the French soldier
my favorite soldier besides Belushi is the french soldier. i like his style mainly and his funny moments. I dont know why this movie is so rare. its such a great flick. this movie belongs in my top 10.
shareI love almost ewery caracter as much as Belushis in this one.
But Frencie is awesome. With classic line ``Open your mouth again, and i cut you like a Fish.`` And a superb scene is were he telling hes story about hes wounderfull Villige that the Nazis have destroyed for him. And the German prisoner stands and listen, and starts to cry for what hes countrymen have done. And really funny when he is acting hes eating. And he dies as a hero.
This movie is fantastic. Its definetly on my top 10 also.
I love hove they haft to be carefull with weapons, ammo and water.
Dawn of the Dead ´78 is the best movie ever.
I agree, the French character was superb. They really fleshed out his role with his story. I would have liked to have seen him carrying a French weapon like the MAS 36, or the MAS 38 SMG, but that would have been too much to ask for.
A lot of people criticized the ending; how elite Afrika Korps soldiers, were held off by so few men. I'm sure that 30 Afrika Korp troops, thirsty or not, would have outflanked and taken the position in less than an hour in reality. Also it portrayed the enemy as all mad Nazis, when in truth, the Afrika Korp were professionals and particularly fair with their European captives, given the terrain and general conditions. The Allies, of course, had no racial division, and were all noble to a fault.(yeah, right)
For all of these inaccuracies, I think that the film was trying to be so faithful to the original, that it was compelled to perpetuate some of the stereotypes that were considered the 'Norm' in the 1940's. This was admittedly a star vehicle for Humphrey Bogart and a propoganda film, so there isn't much you can to do with re-imagining the film without totally changing it. I am not disappointed that they were faithful to the original. I look at this film as an 'homage' to the film noir original.
I liked it for what it was.
Jim
It is gratifying to read comments by people who understand my approach to the remake. In fact we reduced the propagandistic elements of the 1943 original considerably, but the 9 men holding off a battalion is a mandated cliche of the genre. The 1943 original was itself based on a Russian 1936 film called The 14. We made the film in Australia. The Frenchman was played by Michael Masse, a very clever American actor, who convinced me at the audition that he was French - because I insisted the part would have to be played by a genuine Frenchman - and he never broke cover on or off the set till the very last day of our 18 day shoot. Great actor. This film should come out on DVD, but Tri-Star seem unaware of its potential. Glad you liked it.
BTS-director.
Congratulations!!!!
It was a great movie, even compared with the '40s version.
M
Thank you for a fantastic movie!
Interesting facts to! Amazing story about Michael Masse.
The opening in this movie are fantastic!
I hop this movie will be on DVD some day! One of the DVD - realeses i definetly waiting most for.
Dawn of the Dead ´78 is the best movie ever.
Ok I'm convinced. After loving the orginal Bogart version for so many years I wasn't at all interested with the remake, ie, "Gone in Sixty Seconds", The Italian JoB", etc. But after reading the comments here I would like to get and see the movie. But is it still unavailable or rare? A year has gone by since these posts. Thanks.
shareYou can still get this movie on Amazon UK in VHS, but I am having a heck of a time finding it on DVD.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sahara-James-Belushi/dp/B00004CS35/sr=1-1/qid=1171894752/ref=pd_bowtega_1/202-3722237-7384619?ie=UTF8&s=video
Good luck,
Jim
One thing that baffled me - you made the film in Australia, but you have Simon Westaway's character talking about the 'desert around Gundagai.' Gundagai is on the Murrumbidgee River, and is prime grazing country - it's usually green even when the surrounding country is in drought.
shareInteresting facts. He mentiones Gundagai alot of times.
Dawn of the Dead ´78 is the best movie ever.
This was a truly GREAT film. It had so many wonderful scenes that weren't in the original. The original was great of course, but the scene with Tambul and his "four wives," Frenchie's story ("I have too much hate to be good resistance") really make this film. Also ("I'm all they could spare. The others are having tea.")
If only the Sergeant had let Frenchie off the prisoner, Tambul might still be alive! :-( Not that I would have done it either if I were in his position.
Congratulations on making a terrific film and I hope it sees a proper release on dvd or blu-ray some day.
My favorite line, in the original and the remake, is, I like your cigarettes.
I do like the fact that the propaganda aspect of the movie was watered down in the remake.
I missed this film when it first came out, and a friend gave me an original VHS. I really enjoyed it! Jim Belushi was better than I expected, and Michael Masse stole every scene he was in.
There was humor, action, tension, joy, sadness, friendship, hate, brotherhood, and it all fit into a small scale battle out in some God-forsaken North African patch of desert. This is an underrated film that should be more popular than it is.
I am leery of false or anonymous claims online, so to set the record straight, the original source of the Bogart film was 'The Thirteen' by Mikhail Romm (not 'The 14') It may seem picky to some, but I believe in giving credit where it's due. If it's a simple typo, no hard feelings :)
Whether you've the Bogart version or not, (I have) this is still an enjoyable movie.
As a side note, it's one that I can watch with my 11 and 12- year old kids. The language and violence (yes, there's some!) are much more conservative than most movies today, especially for a war picture, and as a parent, I really appreciate that!
In fact we reduced the propagandistic elements of the 1943 original considerably,
Except for Major von Falken executing his one of his own soldiers. That seemed overly gratuitous to me. And it was the sympathetic German, Bergman, too. The one Gunn was nice to. Von Falken even rubs it when he talks to Gunn later.
Far from reducing propagandistic elements, it seemed to be playing up the sneeringly evil Nazi villain stereotype.
Admittedly, in the original, the Germans shot Leroux in the back after his parley with von Falken went sour, but it seems weird you'd change that to Leroux being the (almost literal) backstabber, giving the moral high ground to the Germans in that scene, but at the same time have von Falken be a typical cartoonish Nazi villain who shoots his own men.
"I mean, really, how many times will you look under Jabba's manboobs?" share
Actually I think Leroux ("Frenchie") was kind of a jerk. He unfairly uses von Schletow (the pilot) as a proxy for his (adittedly understandable) hatred of Germans, and when von Schletow quite reasonably points out that he, personally, had nothing to do with the destruction of Leroux's village and therefore doesn't deserve this treatment from the Frenchman, Leroux threatens to kill him.
I lost sympathy for Leroux after that. Von Schletow made a perfectly good point, and the only response Leroux can think of is a death threat?
Also, how he dies is entirely his own fault. He pretends to negotiate just to kill von Falken and gets himself shot in the process.
In the original, he didn't kill von Falken and the Germans shot him in the back as he was returning. The Germans were genuinely bad, there. Here, Leroux gives up the moral high ground by murdering von Falken during a parley, and the Germans are entirely justified in shooting him in retaliation.
"I mean, really, how many times will you look under Jabba's manboobs?"
Leroux sacrifices his life in order to leave the German troops with no commanders. I thought it was the high road. I mean, you are at war in the middle of the desert trying to stall the Nazis
And the German who gave away the Nazi info definitely would have been shot.
Short Cut, Draw Blood