After being recaptured the officers are sent to a much tougher fortress where escape is much harder. By now von Rauffenstein, his body horribly mutilated by war injuries, is in charge of the prison. He takes de Boeldieu in hand, aristocrat to aristocrat. Marechal and the others he does not because of their humble origins. The two aristocrat officers muse on their ways coming to an end, the common man is rising no matter who wins the war.
Although a war film, it is as much - if not more - about class. However the subject is dealt with remarkable subtlety and nuance. The divide between the classes is stark, de Boeldieu has much more in common with von Rauffenstein than the other French prisoners but the film does not make them as villains, merely doomed players in the relentless passage of time in a fast changing world.
