Its much worse then I remember. The producers tried to cover all the bases and ended up covering nothing. To appeal to Americana audiences we get Hackman, completely miscast as a French colonel always babbling about his "Men in the trenches". And we get a far too English Moroccan leader, and a whole bunch of European actors in one-note cliched roles as the soldiers.
To appeal to the action/adventure crowd we get some action scenes and the brutal Foreign legion training scenes. OTOH, to avoid any 1970s charges of being a "flag-waver or pro-war" we get plenty of cynicism, nasty characters, and a downbeat ending.
There's very little action until the end, and even that is the typical "natives attack in droves and get shot down" nonsense. Before that its just blah, blah, and some sort of love affair with Catherine Deneuve.
The first 2/3 of the movie is very "Low energy" as Trump would put it.
Not recommended.
BTW, I'm not sure what American actor could have done a better job in Hackman's part. George C. Scott? William Holden? But Gene really isn't a leading man nor could have pulled off the combination of nobility and cynicism that this part required.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.