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Titled Indig�nes in French, far more informative than the rather generic Days of Glory, the film is an eye-opening journey into France's forgotten war during WW2 when 130,000 indigenous men of the country's North African colonies joined the fight to save the "fatherland" from Nazi occupation.  It was a country these men had never visited and far from their poor, desert existence but binding them together were promises of wealth, adventure and a chance to keep alive the French ideals of liberty and freedom.  However, what they received was segregation from their so called countrymen and a brutal army life that bordered on slavery.  As the dust of the bloody climax settles the film states that even now pensions have not been rewarded to the men who fought long and hard for France to be free but were still let down at every turn by a bigoted regime.

Starting with basic training the plot follows several men almost corralled into the de Gaulle's French army during the 1943 turning point when the push was made up through Italy and into Southern France itself.  Having never seen combat, the recruits are as green as they come; Messaoud (Zem) thanks the Lord when he finds himself to be the marksman of the group, illiterate Said (Am�lie's Debbouze) steps out from total poverty and Yassir (Naceri from the Taxi series), along with his brother, take every opportunity to rob and profit.  Only out-spoken Abdelkader (Bouajila) emerges as a potential leader and it's his dedication to French ideals that bands these brothers together.  From his outburst over tomato rations not being available to "wogs" to his near dismissal for leading a rowdy street protest, Abdelkader shines out to his superiors and it's promise of promotion and recognition that drive him to continue leading the platoon through several countries for 2 long years of fighting culminating in an against-the-odds shoot-out to hold a key village.

Representing military corruption is Sergeant Martinez (an expertly curt Bernard Blancan) who, hiding his own guilty secret about his past, climbs through the ranks while braver men are passed over.  Yet his iron heart does show cracks; the Sergeant's strangely over-familiar relationship with Said nearly exposes him and elsewhere characters soften towards the "outsiders" as Messaoud falls for a white French girl in Marsailles but has his letters to her censored.  The fact that the interplay between the soldiers is so nuanced and that their battle is internal as well as external awards Days of Glory its deserved 'war epic' dogtags. 

With the march to so-called victory somberly punctuated by the odd title card and the action scenes few, the audience almost feel like nothing is progressing but it's the final scenes that deliver the incendiary payload.  Unable to compete with the visceral battle sequences that made the likes of Saving Private Ryan such ferocious cinema, Bouchareb's approach is archaic but just as involving.  The opening fight to take a hill is more reminiscent of Blackadder's WW1 with the men able to do little except march "very slowly" towards the enemy but at the same time the director enforces how second-rate the new recruits were; employed as fodder so that machine gun nests can be spotted by mortar shells.  It isn't until the final mission to hold a strategic position that things get personal with house to house scrapping similar to Young Guns without the slo-mo blood and glory because glorious it certainly isn't.  The fight for survival is an event witnessed by no-one and quickly becomes a footnote in French history despite the bravery shown.  There might not be any tanks or nukes but it certainly feels like you've been flattened by them.

Abdelkader's journey is a compelling one; despite being on the winning side he walks away from the war a loser and the typical view of WW2 being good versus evil quickly comes into question given this context.  With such compelling themes Days of Glory demands attention against the backdrop of France's current race troubles and the wider discussions of immigration with enforced patriotism.  But even with those aspects stripped away it does what every good war movie should do and makes those soldiers human; another old guy on the bus, who will have fought his own very personal battle no matter what his race or religion while fighting for our freedom.