For a starter, I used to be an NCO in the Foreign Legion and spent several years in Africa. As I type these lines I am actually in Mali working now for a governmental agency.
Now regarding this "essai": It's dull, it's boring, it's bland, with uninteresting characters, full of the usual clichées and hear-say. Some of the scenes are more accurate than others, but all in all this is a melodramatic piece of fiction that wants itself to be taken very serious, yet falls completely flat, especially if you see it with the eyes of someone who's been there and didn't do that.
The fighting scenes are not the worst I've seen, but neither the director, nor the screenwriter and especially not the choreographer had either knowledge or a good consultant with good knowledge.
I wouldn't call this movie a stinker, but I will call it bad movie about some human relations in a certain surrounding that involves the Foreign Legion ... well, the Foreign Legion some people fantasize and romanticize about.
Now regarding this "essai": It's dull, it's boring, it's bland, with uninteresting characters, full of the usual clichées and hear-say. Some of the scenes are more accurate than others, but all in all this is a melodramatic piece of fiction that wants itself to be taken very serious, yet falls completely flat, especially if you see it with the eyes of someone who's been there and didn't do that.
The fighting scenes are not the worst I've seen, but neither the director, nor the screenwriter and especially not the choreographer had either knowledge or a good consultant with good knowledge.
I wouldn't call this movie a stinker, but I will call it bad movie about some human relations in a certain surrounding that involves the Foreign Legion ... well, the Foreign Legion some people fantasize and romanticize about.