Product description

Days Of Glory [2006]

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Average customer rating: 3.5

Binding : DVD
EAN : 5055002553332
Label : Metrodome Distribution
Manufacturer : Metrodome Distribution
Publisher : Metrodome Distribution
Release date : 2007-09-24
Title : Days Of Glory [2006]
Actor : Array
Audience rating : Suitable for 12 years and over
Format : PAL
Languages : Array
Number of items : 1
Original release date : 2006-01-01
Region code : 2
Running time : 120
Studio : Metrodome Distribution
Theatrical releaseDate : 2006

Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-08-18 rating:

Worst war film ever
saw this film with my dad,not even 18 cans of carlsberg could make it watchable. definately the worst war film ive ever watched

review by: date: 2008-08-14 rating:

2.5 stars
This movie lives somewhere in the land of 'bad' to 'ok'. A topic that could have been turned into such a powerful movie but falls rather flat in its portrayal.
'Days of Glory' is about the many Muslims from French colonies in Africa joined the fight to liberate France during WW2 only to be treated as second class 'citizens'.
It's a rather slow paced movie with no real climax to speak of and I felt my interest start to wane towards the end.
Not particularly worth watching, even for movie buffs. There is much better material out there.

review by: date: 2008-08-14 rating:

incomplete history of French war crimes...
Following the fall of Monte Cassino, to the allied forces, French officers gave permission to the Muslim men portrayed in this film to enter local Italian villages and murder over 800 men then systematically mass rape and abuse over 2000 Catholic women, girls and boys as well as a priest. This film tries to glorify these men led by French Officers and did enough to get a law passed granting them higher pensions...I did not see this war crime portrayed in the film...as was done in the Sophia Loren film 'Two Women'.

Peter Mitchell.

review by: date: 2008-07-13 rating:

Long overdue
An intense film that while has often been compared to Saving Private Ryan other than them both being war films has very little in common.

The film depicts Algerian soldiers who had volunteered to fight in the French army during world war 2. The film begins with a village elder in Algeria calling upon the men to fight for the 'motherland' France against German occupation. When enlisted, they are brought together with North African troops who had already been fighting in North Africa and were to be posted to France. They are put under the command of an Algerian born French officer, given the most basic of training and then sent to the front.

Their first battle is to take a hilltop heavily fortified by German forces. While suffering heavy casualties they manage to capture the position. Encouraged by their success and now with valuable military experience they are greeted as heroes in France. Still prejudice is never far away. The first most obvious example we are give is when on board a boat the men are receiving a meal however, the chef refuses to give a tomato to a black soldier resulting in a minor mutiny that is only quelled when their commanding officer assures them that all will receive the same rations.

The army unit moves to the mountains where they are commanded to hold positions in freezing conditions while white French troops are given leave, finally they are given leave only to return back to be given a mission to hold a small French village under near impossible conditions.

Much of the film is given to developing each character. One is an illiterate man from a village, incapable of making his own decisions and quickly falls under the leadership of his commanding officer. Another is a fairly well educated man who seeks promotion in the army and sees himself as a career officer. Then we have two brothers and a man who falls in love with a local girl and hopes that when the war ends, he may return to her and settle down in Marseilles. Finally, there is their commanding officer, who while born in Algeria sees himself as very much French with something of a colonial contempt for the Arabs while keeping a dark secret hidden.

While there is ample time for character development and throughout the film you do come to relate to the characters I found it interesting that the black African soldiers barely said a word (Other than complain about not getting a tomato) and played very much a background role. No doubt they were Senegalese troops due to their dress and there does exists a fair amount of racism towards black Africans by some Arabs so I would have been interested to see something of that examined in the film. I felt the simple "All us colonials together" A little far fetched.

That out of the main characters one it seems wishes to remain in France, another begins to feel increasingly that while Fighting for the freedom of France that should also extend to his own people I found quite realistic. I have spoken to many Africans who had fought during the second word war and many tell of how on returning from the war saw the freedom of their own nation just as important as the freedom of Britain or France for which they fought.

The fact that it has took so long to recognise the contribution of 'colonial' troops during the second world war both in the cinema and in history books may go some way to explain why some would see this film as 'politically correct' The fact that France frozen the pensions of these men who fought to free their country is a source of shame.

This is a touching film. One of the concluding scenes where after the Algerian troops having fought so bravely to defend the village the photographer takes pictures of white troops celebrating with local villages was an excellent way in showing how history has been whitewashed.

Well worth watching.

review by: date: 2008-05-18 rating:

A different point of view
The war with the eyes of North African french army volountiers. Only good fellows like depicted in the film ? Not in Italy.

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