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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A truly glorious film, 18 May 2009
The comparisons that are continually being made between this film and Saving Private Ryan are completely inept. This is a far superior film in all respects. The story is more credible, being based closely as it is on the actual experiences of French North African colonial troops rather than, as is the case with Ryan, consisting of a schmalzed up version of a story loosely inspired by a real life incident. The story is gripping and intensely moving as it follows the fates of a group of colonial troops who have enlisted- for a variety of reasons- to free their supposed motherland from the Nazis. Some enlist for money, others for adventure and some out a sense of genuine idealistic patriotism. A rude awakening awaits each and every one of them. The film can be viewed and enjoyed as an adventure movie and also as a disquisition on the inherant folly and flaws of colonialism. These men - and their real life counterparts in both the French and British empires- gave their loyalty and their lives for mother countries that undervalued, despised and ultimately rejected and spurned them. I defy anyone to watch the final scene of this film without being brought to the brink of tears. French cinema at its very best.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, honest and worthwhile seeing more than once, 30 May 2007
Indigenes (Days of Glory), as a movie about the huge contribution made by soldiers from the Empire in the renaissance of the French army in WW2, succeeds on several levels - it holds the interest, it twiddles with your emotions, and it gets a strong message across.
As has been mentioned elsewhere in these reviews, the Free French army would have continued as a single brigade of men, had it not been for the Armee d'Afrique's large resources of Spahis, Tirailleurs and Goums - native troops from all over French Africa, but particularly Morrocco and Algeria. This wasn't because they were especially keen on liberating France per se - it was mainly because they were told to, and their honour depended on it. Nevertheless, there were many who imagined France as the beneficent mother country needing their help. Others felt that demonstrating their loyalty would lead the authorities to thoughts of equality, and maybe even freedom.
So this film is about the journey of some of these fighters, and five in particular, from sandy North Africa to a wet, cold German border.
Along the way, it becomes apparent to them just how feckless and bigoted their masters really are. At every turn, they are discriminated against, even by their own officers, who often only act with consideration because they fear mutiny.
This sort of thing has been said before, of course, on lots of occasions (Glory, for instance), and it's also pretty much all true, not to say a human universal, but the moralising is handled very heavily here... as a white European viewer, it felt a bit like being hit repeatedly with a large tagine pot.
Beyond that, the film won't give you much you haven't seen before in war movies, but it is well crafted, the story is excellent, and the acting is superlative... you really do end up getting very involved.
Well worth watching more than once.
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30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Modern Classic, 15 Sep 2007
The terrible, apparently ironic, English title and regular comparisons to Saving Private Ryan do this film no favours. Unlike the Spielberg film, Debouzzel's film engages the mind as well as the heart. It makes interesting and subtle points about the relationship between the coloniser and the colonised. The "message" that most people took from this film, including, famously, the French government, was that France had treated those who had fought for France disgracefully; indeed this film led to a change in government policy which is an outcome not many films achieve. For all its underlying seriousness this a compelling film to watch (more than once); several of the performances are outstanding and the cinematography is breathtaking. This is war film for even those who "don't like war films".
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