Legion of Honor

Kinda good, kinda bad.

For the most part, though, I did mostly like 'Deserter'. It's got a weird sorta vibe to it and feels cheaply made, though with that said the locations are convincing enough. Tom Hardy does well in just his second movie, though does sport a very iffy French accent. Paul Fox is alright in (despite what that presumably retrospective poster suggests) the lead role, he looks a little like Donald O'Connor in this, so there's that.

I can fully see why some may dislike this. For me, it's one to narrowly file under 'good'.

///// 2002 Simon: An English Legionnaire Directed by Martin Huberty.

Sometimes it helps to step outside of the familiar. In "Deserter", my American perspective gets broadened by looking at an Arab country through the eyes of a young Brit placed within the French Foreign Legion. With my own country removed entirely from the scene, I thus start with no default "side" here. The movie does start off following the FFL, but of course expands before too long to show us (some of) the Arab side as well.

I'd like to know, but don't know, how true to reality the movie is. Most of what we're shown seemed very plausible to me. A few bits did feel "Hollywoodized" but perhaps were reasonable distillations of multiple events.

What made the biggest impression on me was the discomfort of Murray as he came face to face with the inexorable underlayment of the whole situation: that military occupation is fundamentally wrong because it is not consensual. That's a good lesson for everyone.

I'm surprised this only has a 5.3. I wouldn't call it a great movie, but it's well done and involving and deserves a higher score.

My biggest complaint is that the accents were hard for me to understand, especially near the beginning. With the mixture of different national origins of the characters and some of the dialog being in French with the rest in (mostly) French-accented English, a lot of the early lines were lost on me. I almost stopped watching after about 10 minutes due to this. I'm glad I didn't.

Having recently read Simon Murrays factual book 'Legionnaire ' on which this is based - I tracked down the film. The result sadly lacks the grit and gruesome integrity of the book in almost all respects. The casting doesn't really help either, with the main character coming across as rather too honest and righteous compared to his colleagues. I had hoped that the film may have captured the atmosphere of the conflict in some respects but found it sadly lacking. Likewise the quandary of whether or not to support the 'Generals Revolt' coup attempt was dealt with on a rather local basis and contradicts and belittles what actually happened. Its not a well known part of world history outside Algeria or France so for this reason alone it is worth a watch - but don't make the mistake of thinking it paints a true picture of the conflict. To learn more take a look at 'The Battle of Algiers' which was banned in France for years, or even the rather cheesy 'Lost Command' (Anthony Quinn).

This is a good 'Foreign Legion' Film and a fairly open representation of a very complicated Period of 20th century History.

France,Algeria and the Foreign Legion all were changed by this series of events and for Simon Murray this was very much a significant time of Personal development and Experience. He also wrote a Book about this time which is also a good read for anyone interested in Legion History.

This is one of Tom Hardy's early Films,but in my Opinion, underrated.

He brought depth and character to 'Dupont' and while the Script lost a little clarity at times by the end of the tale Hardy related the complex nature of Dupont and the Challenges facing many at that time and place!

Almost watchable until the cafe scene 41 minutes in. Give me a break!