Set during World War I, Grand Illusion is about three captured French officers (Jean Gabin, Marcel Dalio, and Pierre Fresnay) and how they try to escape from German POW camps. Their adventures illuminate the enforced democratization of the war. Renoir shows people acting the way we want to think we'd act in their situations: that's why we're stirred when British officers in drag, apprised of a French military victory, break out with La Marseillaise in the middle of a theatrical performance, or when a German guard gives Gabin a harmonica, or when Gabin and Dalio hug each other goodbye before setting out on their final trek toward the Swiss border. As good as they become and as much as they love freedom, these men will go on killing each other -- that's the pessimism at the core of Renoir's humanism.