Les centurions

French army colonel Pierre Raspeguy (Anthony Quinn) is defeated by the Vietnamese at Dien Bien Phu. After the armistice is signed, he and his troops are sent back to their homes far away. One of the troops is an Arab named Mahidi (George Segal!), and when he gets back home to Algeria, he joins the revolution against the French colonial powers, eventually becoming a notorious leader of the uprising. Raspeguy is sent to quash the rebellion. Also featuring Alain Delon as a conscience-stricken soldier, Claudia Cardinale as Mahidi's sister, Michele Morgan, Maurice Ronet, Gregoire Aslan, Jean Servais, Jacques Marin, and Burt Kwouk.

If the casting of Segal and Cardinale as Algerian Arabs didn't clue you in, this is a very Hollywood look at this historical conflict. Some of this works as an action flick, some of it as a melodrama, but as a whole it's lacking, with a facile presentation of the complicated real-world bloodshed.

Unusual in that the terrorists are the French soldiers and not the natives of the occupied country. Well worth a watch but far less exciting than it should have been. It could have done with being a lot more gritty and the French soldiers not looking like they were constantly on parade and not on dangerous active duty.

Having seen Pontecorvo's "La Battaglia di Algeri" (The Battle of Algiers) which is an excellent French docudrama my attention was drawn to this. I have to say that it is a good movie which not only serves as an entertaining drama (unlike the previously mentioned which was more documentary-like), but a reasonable record of some of the issues facing Algeria, France and society at the time. The choice of George Segal in the role of as Mahidi was particularly odd but reflects the era when it was made. Alain Dellon was in his prime at the time (and very good looking). Anthony Quinn as Raspeguy also surpasses many of his other roles in being highly engaging and convincing without the need, as was the case of some of his other roles, to resort to comedy. Two hours long but a lot packed in. The action sequences are well handled.

The Viet Cong commander spoke Chinese Contonese dialect to his troops and his troops responded in Cantonese too? How come the French commander still had the fun, splashing water to his fellow soldiers when trudging across the river?

The fighting scenes were well arranged, but all the scenes after the French troops became POWs were unbelievably absurd. Then all the scenes with women were simply too Hollywood soapy and disgustingly lame.

Remember that Henry Fonda movie THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE ? That`s the war movie that was set in the fog shrouded snow bound forests of the Ardennes in December 1944 but for some reason the movie`s big set piece battle takes place on an arid desert plain . LOST COMMAND starts with a very similar error in geography involving the battle of Dien Bien Phu where the French built a heavily fortified base in the middle of a mountainous jungle in 1954 , except this film would have us believe that the battle took place in the middle of a desert !

But I`m more than willing to forgive this goof as LOST COMMAND is a good film , it`s maybe not a great film but if you like action adventure / war films you`ll hopefully enjoy this as much as I did and director / Producer Mark Robson should be congratulated for making a film showing the French fighting man in a good light . Say what you like about French political leaders but France does have a long noble military tradition with a glorious defeat being every bit as courageous as a glorious victory . But the screenplay doesn`t glorify conflict and rightly points out that violence breeds violence , it pits former friends against one another , and it`s always the most innocent who suffer the most