Deserter

Re Released True Life account of the French Foreign Legion that really does not star Tom Hardy.
This is a 2002 film that has been re released to shamelessly cash in on the increasingly deserved success of screen hunk, Tom Hardy (`Warrior' etc). It places his name up front but he is not the star. This is the film of the auto biopgraphy by Simon Murray - `Legionnaire'. Murray is played by Paul Fox, who must be related to a side board his acting is so wooden. His previous acting highs have come in the TV soap `Coronation Street' and the voice of Corff the bartender in video game `Dragon Age II'!

Well the plot goes that he gets rebuffed by a lady and in stiff upper lipped fashion he runs off to join the romance of The French Foreign Legion as his hero is Errol Flynn. His timing is pretty off as this coincides with the Algerian awakening for independence and as France has just been kicked out of Vietnam there are not that many places for him to be sent - so Algeria it is.

First he has to suffer boot camp and it is really not a very nice place at all and is...

Worth looking for
This film was recommended to me so I bought it. At the time I did not have a Reg.2 player so I was extremely disappointed that I couldn't see it. When I was able to see it, I realized why my friends had recommended it. First, it is another Tom Hardy gem, though one of the British Foxes plays the lead and is very, very good.
The plot of the movie is suspenseful. You will never suspect what occurs at the end. The unrequited love angle seems almost an afterthought, tho the movie is based on a real story. It tells of the French Foreign Legion (into which no French men are allowed!) during the Algerian struggle for independence. Simon (the "Deserter") sees both sides of the struggle and wonders why, in a land so large, Arabs and Europeans cannot live together. Like they had done for generations. Poor Simon, he is so naive one thinks he will not make it out of boot camp. But he is befriended by DuPont (Hardy) and learns through him how to be a soldier and survivor. This is a terrifc...

SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO CUT YOUR LOSSES
The year is 1960. Simon Murray (Paul Fox) joins the French Foreign Legion because of his romantic notions. It is an iron clad contract for 5 years during which he is sent to Algeria where the Arabs are fighting for Independence. Like "Full Metal Jacket" the film takes you through the rigors of training with cruel and sadistic trainers. The diverse group of trainees bond together. Simon supplies us with some boring first person narration to the background of some melancholy French tune.

Simon makes it through training, and life gets better...almost. He gets a "Dear John" letter and wants to leave. In town he discovers the locals hate the French and want their independence. His romantic notions have placed him on the wrong side, one that he is committed to be a part. His ideas of life become confused and tested in the reality of life and conflict. There are French and Algerians who are on both sides of the independence movement, primarily for economic reasons.

In...

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