Amazingly well directed and produced WWI flick made in France. Bernard is an extremely talented director. Unfortunately, the film doesn't stand up too well compared to so many other WWI pictures, notably the earlier All Quiet on the Western Front and the later The Grand Illusion. What Wooden Crosses lacks is strong characters. About the only one who stands out from the rest is the "loudmouth", as he is described bluntly by another solider. "There's one in every company," he says; or at least, I think he says that. If no one said that, someone probably should have. Instead, Bernard concentrates almost wholly on extremely long battle sequences. One lasts nearly 40 minutes. Great, but if I don't care about the characters, I'm not going to care much when one gets killed.