Example two: after the first battle, there is a scene where a German soldier is attaching our one-armed wonder. We see the sergeant save him but have no idea why or how he was there in the first place. The scene shows why the one-armed fellow loves the sergeant so much and becomes his lackey.
Bringing us to another question, why in the hell is a one-armed man in the army to begin with? He joined that way and it’s not like the army would overlook such a thing. He doesn’t get much crap for being a might handicapped, either. I think his fellow soldiers would have given him hell for it since it’s not like it adds to his ability as a warrior.
Then there are the unexplored origins of the sergeant. His past is reveled as his lackey finds a photo with “Mother” written on the back. Sarge’s mom is an Arab, making him a half-breed. He hides his past to gain rank in the French army, shades of Hitler himself, and when called on his past, Sarge gets violent and abusive towards his lackey.
No war film is complete without a story of lovers torn apart. One of the boys is with a French woman for one, yes one, night. They fall madly in love yet are kept apart by the war. The terrible army even goes as far as refusing to allow letters to pass between the two lamenting lovers, revealing that they are and capable of love.
Strong points of the film include the fine shots of the countryside. The director has a beautiful and creative way of opening some sequences by moving from black and white to color. As the Germans are beaten back and as the army advances the cloud of doom is being lifted from the land. The tale itself is a strong point and the acting is fine, but it’s the over all plot that could have been done better. The message is a simple one: in the end these soldiers fought and died for the greater good of mankind and wound up with nothing. The African soldiers even had their pensions stalled, and to most of the world they were forgotten as fighters in that war.
Included on the DVD is a short film titled “The Colonial Friend,” whose plot would have made a more memorable full-length film while telling the story of these unsung heroes. The way it stands now we have a good story rolled into an average WWII plot.
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