L'intervention

I would have love to give this film a higher rating as I am a fan of elite and special forces movies. However the movie gets off to a very slow start and really only the last 15 minutes of the movie justify the rating it received. But the last 15 minutes are so fast and so furious and so gripping that it actually made watching the rest of the film worthwhile.

The 5 members the GIGN in this film were like a bunch of amateurs. The team leader wore glasses covered in dust. The most part of this film was wasted in small talks, jokes, insults among them. The so-called General was an arrogant jerk. Non-stop blah, blah and blah. The five member team carried one aluminum water bottle without any food when they sneaked out into the wildness, and these morons drank up their limited water supply without any idea how to only sip their water periodically instead of gulping down. These morons just made me sick. There was only one guy who was quite and looked more serious to carry out the mission, and he was the only one kept cleaning his weapons anytime available. Love the female actor, a very talented one, not just pretty. All the roles she'd played were great and quite believable.

This is a loosely scripted lousy film, not just insulted the GIGN but also the audiences. I pity those kids who had to play the hostage under the harsh desert sun in a metal bus.

Good action sequences in this though tepid French war drama inspired from actual events. But acting and directing - except in action sequences - are forgettable, if not laughable. Those French militaries look too much like superheroes for some one like me. Look out on the way they can shoot one hundred hostiles as targets in a side show without even be hit themselves- excet in the foot for one of them. The overall topic is OK, only some directing flaws mess up the whole. The director Grivois had already made another film about marksmen.

Based on true events that took place in February 1976. Somali rebels hijack a school bus carrying 21 French children and their teacher in the city of Djibouti. Newly created elite French forces (GIGN) are sent. At date they were somewhat ridiculed and viewed with disbelief. With this mission they prove their value in tactical special missions and today they are one of the most reputable police forces in France.

The film is good, managing to escape the trap of being too documentary. With good cinematography, a humorous and not overly dramatic script.

It works well not only from a historical point of view, but also as a modern and actual action thriller.

I recommend.

Reading the reviews I was expecting much worse... Solid & realistic action film describing a real event. Probably less explosions and pyrotechnics than in an American film of this genre but it did not take away anything in terms of suspense and drama. The seventies feel and a certain level of amateurism of policing is quite well depicted.