With so many war movies made in Hollywood every year, often with interchangeably formulaic storylines, it would be easy to overlook or simply ignore the French film Days of Glory. But to do either would mean overlooking a powerful character study in which war is just the context of the story, not its point.
The film opens in Algeria and follows the story of a group of enlisted North African soldiers from their training in Morocco to their first and last campaigns against the Nazis in France. Some of the soldiers enlist to escape the abject poverty of their North African villages, some out of a colonial sense of duty, and others - as the film shows again and again - because they are too na've to realize that the "egalit‚" and "fraternit‚" promised by the motherland does not apply to them.
They are all eventually united - not under the French flag, but by their shared disappointment, or by death. The most tragic part of the film comes when the soldiers are forced to confront this truth and decide whether or not to fight or to turn back. The mix of utter despair and desperation never rings false or comes across as overdone.
There are a few gimmicks (like one somewhat contrived romance: a sergeant's secret past) but the violence isn't played for shock value - soldiers fight, they die. What makes the film so appealing, and ultimately so successful, is that simplicity is used to show the struggles of the Algerian troops, not only against Germany, but within their own army and with themselves.
By the end the clear message of the film is not a condemnation of war so much as it is a condemnation of France, both past and modern. Whether or not you agree with the politics, it is worth seeing. Even with their abundance, it is rare to find a war movie that rings so true.
