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In Jean-Luc Godard's Les Carabiniers (1963), the most crucial action made by the lead characters (the two peasant brothers, Ulysse and Michel-Ange) is their decision to enlist in the King's army to go to war.
This action is the catalyst for the entire film, shifting the story from a rural comedy to a grim anti-war satire. The detail of "who helps them make it" is central to the film's critique of greed and mindless obedience:
The brothers, who are portrayed as illiterate and simple-minded peasants living in a shack, are presented with a "draft letter" from the King. They are hesitant at first, fearing for their lives. However, they are won over by the promise of total freedom and unimaginable riches. The "crucial action" is their agreement to leave their home and commit atrocities (the "spoils of war") in exchange for the ownership of the world.
Two groups of characters are responsible for helping the brothers make this fatal decision:
* The King's Carabiniers (Recruiters): Two soldiers arrive at the farm and read a list of "rights" the men will have once they join. These are not military honors, but rather a "catalogue of horrors" that appeals to the brothers' most primitive instincts. The recruiters explain that in war, everything is permitted: they can steal cars, murder the innocent, rape women, and burn down schools without consequence. They explicitly promise the brothers "the world"—including Maseratis, swimming pools, and Hawaiian guitars.
* The Wives (Venus and Cleopatra): While the brothers are initially wary, their wives—Vénus and Cléopâtre—are the ones who ultimately push them to accept. Driven by a similar greed, the wives are enticed by the specific mention of luxury items (dresses, jewels, and furs). They encourage their husbands to go, viewing the war as a business transaction that will bring wealth to their household.
The "crucial action" of joining the war culminates in the film's most famous and prolonged sequence: the brothers return home with a suitcase that they believe contains the "title deeds" to the world. Instead of tangible wealth, they present their wives with hundreds of picture postcards categorized by type (monuments, animals, women, etc.).
They have been fooled into believing that the representation of a thing is the thing itself. The wives "help" them in this final delusion by excitedly sorting through the cards as if they were actual property. This action leads directly to their downfall; when they go to the city to collect their "pay," they find that the King has lost the war. Labeled as war criminals, the brothers are executed by the same military system that recruited them.
* Most Crucial Action: Joining the war/enlisting.
This provides important context about the film's literary origins and collaboration with a major Italian director, but is not essential to answering the user's query about plot actions.
This contextualizes how Godard constructed the film's realism and satirical power by using real war documents. It deepens understanding of the film's documentary-fiction hybrid approach.
This technical detail about cinematographer Raoul Coutard's work is relevant to understanding Godard's formal choices but not essential to the plot question.
This scene is widely cited as thematically crucial to understanding the film's meditation on representation vs. reality, which directly relates to the postcard sequence. The AI summary mentions it only in passing within the larger discussion.
Historical context about reception, but not relevant to the plot question asked.
This formal technique is central to Godard's anti-war argument and relates to the theme of representation, but the AI summary focuses appropriately on narrative actions rather than cinematic technique.
In Jean-Luc Godard's Les Carabiniers (1963), the most crucial action made by the lead characters—two peasant brothers named Ulysse (Marino Masé) and Michel-Ange (Patrice Moullet/Albert Juross)—is their decision to enlist in the King's army to go to war.
Who helps them make this decision:
The King's Carabiniers (Recruiters): Two soldiers arrive at their shack with a letter from the King inviting them to war. The recruiters promise them 'the world'—including swimming pools, Maseratis, Hawaiian guitars, and unlimited freedom to loot, plunder, rape, and murder without consequence. When Ulysse asks 'Will we be able to slaughter the innocent?' the carabinier responds 'Of course, this is war.'
Their Wives, Venus and Cleopatra: The brothers are initially hesitant and wary of going to war, fearing for their lives. However, their wives—motivated by greed for luxury items like dresses, jewels, and furs—ultimately push them to accept, viewing the war as a profitable business transaction.
The enlistment is the catalyst that sets the entire narrative in motion. The film, consistently an anti-war satire (not shifting genre mid-narrative), follows the brothers through their war 'adventures' which they document in postcards home. The decision culminates tragically: they return with a suitcase of picture postcards believing these are title deeds to world riches, only to learn the King has lost the war. They are then executed as war criminals by the same military system that recruited them.
Godard's film is a black-humor allegory critiquing how language, greed, and mindless obedience enable war, with the enlistment scene establishing this critique from the start.