Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

I saw this wonderful film in two versions when it was first released. The first was with sub- titles, and in the second English was dubbed in. The sub-title version was much better, as it more closely followed the actual language used. But I thoroughly enjoyed the film on both occasions, and later added a copy to my collection.The performances of the boys was uniformly superb, and the "war" progressed naturally and logically to its inevitable disastrous conclusion. I was, as I am sure everyone was, totally captivated by the performance of little Martin Lartigue as Petit Gibus, the smallest member of Lebrac's gang. I will never forget his checking of his "qualifications" for leading the gang, and his sad conclusion that he would "Never be the leader!"All in all this is a delightful film which I still enjoy watching as much as I did when I first saw it.

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.

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!

A real delight. Wistfully nostalgic for the innocence and inspired creativity of childhood. Hilarious in parts. Why is this such an obscure film?