Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Absolutely Fantastic

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

This is a masterpiece, an epic tragedy that resembles a critical and uncovered chapter of human's struggle against discrimination, poverty, tyranny and inequality, this movie explains a lot about the diversity of the modern days French society and the historical right of Arabs in France through the sacrifices of their ancestors to liberate France when it was in its weakest state, defeated, occupied and humiliated.The original title in French is "indigènes" (indigenous) which refers to the native North Africans in French culture, I find this title more relevant than the English more commercial one "Days of Glory".For the first half of the movie I wasn't getting the "glory" in nomad soldiers from the remote villages or Algerian mountains recruited in the French army to liberate France from German invasion! that was absolute dishonor according to my principles, it was obvious that French commanders don't give a damn to the number of casualties between Arab and African soldiers as long as they achieve a symbolic victory over their oppressive opponent, discrimination was institutionalized, even "returning home" meant to French commanders returning to the French mainland, not returning every soldier to his own village in Africa.Soldiers mingle into the French territories with people cheering and praising their courage in the battlefield, Arab soldiers feel they belong to France, Saiid says to a French young lady that was listening to his courage stories: "je libère une pays, c'est mon pays" (I liberate a country, it's my country).Soldiers are now fighting for glory, for the principles of the French Revolution (liberté, égalité, fraternité) and under the slogans of Charles de Gaulle, they fight against Nazism and tyranny, they reject the German temptations to dilute their loyalty to the French army, they still see clear discrimination but still aspire for equality and fair compensation when they complete their mission and liberate what's now their own land, France.Music plays a great part in this movie, soundtrack and songs by Cheb Khalid are a solid part of the tragedy with its Arabic lyrics about alienation and leaving motherland in search for glory, homesickness and yearning to homeland's characteristics.

It's 1943 Algeria. Muslims are recruited to fight for France. They go to Morocco to train and then arrive in Italy in 1944 to fight with the Allies. Saïd Otmari is poor illiterate mountain goat herder. Messaoud Souni is well spoken and falls for a French woman. Sergeant Martinez is a hardened leader willing to send the green recruits into suicidal charges but he hides his personal Arab connections. The men face racism in many blatant ways and Abdelkader gives voice to getting more equality.This is an interesting part of the war that has been white-washed. The movie does struggle with a simple message as the men themselves have infighting about the war and their cause. Some of them fight for the money while others bought into the slogans. There is some good action and a solid final battle.

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.

'Days of Glory' is similar to Spike Lee's 'Miracle at St. Anna' as both films deal with the subject of a minority group's contribution to the war effort in World War II. In Lee's film, the focus is on African-Americans and in 'Days of Glory', Arabic-speaking North Africans. The value of both films are that they chronicle the little-known history of discrimination against these minority group soldiers despite all their sacrifices made during wartime.Toward the beginning of the film, the North African soldiers win a small victory when a Captain rescinds the decision not to serve them tomatoes as part of the their daily rations on a transport ship. But more egregious examples of discrimination which are not reversed are shown such as allowing native 'white' Frenchmen leave while the North Africans get none. Similarly, the whites are always promoted to a higher rank and the Africans always remain in the same subordinate positions. Further resentment is bred when the news media sends pictures and newsreels back home of the white soldiers, giving the false impression that they were the ones doing most of the fighting when in actuality it was the North Africans who were responsible for the bulk of the hand-to-hand combat. The ultimate indignity is referenced at the end of the picture when we learn that all pensions of the North African soldiers were frozen following independence of the French colonies. It's my understanding that this injustice has not been redressed, even to this day.'Glory' focuses on four soldiers at the beginning of their conscription in North Africa, their initial foray into Italy in 1944 and finally, combat operations against the Germans in France proper. We meet Said, an impoverished Algerian goat farmer who signs up despite the protestations of his mother who fears she'll lose him in combat. The actor who plays Said, Jamel Debbouze, actually has one arm in real life, and must keep the missing appendage in his pocket throughout the film in order to maintain the illusion that he's not handicapped. It turns out that Debbouze is actually one of the film's producers who contributed a bit of money to the film's production, so it appears they could not avoid using him.The trick in a movie like this is to avoid hagiography by showing each soldier with an inner life and enough conflict between them to keep things interesting. Perhaps the least successful is the character of Messaoud who falls in love with a French woman and is thwarted by the military censors when the letters he sends to her are never received. The other thing we learn about Messaoud is that he joins the majority of the other soldiers in the unit, taunting Said after Staff Sergeant Martinez makes him his orderly. Said puts a knife to Messaoud's throat as he can no longer endure the taunts which imply that he's Martinez's 'girl'. Messaoud eventually goes AWOL due to the aforementioned discriminatory leave policy in an attempt to see his French lover. He's restored after the brass realize they cannot dispense with his skills as a marksman.Corporal Abdelkader proves to be the film's protagonist. He becomes a corporal after taking an exam (equivalent to a lieutenant in the US Army) and becomes the voice for the rights of the native African minority soldiers. Abdelkader faces Sgt. Martinez down on the ship, winning the right to have the tomatoes served to the men. Later, he's put in the brig after getting into a fight with Martinez over the Army leave policy (instead of the soldiers getting leave, they're forced to watch a French ballet performance inside a tent). Despite Abdelkader's militancy, he's also loyal to France and proves to be courageous in battle. So it's quite sad to see how he's not recognized at war's end and ends up a defeated, lonely man living in a small flat in France, far from his homeland.There's also Yassir, a Moroccan of Berber extraction (one of the Moroccan 'Gourmier' soldiers) who joins in the soldiering for the money. There's a good scene where another soldier prevents him from bashing in the mouth of a dead German soldier and extracting his gold fillings. Later, Yassir is devastated when his brother is killed in combat.Perhaps the best character in the film is Sgt. Martinez, the 'Pied Noir' (a French national whose ancestors probably were of Spanish extraction who had settled in Algeria). Martinez considers himself thoroughly French and does not want to be associated with the Arab culture. When Said discovers a picture of his Arabic mother and asks him about it, Martinez beats him up and warns him not to tell anyone upon pain of death. Martinez gives 'Days of Glory' its flavor as he is almost brutal in the way he treats his troops but at the same time, sticks up for them when dealing with the higher-ups.'Days of Glory' emulates many American pictures in its war scenes. There are some gripping battle scenes and the carnage and horror of war is ably depicted (one unforgettable iconic image shows the soldiers eating a meal with a dead horse in a ditch right in front of them). The battle scene at the end of the picture however, where the unit faces off against a much larger group of Germans in a small town, doesn't really ring true. The Germans march into town, taking no cover, and are picked off too easily by the North Africans.'Days of Glory' is a worthy addition to the pantheon of World War II films. The characters are not all fleshed out but we do learn a great deal of the history of the discrimination endured by these heroic soldiers. Unlike the bloated 'Miracle of St. Anna', 'Glory' features economical editing coupled with a soundtrack highlighted by some haunting Middle Eastern songs.