This movie starts out by noting that the French Foreign Legion was the most hoinored unit in the First World War. That little contretemps concluded, Major Gene Hackman leads the 200 survivors of more than 8000 Legionaires back to French Morocco, and new recruit Terrence Hill, to face the menace of archeologist Max von Sydow, blonde Catherine Deneuve, and Rif leader Ian Hiolm.
It's a star-studded international production, shot in Spain and Arizona, recalling those old movies with mad sergeants holding Fort Zinderneuf with dead legionaires, Robert Preston and Gary Cooper. It adds little to the anomie that that has suffused movies about the Foreign Legion since the 1920s, except perhaps the sand-colored Technicolor. Gene Hackman, as was his wont, speaks his lines naturally, leading one to wonder if he is as mad as he appears, and the usual percentage of legionaires march and also die.
It's a star-studded international production, shot in Spain and Arizona, recalling those old movies with mad sergeants holding Fort Zinderneuf with dead legionaires, Robert Preston and Gary Cooper. It adds little to the anomie that that has suffused movies about the Foreign Legion since the 1920s, except perhaps the sand-colored Technicolor. Gene Hackman, as was his wont, speaks his lines naturally, leading one to wonder if he is as mad as he appears, and the usual percentage of legionaires march and also die.