Days of Glory

"If I free a country, it's my country." After the Battle of Algiers, the French government cancelled the war pensions granted to the Muslim soldiers of Morocco and Algeria who fought for France in WWII. Since watching this film, president Chirac has reinstated the pensions owed. Such is the power of Days of Glory. Writer/director Bouchereb approaches this like a truncated series of Band Of Brothers, as we follow the soldiers of one platoon through their seamlessly endless missions towards the German border. Where that series had ten episodes to allow us to get to know the characters however, Days Of Glory has to do all of that in just two hours, and the film feels very episodic as a result. Kicking off on North Africa, five Muslim men volunteer for the French forces under the command of Sergeant Roger Martinez (Blancan), a tough man who rejects his Muslim background. Some of them five join up for money, some join up to fight for the motherland, but for some, the army offers a way out: "Here they respect me - I'm not a wog." But soon racism and discrimination comes to the fore, and they are treated like second class citizens. Not once are they granted leave (despite marching for nearly two years), and talented corporal Abdelkader (Bouajila) suffers as he watches incompetent French soldiers promoted before him. As they make their way through the desert into Italy and onto Alsace, the initial jingoism dissipates and unrest becomes rife. The movie slowly builds towards the climatic showdown in a tiny French village caught in the midst of the Battle Of The Bulge. It fails to live up to the final scenes of Saving Private Ryan, but it still packs an emotional punch, as there is a greater sense of hopelessness and Bouchereb doesn't rely on huge explosions and a massive death toll to shock us.