Tavernier's camera can turn on a dime, wobbling and leaping from one point to another, giving exchanges in nominal peacetime the same air of pent-up aggression as the vividly staged battle scenes—shot in long handheld takes—that bookend the film. Completely engrossing and blissfully free of a single figure of audience identification.
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
August 9, 2016