Probably the best Foreign Legion film, although there are some discrepancies between the film and the book of the authentic story which it is based on. Paul Fox makes an excellent impersonation of Simon Murray which is wholly convincing, and since Simon Murray himself was the executive producer.of the film he apparently didn't object. Tom Hardy as his best friend Dupont in the legion is a more complicated role, and although they both develop strongly in opposite directions, Dupont's character is vital for the balance of the film, which otherwise would have been dominated by Paul Fox alone. You have to understand Dupont's stand and that of the other "pieds noirs" of Algeria, who had every reason to oppose the liberation of Algeria from France, while you also have to understand Simon Murray's difficult position and the decisions he had to make, although he was far more sceptical and brooding than Dupont. It's an excellent film which delves into the problem of a colonial power having to cut off its own limbs for the sake of the best of all, and the problems of this are unavoidable and unfathomable in their inevitable lasting consequences, like the scars after a civil war that never will heal.
