope you take action to watch Resistance.  I pray that by seeing it, you may come to know that some causes are worth standing up for, and that they do not all need to be adhered to in a violent manner.