Whitech It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Sammy-Jo Cervantes There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Paul Allaer "Glory Days" (2006 release from France/Morocco/Belgium; original title "Indigènes" (The Indigenous); 120 min.) brings the story of a band of North Africans fighting to liberate France. As the movie opens, we are told it is "Algeria - 1943" and we see a Muslim recruiter shouting "We must liberate France", to the enthusiastic reaction of the crowd. Next we switch to "Morocco - 1943", where a group of men is training to get battle ready. We then go to "Italy - 1944", where these North Africans encounter their first meaningful action against the Germans. At this point we're not even 15 minutes into the movie but to tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.Couple of comments: first, this is a solid war drama with some serious social undercurrents. The battle scenes are intense and realistic (even if the choice of tanks and guns may not always be 100% accurate according to history). Also, the historical significance of what these men accomplished cannot but denied. This is even more the case when you consider the social environment of these North African Muslims: the French discriminate openly and without scruples (as this was the accepted norm 70+ years ago), and don't hide their disdain towards them. Contrast this to the almost naïve love for "the motherland" (i.e. France), even though none of them has ever been there until the French shipped them there to fight the Nazis. It just makes you wonder why the North Africans felt that way. The movie features a bunch of no-names (for me anyway), who bring mostly heartfelt performances."Glory Days" scored an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language movie in 2007, and it is easy to see why: engaging war drama, with important underlying social issues. I recently stumbled upon this movie while browsing the foreign language section at my local library. So glad I picked this up. "Glory Days" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

museumofdave A worthwhile film creates memorable characters with whom we can in some way identify; the memorable film takes the willing viewer to mental outlooks and physical places not normally experienced, and offers a distinctive viewpoint concerning a specific issue; Days of Glory qualifies in all departments.While it is easily defined as a "War Film," it is also a film about the way a dominant culture can manipulate those who depend on it, the people who fight for it, and the privileges it rewards to the fighters. Four solders from Africa join the mainland French to help defeat the Germans; unknowingly, they are often used as mere cannon fodder. We watch several distinctive individuals as they encounter assaults on their growth from without and within; the men are drawn with insight and care and their interactions are emotionally moving.Some critics carp that they have seen this film before in other guises, that it is not unlike, say, Saving Private Ryan--only true, I think, if a viewer has become too jaded with too many war films, with too much blood. Even if some of the situations have been shown in film before, the acting here is so powerful that the entire ensemble won an unusual Best Acting Award at Cannes--entirely deserved, and an unheralded sacrifice by fighting men that has been finally recognized and rescued from the dustbin of history.

Man from Mars I would add some contextual points which may not be well known to non French audiences but are essential to fully understand this film and where it is coming from. Firstly, it is not a "WW2 film", it is a film about the Armée d'Afrique in WW2: the film structure follows the campaign history of the Army across Europe.If France was able to have a seat with the Big 4 at Berlin and UN Security Council, it rests on the shoulders of the Armée d'Afrique and its role in the Italy Campaign, Dragoon Landings of Provence, Liberation of France, and drive into Germany, and its soldiers which we see in this film - they gave France its place with the victorious allies, and were conveniently forgotten by a France seeking to forget the débacle of its discredited political leaders of 1940. Such soldiers also fought in WW1 (some can be seen on the Memorial Arch war monument in Constantine as alluded to by Saïd/Debbouze's mother), and in the Indochina War. Ergo, they were French, spilled their blood for France, but were denied their political rights (and full pensions), which is to France's shame. By accepting their service, France acknowledged their equality implicitly but could never bring itself to acknowledge it explicitly - a typical characteristic I might add.Indeed to this day, there is not only a fissure between the French and the "indigènes" of the movie - the Arab soldiers, but between the "mainland French" and the "overseas French" - the "Pieds Noirs" - Martinez of the movie. Pieds Noirs are present day rootless French that feel they were sold down the river when France let Algeria go, and who are still rancorous, as mainland French look down on them and their accents (upon arriving in Marseille in 1962, the Pieds Noirs were told get back on their boats and get out of town). This film speaks to all these implied elements, as the French officers look down at Martinez, with his immigrant name, neither French, nor Arab (they would know he was half Arab due to his "etat civil" which is a type of long form birth certificate and part of his Army Record). These are the present day right wing of France - hankering after a lost Algeria, never really at home in a France of cold weather and strange food, vocal and militant.As for the film, the ethnic music may be considered heavy handed but it is meant to illustrate the duality of the Army - a hybrid of two cultures that was threatening to become something new that eventually, both sides backed away from - a "rendezvous manqué", as the French would say - one of several in this long Franco-Algerian story which is not yet over and continues in an odd symbiotic post independence relationship that transcends the behaviour of petulant idiosyncratic individuals.Finally, regarding the controversy about rapes in Italy of this army, this should also be placed in the overall context of the conduct of victorious armies in War, episodic cases of excess in all armies too numerous and tiresome to mention, and which pales in comparison to the systematic behaviour of the Einsatzgruppen in the Eastern Front, SS at Oradour-Sur-Glane, or Wehrmacht executing 41 African POWs at Clamecy, France in 1940 for example. It behooved Fascist Axis Italy to point the finger of blame elsewhere by discrediting a multiracial victorious French Armée d'Afrique with racial atrocity stories - such proponents may wish to consider the behaviour of the Regio Exercito in Africa Orientale Italiana to give such matters fuller consideration.All in all this film tells a story which needed telling, and tells it competently in the two limited hours it has, but it helps to understand the context behind the scenes. Having seen it, one leaves it having learned something important and sad - as Saïd and Martinez were unable to connect in life but were drawn together in death, Indigènes to me is a story above all of missed rendezvous which is very much with us today.

freemantle_uk Days of Glory is a multi-layered film about a small unit that served in the 17th Algerian Infactry during the Second World War. Before starting this review I think a quick history lesson is needed to help explain the film. The French history of Empire is very complex, and the most easiest way to explain it is it's a history of paradoxes: the French never investigated in their empire as much as the Britain, but it held such an important place in the psyche of the French, because if the Empire seemed strong then France was strong. Algeria also held a very place in French hearts because it was seen as place of France and rule from their Interior Minstry (and that's one of the reasons why the French fought so hard during the Algerian war in the 50s and 60s). Finally the North African territories were loyal to the Vinchy regime (which kept the Empire neutral) until Operation Torch when the territories switched to the allies and the Algerians thought they could get a better deal from the Free French.The film starts off very quickly when you see some of the Algerian soldiers getting recruited to fight for the Free French and taken to Morocco to be trained. This is not looked in at depth compared to films like the 9th Company or Full Metal Jacket. It then fast forwards to 1944 when the Algerians have to fight in some tough battles in Italy and then in the South of France. The scenes set in Italy were really well done. The Algerians fight bravely but are not respected by their French commanders. After fighting in Italy the ugly face of racism shows itself, and the Algerian troops face having less luxuries like types of food, are less educated then their French counterparts, having their post censured and blocked and no leave from the army. The reason why some of the Algerians fight is the hope that Algeria would become more respected by the French and get more rights. They believe in the ideas of France like equality and liberty but their question if it's true. Other join to escape the harshness of poverty and hope to make something of themselves in the army, maybe get the chance to settle in France after the war. Many social and political issues are touched on in this film, such as the army employing a quota system, and the issues of inter-racial relationships.Days of Glory has been compared to Saving Private Ryan, I personally don't think it's that fair a comparison. Saving Private Ryan was more about fighting during the Second World War, Days of Glory is more about the politics and society aspects of the Army. A more fair comparison would be with the American Civil War film Glory.The film is two longs, which is pretty short of a war film: as mentioned the recruitment and training of the army is brief but it doesn't lose any impact on the story. It is shot in an effective way and the war scenes were well handled, but I personally think that it could have been a little more violence, like in films like Saving Private Ryan and Brotherhood. The film also handle its subject matter well and you get to see all these issues in quite an average length film. It has a bitter-sweet ending which is fitting, and doesn't whitewash the issues compared to what a Hollywood film might do.The film also has some modern parallels. In France nowadays the North African population then to live in sink estates and racism is still an issue in the nation. Ethnic minorities are under represented in politics and the media in France. Racist policies have led to raids in main French cities in 2005 and in a recent football friendly French born North Africans booed the French national anthem during a match against Tunisa. Days of Glory has some positive affects, after the film was released and seen by the French government war-pensions for veterans from the Empire were re-introduced and paid in full.A small criticism of the film is that a small scene showed a propaganda effort by the Germans to get the Algerians to turn against the French. I felt that could have been played on a little more.All in all a very good film and worth watching if you are a fan of war films.