That was an excellent one.

Boring

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This movie may make you cry for the characters, or for the real-life soldiers whose experience is summarized here. But it also calls out the experience of all those of the oppressed, on any continent, who have been summoned up to fight, supposedly for liberty, and who have then tried to get that liberty and have either not gotten it or have had to fight a new war for it. The English title "Days of Glory" is a call-out to the line in the "Marseillaise" that says "Le jour de gloire est arrivée." We get to see how that "glory" works out in practice for the Muslim Arab recruits for De Gaulle's African detachments.This film is a project, not by liberal sympathizers, but coming out of the nationalities themselves that faced this challenge. I was impressed by the way it explored the complex choices that the soldiers from Algeria and Morocco have to make among different strategies. (And, by the way, it's not a negative criticism to note that the Black troops from Senegal and elsewhere in Africa will probably need their own movie.) One wants to demonstrate his competence and valor, and to prove that his brothers deserve equality. Another wants to attach himself to the sergeant best able to protect him. The sergeant in question advocates for his men behind the scenes, but savagely protects the secret that his mother was Arab herself. Another wants to collect as much loot as possible and doesn't see the value of dying for France. The oppressed are always facing this kind of debate.I should say that this is not just a movie about race relations, but a war movie as well, full of suspense. I won't spoil it further.When we in the United States see this film, it looks all too familiar to us. We are of course aware that the U.S. forces in World War II were even more racist and more segregated than the Free French forces depicted here, as was U.S. society itself more violently racist and segregated than what we see of France in this film. Our films don't depict the realities of these choices enough, though. ("A Soldier's Story" comes to mind, but it's not enough.)There was a lot of discussion in the 1940's and 1950's about how World War II would be a proving ground for Black Americans, or at any rate preliminary to a struggle for justice in the South and elsewhere. I have seen it argued that in fact the victories of the Civil Rights movement were made possible by the blood that African-American soldiers shed in Europe and the Pacific, but we could use a few long epics exploring this topic.The viewer is encouraged to check the Wikipedia article on this film and read up on some related issues, like the whitewashing of the liberation of Paris at the behest of the U.S., and the suspension of the pensions of the soldiers from Africa in revenge for their countries' independence.Meanwhile, I suppose that 60 years from now somebody will make a movie about how the U.S. recruited immigrants to "fight terror" and then deported them.

Somewhat anomalous and powerful WWII story about racial hypocrisy between native born Frenchmen and men born in North African colonies; where is the Liberty, Equality, Fraternity? I was going to use the word 'amateurish' to describe the filmmaker but I have seen excellent movies made by amateurs, many of them done by people in film school. No, a better word is 'untalented'. The battle sequences are dramatically not cohesive, illogical and when it comes to the next-to-final battle scene it degenerates into a 40's class b WWII John Wayne film; the German soldiers apparently committing virtual mass suicide, walking into firefights with not much sense of covertness, much like the ending battle in 'Saving Private Ryan'. At times too the subtitles were non-sequiturs not seeming to be connected to what the characters were actually speaking about. Then there was the production design/art direction howler when a large Nazi eagle sign was removed from the facade of a liberated village's building. It looked like something a high school theatrical production crew would construct. See 'Days of Glory' for the rarely told historical story of cultural despicability that occurred during WWII but don't anticipate anything close to seeing a 'great film'.

There's two types of French film . 1 ) The sort that is beloved by Cahiers Du Cinema that often feature people standing about talking about existentialist themes and often don't find a market outside France 2 ) The sort that is despised by Cahiers Du Cinema that often feature action and plot and appeal to an international market DAYS OF GLORY is certainly in the second camp . The problem is that it's a bit too international . The theme of colonial soldiers fighting for the mother country could have easily have featured British dominion troops fighting in the Boer war , of Indian troops fighting at El Alamein or even of black Americans fighting in the second world war . Some people on this page have criticised this movie as not being a Gallic version of GLORY and you can see their point . There's little in the way of an idiosyncratic voice Worse still despite the subtitles you could easily be watching a war film that was made in Hollywood . Much of the plot could have easily been lifted from Sam Fuller's THE BIG RED ONE as the story jumps from North Africa , Italy and eventually France . It's also impossible not to notice that the final climatic battle owes a lot to the climax of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN . Perhaps that's why DAYS OF GLORY received high praise down to its familiar story that English speaking fans of war films have seen so many times before ?It could have been much worse though . On a technical level it's a competent enough movie and it doesn't go overboard that the Goumier troops are some how slaves press-ganged in to joining the Free French forces but it does effectively ignore the sometimes horrendous reputation Goumier troops had in Axis territories where women are concerned . The 1960 Italian film TWO WOMEN goes in to this in detail and you can imagine that's why the protagonists service in Italy is skated over very slightly . One wonders if the producers might have been worried about an international audience being alienated by bringing up the subject in any length ? As it it stands DAYS OF GLORY is a good enough war film though very traditional

Days of Glory is a multi-layered film about a small unit that served in the 17th Algerian Infactry during the Second World War. Before starting this review I think a quick history lesson is needed to help explain the film. The French history of Empire is very complex, and the most easiest way to explain it is it's a history of paradoxes: the French never investigated in their empire as much as the Britain, but it held such an important place in the psyche of the French, because if the Empire seemed strong then France was strong. Algeria also held a very place in French hearts because it was seen as place of France and rule from their Interior Minstry (and that's one of the reasons why the French fought so hard during the Algerian war in the 50s and 60s). Finally the North African territories were loyal to the Vinchy regime (which kept the Empire neutral) until Operation Torch when the territories switched to the allies and the Algerians thought they could get a better deal from the Free French.The film starts off very quickly when you see some of the Algerian soldiers getting recruited to fight for the Free French and taken to Morocco to be trained. This is not looked in at depth compared to films like the 9th Company or Full Metal Jacket. It then fast forwards to 1944 when the Algerians have to fight in some tough battles in Italy and then in the South of France. The scenes set in Italy were really well done. The Algerians fight bravely but are not respected by their French commanders. After fighting in Italy the ugly face of racism shows itself, and the Algerian troops face having less luxuries like types of food, are less educated then their French counterparts, having their post censured and blocked and no leave from the army. The reason why some of the Algerians fight is the hope that Algeria would become more respected by the French and get more rights. They believe in the ideas of France like equality and liberty but their question if it's true. Other join to escape the harshness of poverty and hope to make something of themselves in the army, maybe get the chance to settle in France after the war. Many social and political issues are touched on in this film, such as the army employing a quota system, and the issues of inter-racial relationships.Days of Glory has been compared to Saving Private Ryan, I personally don't think it's that fair a comparison. Saving Private Ryan was more about fighting during the Second World War, Days of Glory is more about the politics and society aspects of the Army. A more fair comparison would be with the American Civil War film Glory.The film is two longs, which is pretty short of a war film: as mentioned the recruitment and training of the army is brief but it doesn't lose any impact on the story. It is shot in an effective way and the war scenes were well handled, but I personally think that it could have been a little more violence, like in films like Saving Private Ryan and Brotherhood. The film also handle its subject matter well and you get to see all these issues in quite an average length film. It has a bitter-sweet ending which is fitting, and doesn't whitewash the issues compared to what a Hollywood film might do.The film also has some modern parallels. In France nowadays the North African population then to live in sink estates and racism is still an issue in the nation. Ethnic minorities are under represented in politics and the media in France. Racist policies have led to raids in main French cities in 2005 and in a recent football friendly French born North Africans booed the French national anthem during a match against Tunisa. Days of Glory has some positive affects, after the film was released and seen by the French government war-pensions for veterans from the Empire were re-introduced and paid in full.A small criticism of the film is that a small scene showed a propaganda effort by the Germans to get the Algerians to turn against the French. I felt that could have been played on a little more.All in all a very good film and worth watching if you are a fan of war films.