Jules and Jim - Movie Review Example

Jules and Jim This movie considers the timings after, during and before the Great War with France, Germany, and Austria. Jules, an Austrian writer, meets Jim, French become friends. The two friends both have a passion for art and the lifestyle of Bohemian. They get attracted by the statue of a goddess having a serene smile. They have encounters with many women, but finally meet Catherine, who begins a relationship with Jules despite the attraction she impacts to both men. On the other hand, Jim is in love with Gilbert. War is declared and Jules and Catherine both leave for Austria and get married. Jules and Jim get into the war on the opposing sides with fear of meeting head on resulting in one killing the other. Jim visits Catherine and Jules, who have a baby. Jules is not satisfied by the acts of Catherine and fears that she could leave forever and decides to give her to Jim so that he could at least get to see her often. The two are defeated to have a child, and Jim leaves for Paris. Catherine’s efforts to win Jim back bear no fruits, but she finally convinces him to enter her car and she drives off to a damaged bridge leading to Jim and her death as Jules watches (Truffaut et al., pp 11-100). Jules and Jim were meant to be friends who loved the life of freedom and fun. There is a change once they meet Catherine. Previously they had shared their girlfriends, but things were different when it comes to her. Jules is fed up with Catherine’s characters but fears losing her forever for the sake of love. He hands her over to Jim, an act which, according to him seems to be the best divorce. The problem with them is the sharing of a perfect youthful life with good relations, but they cannot have the same in their adult life. There is no better planning of their lives that can derive from the better lives they shared during their youthful stages. The film is all based on the ability of the audiences to think critically and analyze situations. It indicates various ways through which the human emotions and feelings justify one another. The movie depicts the life around three people who enjoyed their lives in the youth. They later on realize that this shared life had come to a standstill and therefore decided to sum it up in sad ways of death (Allen, pp 225-226). This movie timing depicts a great ordeal of date. It critically appreciates the assumptions concerning the human relations and gives a future view other forms of human relationships. Catherine, who is the central female character in the movie incredibly, represents the ideal present modern woman. She postulates the spirit for a fight for equality with Jim and Jules. She uses her estranged impulse kind of living to obtain both love and security, aspects she hopes to get in both Jim and Jules. Instead, she gets sanctuary. The three friends initially move around together with Jules attracted by the fact that Catherine derives much of her excitement from adventure and Jim, who is ever suspicious, is not surprised by the idea of Catherine carrying around a bottle containing sulphuric acid in her suitcase. The movie displays Catherine as combustible and somehow easy to predict. The moral struggle depicted in this film is much more inclined to the achievement of satisfaction for friendship, romance, love and relationship. Every character in the film represents the four moral struggles in their ways. Jim and Jules show the struggle for friendship. Despite the fact that Jules is a shy guy, he is at least able to forge a friendship with Jim. The two demonstrate this compassion by engaging in different things together even to the extent of sharing women. This struggle goes on even during the times of the wars with both at the opposing ends of the battlefield. They are obsessed with the fear of meeting face to face as they could end up killing each other. There is the moral struggle for love, Jules falls in love with Catherine and unlike the other ladies, and he even finds it difficult to share her with Jim initially. Catherine’s behavior changes which instill fear on Jules on the possibility of her leaving him forever. Jules struggle to keep pace with his feelings for her to the extent of giving her away to his friend Jim so that he can see most of the time whenever he visits him. Catherine on the other side also struggles to keep her love with Jim and even decides to end their lives together, possibly with the illusion that they would eventually love in the land of the dead (Truffaut et al., pp 11-100). The director uses the Great War to separate both Jules and Jim from their simplicity since childhood and brings the movie to climax at the point of marriage between Jules and Catherine and giving birth to their baby daughter. Their movement to the German countryside sours the friendship of the once three folks. It is during this time of war that she begins to drift apart from Jules. She felt she had fallen for the wrong guy less a stranger to her. Catherine does not respect the devotion between Jules and Jim, an aspect that the two do not clearly see which apparently kill their moral struggle and the fact that the Great War had torn their childhood simplicity apart. The moral struggles, in this case, are not justified as every aspect of the efforts ends up ambushed. The loss of lives of both Catherine and Jim contributes to this fallout. Jules loses his love and also his friend through a tragic death caused by Catherine’s desire to cling forever on what she felt was the love of her life. Her love for Jim and the eventual separation hurt her deeply. She wanted to console herself by just a mere fiction that they could forever be lovers if at all they ended up together in their sole place without much interference from Jules. Her decision in her moral struggle for love bear no fruits, after all, there was no possibility of continuing to enjoy after the end of their lives (Roman et al., 2009). Jim accepts the wish of Jules by accepting to take Catherine away as his lover. The problem, however, comes up between the two based on the inability of both having a child. According to Jim, his moral struggle is to bear children and settle with his family. He is not able to bear children that make his moral struggle to break into pieces. His desire to settle down is ambushed by the fact that his inability to bear children with Catherine leads to their separation. On the other hand, Jules, despite the fact that he is able to have a baby with Catherine, is not a guarantee of a settled marriage life. His moral struggle to have such a settled life is also ambushed. Catherine morally fights for love and security at the same time. She confides in Jules to obtain the security every modern would need from a man. The security includes the desire to have a child, a man to call a husband, a roof to cover her head and a family. Despite all this security she gets, she does not feel a complete woman brought about by the fact that she is not able to find the love her heart desires. The fact that she is not able to get the love establishes the idea to look for other men, which of course, she does sometimes staying away from Jules. Finally, she settles for Jim whom she feels can fill the void created. It is true, she is able to find the love her heart desires, but the security is lacking in Jim. They are not able to bear a child, which to a modern woman like Catherine, is a prime factor of feeling secure. Her moral fight for both love and security from the two men is ambushed as she is only able to find each element in each one of them (Roman et al., 2009) Works cited Maslin, Janet (1999). "A Renoir Masterpiece, Refurbished and Timely". The New York Times Roman, James W. Bigger Than Blockbusters: Movies That Defined America. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2009 Truffaut, François and Fry, Nicholas (translator) (1968). Jules and Jim; a film. New York: Simon and Schuster pp 11-100. Read More