Review of Days of Glory (2006) by Rob L — 14 Nov 2011

I love war movies. I like action and I love the drama that always goes along with them. I waited a long time to see Days of Glory. It got a limited release and it never hit my local movie store. Finally my college library had it. Score.

In WW2, France kind of got the short end of the stick. As in they got absolutely violated up and down the continent of Europe. But before that (and before WW1) France was pretty dominant in the world. They had a few colonies in Northern Africa who, although being treated like slaves, were still loyal to France. When France finally got back on its feet, they recruited young arabs from Algiers and Morocco to help fight for them. That part is true. It's also true that these men were basically the African Americans of the U.S. Army. Not treated very well during and after the war. I'm not sure if the story told in Days of Glory is true. Where four arabs are the first into France and defend a town by themselves. Probably not true.

Days of Glory is a decent film. It's got some action, it has likable characters and the story is pretty good. But it does suffer. It suffers from what I like to call, how many bullets can one gun shoot before reloading? Answer: a lot. One guy with a tommy gun has more rounds than a stationary emplacement. And four guys holding off two german squads? Cmon. I need some historical data to back that up before I believe it.

Not the best but certainly not the worst, it's a decent trip into racism on a side you probably have never seen before.

2 and a half out of 4 stars.

-Chris O'Connell.