March or Die

Shortly after the end of WW1 a unit of French Foreign Legion troops is sent to guard an archaeological dig in the Moroccan desert. Leading the contingent is Major Foster, a tough, hard-nosed veteran of WW1. Their timing is not ideal: the local tribes, under their leader El Krim, are uniting and attacking French settlements. On paper this film had the makings of a great Beau Geste-like adventure, complete with Gene Hackman in the lead role. In reality it is not great. The plot is weak and clumsy, filled with sub-plots that add nothing, developments that seem contrived or predictable. The whole Terrence Hill-Catherine Deneuve sub-plot was dull and just serve to pad the script: very dull and pointless. Plus, for a movie that seemed to promise much action, there isn't much. The battle towards the end is decent and a suitable climax to the film but even that gets undone by some silly developments. Disappointing.

The title of this movie was burned into my brain in 1977 when the film was shown to me and a few hundred other recruits in Navy boot camp at Great Lakes Recruit Training Center. The plot not so much. Normally we recruits were told to keep our mouths shut, but for some reason the authorities let us talk and even shout during this movie. It was not unlike a midnight showing of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," a phenomenon that was soon to come along. Perhaps you can imagine the crude comments that 300 18-year-old "men" came up with whenever Catherine Deneuve was in the screen. When one unfortunate man fell through a hole at an archeological site someone yelled "Make a hole! Service week!" (You probably have to have gone through Navy boot camp to get that one.) Anyway, I watched "March or Die" again on You Tube last night and found it to be good enough to watch through to the end, which is more than I can say for any other movie I started watching on You Tube.

This is a very unusual film in some ways, and very interesting. Gene Hackman is good, and Terence Hill is excellent in a different part for him. Hill almost seems to be acting as Steve Mcqueen. Whatever his technique, its effective. There is one thing that sets this film apart from every other movie out there, it has one of the all time great battles. Yes, it has to be one of the best ever filmed, a thing of true beauty. Violent, gritty, and very realistic. You can feel the desperation as the legionaires frantically play out their own version of Custer's Last Stand. Truthfully, the big climatic battle scene could stand alone as a good film. If you like Hackman or Hill/Mcqueen don't miss this one. Papillion joins the Foreign Legion...very cool!!!!! Loved it

This movie starts out by noting that the French Foreign Legion was the most hoinored unit in the First World War. That little contretemps concluded, Major Gene Hackman leads the 200 survivors of more than 8000 Legionaires back to French Morocco, and new recruit Terrence Hill, to face the menace of archeologist Max von Sydow, blonde Catherine Deneuve, and Rif leader Ian Hiolm. It's a star-studded international production, shot in Spain and Arizona, recalling those old movies with mad sergeants holding Fort Zinderneuf with dead legionaires, Robert Preston and Gary Cooper. It adds little to the anomie that that has suffused movies about the Foreign Legion since the 1920s, except perhaps the sand-colored Technicolor. Gene Hackman, as was his wont, speaks his lines naturally, leading one to wonder if he is as mad as he appears, and the usual percentage of legionaires march and also die.

MARCH OR DIE has one impressive cast: Gene Hackman, Terence Hill (in one of his rare movie that you can take seriously), Catherine Deneuve, Max von Sydow, Ian Holm... Great script that has everything well balanced: humor, action, suspense, drama. It will please those who like good war movies, those who like historical movies, and those who like just plain good movies! This is the ultimate movie about one of the ultimate elite troop in history: the Légion Étrangère.