Synopsis
It starts with a surprise … and ends with a shock!
A French resistance group frees twelve captured soldiers from a German prison camp, but apparently there is an additional prisoner among them who is suspected of being an enemy spy.
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Shock Troops
Cast
Bruno Cremer Jean-Claude Brialy Michel Piccoli Gérard Blain Claude Brasseur Jacques Perrin Charles Vanel Claude Brosset Pierre Clémenti François Périer Michel Creton Med Hondo Paolo Fratini Julie Dassin Nino Segurini René Alone Edmond Ardisson Monique Chaumette André Dalibert Gérard Darrieu Mario David Michel Duplaix Philippe Forquet Maurice Garrel Jean-François Gobbi Michel Gonzalès Billy Kearns Jean-Louis Le Goff René Lefèvre Show All…
Director
Writers
Original Writer
Editor
Camera Operator
Composer
Studios
Countries
Primary Language
Spoken Languages
Alternative Titles
Tropa de Choque: Um Homem a Mais, Il tredicesimo uomo, Ein Mann zuviel, 1 homme de trop, One Man Too Many, Il 13º uomo, 奇襲戦隊, Один человек лишний, Il 13° uomo, Μακί, τα Λιοντάρια της Κολάσεως, Sobra un hombre, 多余的人, O jednego za wiele, 쇼크 트룹스, Den 13:e mannen
Releases by Date
Theatrical
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France
24 Nov 1967
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Germany16
Physical
06 Apr 2021
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France
Releases by Country
France
05 Apr 1967
- Theatrical
06 Apr 2021
- Physical DVD & Blu-Ray
Germany
24 Nov 1967
- Theatrical16
Popular reviews
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A hyperkinetic character-through-action war movie about a bunch of resistance fighters kicking up shit in Nazi-occupied France in 1939. A classic, made by a famous director, that is oddly not watched more.
You can feel Spielberg saw this and swiped a lot.
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This 1967 French Resistance thriller from "Z" director Constra Gavras is a shocker, in that it feels as though you're watching someone invent the language of modern action movies as we know them today. Scattered moments share DNA with everything from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" to "Mad Max." Cinematographer Jean Tournier, who would go on to shoot "Day of the Jackal" and "Moonraker"(!), literally embeds his camera in the action: low-to-the-ground wide angles as a shootout erupts in the middle of a town square or soaring aerial shots as an escaped prisoner attempts to flee the Nazis by scaling down a massive mountain bridge. It's been awhile since I've seen a movie that so consistently made me wonder, "How the hell did they do that?!"
A hard film to track down but worth the effort; I likely wouldn't have even heard of it if it weren't for one of my favorite writers on MUBI.
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That opening prison break sequence is an all time great, deftly mixing the perfect balance of thrills and comedy, setting up madcap character interplay, showcasing a plan that brings together a fantastically mixed group dynamics with guys that prefer calculated planning and guys that prefer seat of their pants improvisational “just blow this shit up and see what happens,” all giving deference toward one another as the situations command and learning how to complement one another’s strengths. It’s a fantastic way to set the stage for a movie about unprofessional guerrilla Nazi fighters perfectly cutting between a massive cast of characters in a story of betrayal and espionage. This is a heartbreakingly overlooked Costa-Gavras film that features all of the verve and editing mastery that put this director on the map in Z.
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A French resistance unit rescues twelve prisoners who've been sentenced to be executed, but when they realize they've rescued thirteen men an immediate conundrum begins withing relation to the man's identity, if he can be trusted and what is to be done with him. One believes he's a plant and wants him killed, others are more hesitant and wish to see how the situation plays out. Urgency is immediately introduced though as the Nazis populate the area they're hiding in and the question of the thirteenth man becomes all the more immediate, since if he is a Nazi plant, there's very little stopping him from alerting his brethren to the resistance presence.
My primary interest in the film was getting…
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Costa-Gavras takes the guys on a mission cinema cliche and turns it into something like high art. Conceptually, it's as matinee as any wartime adventure - a band of heroic brothers in arms struggling against tyranny and evil. But Costa-Gavras cuts deep with his fine artisan's blade - this little community of ragtag insurgents is deeply detailed - almost impossible levels of characterisations are chiselled out of minimal screen time.
Meanwhile, the ethics of war (or the subversion of ethics in a wartime scenario) are not waved off as some sort of simplistic exercise in necessity under extreme circumstances. The line between good and evil is constantly thrown into the narrative, to be respected, to be transgressed, to the point…
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Rewatching this was a revelation. What a picture. So many incredible visual flexes from Costa-Gavras
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Drenched in the raw intensity of World War II, this slick men-on-a-mission tale captivates with a blend of urgent energy and haunting depth. Costa-Gavras’s frame impresses with a sense of polished grit; the cool colour tones provide a suave visual softening to the story's intense core.
It skillfully juxtaposes the jarring immediacy of handheld combat with broad, artful, and often experimental compositions, capturing both the chaotic scope of battle and the quiet, reflective moments in between. The climactic village clash and other action sequences burst with striking realism and electric thrill.
Though it begins with pulpy WWII thrills, the film's ending reveals Costa-Gavras's emerging directorial style, blending sobering drama and pointed political critique in a way that feels personal, accessible, and entertaining across the board.
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Some seeming mismatches work: this union of Director, Costa-Gavras and Producer, Harry Saltzman being one of them. And despite a few flippancies and commercial clicks to keep a sugar daddy happy, this is a convincing flexing of the reportage-style Gavras later coalesced in Z and State of Siege.
Although it ended messily, it highlights Saltzman as the more adventurous half of Eon Productions; without this generous prototype it’s unlikely Z would have taken shape and effect the way it did. The film mirrors Saltzman’s own predicament to an extent: stay on script, deviate at your own risk [his being too many burnt fingers in non-James Bond pies resulting in being bought out by a more focussed Albert Broccoli].
From the…
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I kind of went into this expecting a WWII whodunit, but it was so far from that and it took me too long to realise what it actually was that I think it dampened my experience somewhat.
Very funny, great action and stunning cinematography. I will definitely be checking out more Costa-Gavras when the local art house repeats this retrospective next week.
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Very good look at morality in guerilla warfare that also offers surprising scope and a really entertaining amount of French Resistance derring-do. I think this being French and not having any real international stars is the reason why this isn't on the list of "movies your dad likes".
Obviously Costa-Gavras would go on to do far more explicitly political work, but this is the only WWII actioner I can think of where the nazis are explicitly presented as an anticommunist force as well as a racist one, instead of just being generic baddies. This along the presence of both Communists and Gaullists in the resistance cell, as well as other characters attempting to stay neutral, give this the kind of texture and attention to historical detail that most men-on-a-mission movies don't really care about.
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An absolute riot of a film!!! A very intense war thriller, we follow a group of escaped French resistance prisoners, as they both try to find the mole in the group and evade their Nazi occupiers. But it’s also much more than that, it’s a war movie that asks the hard questions about war. All the characters here have so much personality and pizazz and they play off of each other so well. When the powder keg finally blows in the final act you really feel it, the deaths and the betrayals. I also wanna praise the visual storytelling at play here as well. I’m not gonna lie at this point in the marathon my attention was really starting to drift, and I was missing so much of what was being said in the subtitles, but I didn’t struggle to follow what was happening. A bit of a gut punch of a movie but still incredible nonetheless.
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A film that belongs in the same conversation as ARMY OF SHADOWS. But if you brought this up to someone talking about Melville's masterwork, you'd get some blank stares.
How is a Costa-Gavras film – especially the one released just prior to Z – this unknown?
It's a powerful anti-war film with the budget of a James Bond picture (Harry Saltzman is a producer here). It's got non-stop dialogue like most Costa-Gavras films, but also at least three propulsive action scenes.
MUBI's David Cairns compares the feeling of watching this film to MAD MAD: FURY ROAD. At times, it's certainly on that wavelength. You're dropped into a rescue mission and the film very rarely pauses to take a breathe. And when it does, you're treated to a very intriguing Michel Piccoli performance that easily steals the show.
I don't know why SHOCK TROOPS is virtually unknown today, but I do know it's well worth seeking out.