When I came across Legionnaire (1999), I thought it would be funny to feature it on The Legionnaire.  Confused yet? Good!  Unlike the title of this blog, the film refers to the infamous French Foreign Legion.  It is a military unit that is still in service to France.  They once were not allowed to be stationed in their mother country, but times have changed since 1925, the year in which the film is set.  One tradition that has remained is that it is still largely comprised of foreigners, with service being a gateway to French citizenship.  Alternatively, it is no longer composed of people escaping the law.  How does this compare to what I called my blog?  Not closely, actually.  It is a callback to a Catholic watchdog group that monitored Hollywood content and made recommendations in parish bulletins around the country, called The Legion of Decency.  They patterned themselves on the Roman legions of antiquity, which makes sense given the connections to Roman Catholicism, seeing themselves as a vigilant army.  I suppose there is some crossover with that last martial word, although this is all a bit silly, as you shall see.

The silliness of Legionnaire comes later.  For now, we are introduced to Marseille, France, where local gangster Lucien Galgani (Jim Carter) has summoned boxing champ Alain Lefèvre (Jean Claude Van Damme).  Lucien wants Alain to throw his next fight, taking a dive in the second round.  This is not something Alain has ever done and he flatly refuses.  Moments later, he turns and spots Katrina (Ana Sofrenović) approaching the table.  Alain and Ana have a history.  He had been the first person she met upon arriving in Marseille, and they had fallen in love.  The plan had been to marry, but he left her at the altar because he did not feel worthy of her.  Upon seeing her, he agrees to Lucien’s proposal.  However, after the agreement, Alain goes to a café and waits for Ana to come to him.  Once he has apologized for his mistake, he asks her to run away to America with him.  All he has to do is go down in the match as planned, duck out of the arena as quickly as possible, and they will be on their way.  She even goes to the train station to wait for him, which is Lucien’s first indication that something is amiss.  The second comes when Alain does not take the fall as planned.  Instead, at the fated moment, he lands a devastating punch that knocks out his opponent.  Now it is time to run, but Lucien’s men are closely following.  At one point, Alain is stopped by the gendarme (French police), who are in Lucien’s employ.  In the altercation, Lucien’s brother, René Galgani (Mario Kalli), is shot and killed, further angering Lucien.  One of his men is sent to the train station to intercept Ana, while the others continue their pursuit of Alain.  Seeing no other place to hide, he steps into a French Foreign Legion office and joins the storied military unit.  It is not long thereafter that he is sent to Morocco where he undergoes his training.  During this period, he meets a cast of characters, some friendly and a few hostile, all of whom will be discussed as needed.  Meanwhile, reporters come to see their exercises and photograph Alain operating a machine gun.  The image ends up in the newspaper, letting Lucien know to where his target has fled.  Having not forgotten about the death of his brother, Lucien sends the boxer Alain faced and another accomplice to join the Legion, find his sibling’s killer, and murder him.  They reach Alain just as his unit is preparing to march into the wastelands of the desert to man a far-flung post protecting the French colony from Berber raids.  As they are marching, they have their first encounter with the enemy with the young and eager Italian, Guido Rosetti (Daniel Caltagirone), becoming the first casualty.  Nonetheless, they make it to their destination and now it is time to begin patrolling the area.  Amongst those chosen to sally forth are Alain and the English contingent, Mackintosh (Nicholas Farrell), who had been dishonorably discharged from the British Army for his gambling debts.  Lucien’s men learn of this and offer Mackintosh a large sum of money to kill Alain.  This act is about to be perpetrated when they are once again attacked by Berbers and forced to retreat.  In the ensuing battle, their commanding officer is killed, forcing the cruel Sergeant Steinkampf (Steven Berkhoff) to assume leadership.  In turn, Sergeant Steinkampf promotes Mackintosh, who had also once been an officer. Together, they come to the conclusion that they need to send one of their number on a dangerous mission to get help, particularly after their ammo depot is blown up in one of the skirmishes.  The American, Luther (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), is chosen since he is of African descent.  Unfortunately, not even he can blend in, and he is marched back to the fort to be made an example of in front of his comrades.  Alain shoots Luther instead of letting a comrade suffer, but it is a small gesture in the face of the coming onslaught.  With a few artillery pieces, the Berbers make short work of the walls and kill almost every legionnaire inside.  Among those still living are Alain, Mackintosh, and one of Lucien’s thugs.  Mackintosh kills the thug but is now out of bullets in addition to being severely wounded.  Alain and Mackintosh say their goodbyes, the latter hoping the former somehow survives and reunites with Ana, whom he says has slipped away to America.  With that, Alain marches out of the fort and is brought to the Berber leader, Mohammed Ibn Abdelkrim El-Khattabi (Kamel Krifa).  Alain is left alive to warn others what will happen to them if they journey into his territory, and the movie ends.

I am not sure you can call the ending of Legionnaire a resolution to the plot.  After all, the thing that principates Alain entering the French Foreign Legion is him trying to get to Ana.  When he is told she is alive and away from Lucien, it appears to be a motivation to live for a man who had moments previously been resigned to die.  Then again, that sort of death is something every member of the unit is taught to accept.  Though the circumstances are different, meditating on one’s inevitable end is something Catholics are called upon to do on a daily basis.  This does not mean that we seek death, which one could argue is something that soldiers do whenever they enter combat.  Granted, they are trying to kill the so-called enemy before the other accomplishes the same thing, but they put themselves in harm’s more often than is usual for a Christian.  At the same time, there are the martyrs to consider.  A martyr is someone who willingly gives up their life for Jesus’ sake.  Though there is not a religious component to their behavior, the Legion instills a sense of camaraderie in their soldiers that closely approximates the attitude about which I am speaking.  As discussed with Christians, legionnaires are told that they must be ready to lay down their life for the man standing next to him.  This is remarkable when you consider that your comrade is likely not somebody of the same nationality as yourself.  It creates a familial bond, a brotherhood that is more in line with what Jesus called us to be with one another than we might care to admit.  He certainly would rather us not carry instruments of war against our fellow man, but the esprit de corps is such that characters put aside their differences in moments of need.  This may be a silly movie, but it has this aspect right.

Then again, the closeness of the characters in Legionnaire is almost the only thing it has going for it.  The other would be its shortness, clocking in at a little over an hour and a half.  Not even such a short time period is worth the investment.  Yet, if you find yourself forced into it, know that you will not have to wait long.