March or Die

This is a nice story of courageous men who have every gone out to face death ; dealing with an American Major named Foster (Gene Hackman) , recently finished WWI , he joined the French foreign Legion , and is assigned (by Max Von Sidow) to guard an archaeological expedition in Morocco desert . The ragtag team is formed by a rascal soldier named Mario (Terence Hill) , joined to avoid jail , a Russian corpulent (Jack O'Halloran) , a tough corporal (Vernon Dobtcheff) and a sadistic lieutenant (Marcel Bozzuffi) , among others . Following a full-clichéd plot with a brutal commanding , plenty of cruel punishments and brutality of training . Besides , the inevitable mystery woman (Catherine Deneuve) who falls in love with Mario . But the Foster's unit is attacked by Al Krim , an Arab leader who actually lived -in fact , he united the Morrocan tribes to battle French and Spanish army in the North of Africa until being defeated in Alhucemas- . The tiny garrison at the dig making a last stand against the assaults (in the wake to ¨Zulu¨ by Cy Endfield and ¨Dawn Zulu¨ by Douglas Hickox) .

This adventure-epic movie contains agreeable acting , drama , noisy action , breathtaking battles and spectacular outdoors . Filmed on location in the Sahara desert , including an impressive production design by Gil Parrondo and marvelous cinematography by excellent cameraman John Alcott . The movie belongs to Foreign Legion genre , the story gets reminiscent with classic movies such as ¨Under two flags¨ (with Ronald Colman) , ¨Beau Geste¨ (Gary Cooper)¨and recently made ¨Legionnaire¨ (with Jean Claude Van Damme) . The pic was lavishly produced by the famous producer Jerry Bruckheimer along with Lew Grade . The motion picture was professionally directed by Dick Richards , and he gets efficiently to remain the adventure and action until the final . Before entering the film industry , Dick Richards was a contributing photographer for Life magazine , subsequently turning into filmmaking . Richards is a good craftsman who has directed a few films but of great quality , such as ¨The Culpepper Cattle¨, ¨March or die¨ , Death valley¨ , ¨Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins ¨and ¨Farewell my lovely¨ at his best . In addition , he found the script for 'Tootsie' and co-produced it with Sydney Pollack . Rating : Acceptable and passable . Well worth watching for Gene Hackman fans and adventure cinema enthusiasts.

First off, I have seen two versions of this film. Surprisingly, the first time I saw it was on late night TV, and recalling from memory it was shown in two parts. SUPERB! It was about four full hours, and the plot and character development both made sense. THEN, I saw it was to be released in the theater (hurrah, I thought!). No. The film was destroyed by too much editing. Needless to say, I thought this whole situation weird because I remember seeing the much superior TV version before seeing the Theater version. What I major disappointment that was! Anyhow, those who have only seen the short version may wonder why Marco starts out in the movie in a different uniform (I believe he and his brother, which you never see, were in the Italian army, or something like that) and why you sort of see the the French Lt. (who looks like Charles Bronson)around the beginning, but then he sort of fades out of the script. Once again, I recall that the Arabs actually attacked the oasis at the very beginning of the movie (as seen on TV) and he was a sole survivor: Then later he kills himself. I only saw the TV version once, but this is what I recall. TV version: 9.5 out of 10. Theater version: 6.5 out of 10. Wish I could find the full version!

This is THE French Foreign Legion movie, mainly because there aren't very many of them. Jean-Claude Van Damme starred in a sort of remake in '98 ("Legionnaire"). This features a truly international cast. The lead American is Gene Hackman, as the major commander of the outpost. Terence Hill is best known for his "Trinity" character in spaghetti western comedies from Italy. He plays a new recruit, an acrobatic thief who quickly becomes an unofficial hero among the men. Von Sydow is the Swedish member, who made his name in Ingmar Bergman films; he plays an archaeologist here. Deneuve, as a visiting daughter of a deceased associate of Von Sydow's, is the famous French actress. Ian Holm is British, but plays the Arab leader. Also on hand is Jack O'Halloran, ex-boxer, as a giant ex-bodyguard for the swept away Russian aristocracy. He appeared in "Superman" the following year.

As most people know, the Legion was composed of men who no longer had a place anywhere else in the world. They're all on the run from something or someone, and it's spelled out here, more than once. The time is just after World War I; the place is Morocco. The picture doesn't skimp on detailing this atmosphere; there was obviously a lot of money well spent on getting it right, though Hackman always seems a bit out of place (I believe Legion commanders had to be French, but you can do much worse than Hackman). If anything, it dwells a bit too much on detail and the first hour is tedious. The pic still didn't explain for me the purpose of having the men trudge endlessly in the desert sands, except maybe to weed out weaklings. There's a touching subplot involving a sad sack legionnaire whom Hill is unable to save despite continual effort. Mostly, the story revolves around the hardship involved, accompanied by a required sadism on the part of commanders, to get by day to day in the Legion.

It all points to a thrilling battle in the final act, when the Arab leader sends his hordes against the vastly outnumbered legionnaires, who seem stuck in a 'fight to the last man' scenario. The plot has Hackman under orders to provide guard at an excavation site, giving Holm an excuse to unite the tribes in a bloody attack. It's eye-opening to hear the Arab leader speak of resisting all foreigners and realize nothing much has changed even as I type this. But the final battle is spectacular, reminiscent of "Zulu." Though outnumbered about 20 to 1, the Legion makes effective use of rapid-fire weapons. Photographed on a great location, there are some startling images of numerous bodies littering the sands. I acquired an R2 DVD, which is the best way of viewing this film at this point.

Like most movies that producer Lew Grade made around this era, "March or Die" was a big box office failure, only returning eleven or so percent of its budget back. The lack of interest with audiences probably was because the whole Foreign Legion thing was by 1977 old hat. Indeed, the execution of the movie occasionally treats things in a very old fashioned manner, provoking giggles. An additional problem is that none of the characters are that well fleshed out, coming off more like stereotypes than three dimensional people. This may in part be because the currently available version of the movie (the theatrical version) was severely cut down from a much longer version (which played on TV ages ago and has disappeared.) As it is right now, there is a great feeling that a lot is missing. But this cut version of the movie does contain some merit. It looks good, with expert cinematography and good production values. It also sounds good, with a nice Maurice Jarre musical score. And occasionally there is a very good moment, the best being the climatic sequence. As I indicated earlier, there are hints that the uncut version may be a lot better than what we have to stick with now. If one day the uncut version is re-released, I'll definitely watch it and update this user comment.

MARCH OR DIE has one impressive cast: Gene Hackman, Terence Hill (in one of his rare movie that you can take seriously), Catherine Deneuve, Max von Sydow, Ian Holm...

Great script that has everything well balanced: humor, action, suspense, drama. It will please those who like good war movies, those who like historical movies, and those who like just plain good movies!

This is the ultimate movie about one of the ultimate elite troop in history: the Légion Étrangère.