Beau Geste

Rating:
Summary: Needs to Be on DVD and Needs to be Updated
Review: The story is great. The treatment is very old and dated. Seems to be sort of a forgotten golden oldie. Purhaps a remake without the silly prank section. At least the DVD should be made. Still a fun movie w the classic battle scene w the mad officer propping up the dead bodies. Great for Cooper fans.

Rating:
Summary: A Romantic Classic
Review: This classic movie holds up pretty well to the basic storyline of Wren's novel. A few subtle changes have been made because no movie can ever reproduce a book perfectly, but everything has been done faithfully to the spirit of the original story. Readers of the book will find that the evil sarjeant is named Markov in the movie as opposed to Lajeaune in the book. The name sounds more evil perhaps! A few minor quibbles I have with the movie is that it has that 1930s Hollywood feel to it, in terms of the acting and characterizations. It would have been nice to have heard French commands in the Legion as opposed to flat American voices. Later Foreign Legion movies like "March or Die" provide this kind of detail which this classic lacks. Also, in the attacks on the fort the Arabs look foolish charging with cavalry against walls that are too high. In the book the fort's walls are described as being lower so that someone climbing up from a camel's back could almost succeed with an escalade. In the book John, Digby and their two American friends wander in the desert in Arab guise for several years. This is rather condensed in the film. The impossible shot that kills Digby from horse-back is more realistically described in the book where John relays that the Arab fired from his horse at 30 feet striking Digby as he played his bugle. A more realistic scenerio I find. Of course these are minor quibbles, none of which detract from the beauty and haunting nature of the movie. The music is also striking, in particular the opening scene when we see the dead Legioners manning the fort's walls. That scene is probably one of the most haunting in all movies, and conveys so much without being overly graphic. This is probably the best Foreign Legion movie that will ever be made. All since have been based on it. Since Four Feathers has recently survived another re-make I wonder if Beau Geste is due for another attempt? Arabs, sand and desert battles seem to be compelling these days. I wonder why?

Rating:
Summary: The Wren Classic on Film
Review: This classic movie holds up pretty well to the basic storyline of Wren's novel. A few subtle changes have been made because no movie can ever reproduce a book perfectly, but everything has been done faithfully to the spirit of the original story. Readers of the book will find that the evil sarjeant is named Markov in the movie as opposed to Lajeaune in the book. The name sounds more evil perhaps! A few minor quibbles I have with the movie is that it has that 1930s Hollywood feel to it, in terms of the acting and characterizations. It would have been nice to have heard French commands in the Legion as opposed to flat American voices. Later Foreign Legion movies like "March or Die" provide this kind of detail which this classic lacks. Also, in the attacks on the fort the Arabs look foolish charging with cavalry against walls that are too high. In the book the fort's walls are described as being lower so that someone climbing up from a camel's back could almost succeed with an escalade. In the book John, Digby and their two American friends wander in the desert in Arab guise for several years. This is rather condensed in the film. The impossible shot that kills Digby from horse-back is more realistically described in the book where John relays that the Arab fired from his horse at 30 feet striking Digby as he played his bugle. A more realistic scenerio I find. Of course these are minor quibbles, none of which detract from the beauty and haunting nature of the movie. The music is also striking, in particular the opening scene when we see the dead Legioners manning the fort's walls. That scene is probably one of the most haunting in all movies, and conveys so much without being overly graphic. This is probably the best Foreign Legion movie that will ever be made. All since have been based on it. Since Four Feathers has recently survived another re-make I wonder if Beau Geste is due for another attempt? Arabs, sand and desert battles seem to be compelling these days. I wonder why?

Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: This is one of the best adventure movies I've ever seen. The characters are interesting and the story is terrific, with some surprising twists. Recent-day movies are pathetic in comparison with this one.

Rating:
Summary: Entertainment from a by-gone era.
Review: This movie is from an era when movies were real entertainment. High adventure without a distracting social message. There is an error in the databank as to who the star was. It was Gary Cooper, not Donald O'Connor.