(Video) Lost Command - Đội Quân Mất Tích (France, 1966, Eng. Sub.) [Alain Delon Movie]

(ALSO KNOWN AS: NOT FOR HONOR AND GLORY | THE CENTURIONS)
Rating:  Unrated
Genre:  Classics , Action & Adventure
Directed By:  Mark Robson
Written By:  Nelson Gidding
In Theaters:  Sep 14, 1966 Wide
On DVD:  Jun 25, 2002
Runtime:  2 hr. 10 min.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Lost Command is a 1966 film shot in Spain and based on the book Les centurions by Jean Lartéguy. The plot concerns the French war in Algeria (although the film begins with the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in Indochina). The film is often erroneously reviewed as depicting French Foreign Legionnaires when they are actually French Colonial Paratroops (and referred to as such in the film).

In the film the unit that is formed in Algeria that the film revolves around is the fictional 10ème Regiment de Parachutiste Coloniaux which, in the French military tradition, would be abbreviated 10e RPC. Of course, translated, it is the 10th Colonial Parachute Regiment. At the first of the film, during the attack at Dien Bien Phu, the unit that the characters belong to is not named.

Lost Command là bộ phim sản xuất năm 1966, được quay ở Tây Ban Nha và dựa theo quyển sách Les Centurions của Jean Lartéguy.  Cốt chuyện kể về cuộc chiến tranh của Pháp ở Algeria (mặc dù bộ phim bắt đầu với thất bại của người Pháp tại Điện Biên Phủ ở Đông Dương).  Bộ phim thường được đánh giá sai lầm là miêu tả đội lính lê dương nước ngoài người Pháp khi họ thực ra là những người lính nhảy dù của thực dân Pháp (và được đề cập đến như thế trong bộ phim).

Trong bộ phim, đơn vị được thành lập ở Algeria mà bô phim xoay quanh là đơn vị hư cấu 10ème Regiment de Parachutiste Coloniaux, mà trong truyền thống quân sự ở Pháp, thường được viết tắt là 10e RPC.  Dĩ nhiên, khi dịch, nó là Trung Đội Nhảy Dù Thực Dân thứ 10.  Ở đầu phim, trong suốt cuộc tấn công ở Điện Biên Phủ, đơn vị mà các nhân vật trực thuộc đã không được làm rõ.  

FULL SYNOPSIS

After the French defeat in Indochina, a paratroop unit commanded by Lieut. Col. Pierre Raspeguy returns by sea to France. One of the officers, Ben Mahidi, an Arab, leaves the transport at Algiers to visit his family. Uncertain of his own future, Raspeguy visits the Countess de Clairefons, the influential widow of one of the officers killed in action. Despite his provincialism, the countess falls in love with Raspeguy and arranges for his transfer to a crucial trouble spot in Algeria; she promises to marry him if he returns as a general. Raspeguy persuades two of him former officers, Esclavier and Boisfeuras, to help him whip his untrained regiment into a fighting unit. They learn that Ben Mahidi has joined the Algerian terrorists who are carrying on a campaign of violence against the resident French, and Raspeguy and his now well-trained regiment retaliate. Meanwhile, Esclavier has been having an affair with the beautiful Aicha, who has concealed the fact that she is Ben Mahidi's sister. Aicha takes advantage of her opportunity to divert French detonators to her brother's headquarters; but when Esclavier discovers the theft he beats her into revealing Ben Mahidi's hiding place. After promising her that her brother's life will be spared, he has Aicha sent to Paris for imprisonment. Boisfeuras storms the terrorists' stronghold and kills all of the defenders, including Ben Mahidi. Raspeguy condones the action, though Esclavier accuses him of having become a beast. Some days later, as the Countess de Clairefons proudly watches Raspeguy receiving his insignia for the rank of general, Esclavier, now in mufti, watches young Algerians scrawl Indépendance on barracks walls.

Lost Command (1966)

Lost Command (1966) is typical of a number of multinational action movies made in the first half of the 60s, in which Latinos play Frenchmen, American and Italian actors play Algerians, and European locations substitute for North Africa and Southeast Asia. What sets The Lost Command apart from similar war dramas is territory rarely covered on the screen - the efforts of the French government to quell rebellion and hang on to its colonies in Indochina and Algeria. Released when America's involvement in Viet Nam was notably increasing, it may provide some insight into the historical background of the conflict and what the U.S. inherited from France, but as with a majority of action pictures, particularly those produced by Hollywood, it tends to move history into the background in favor of a more personal drama in which the conflicts are more internal than societal. Nevertheless, the story, based on an acclaimed French novel, was praised by experts for hewing fairly closely to historical and military facts, even if it was not a huge success with general audiences.

Mexican-born Anthony Quinn plays a French army officer whose battalion is captured and defeated by Vietnamese rebel forces because reinforcements fail to arrive in time. Heading for forced retirement after a treaty is signed between France and its former colony, he fights for one last chance to redeem himself. He's given that opportunity leading a band of roughneck forces in the Algerian War. The plot pits the determined, often brutal French military against a political establishment that urges them on even as they tie their hands. 

Lost Command depicts violent acts of reprisal against civilians by French soldiers after the killing of their own troops by rebels. It also opens up an argument between fellow officer Alain Delon as a moral center against Quinn's more "pragmatic" commander over the use of torture (not directly shown on screen). It never quite comes to grips with the issue, painting torture as something of a necessary evil while hedging bets with the Delon character's distaste for his countrymen's actions. This is in marked contrast to another film released around the same time, The Battle of Algiers (1966), that took a documentary approach to the Algerian conflict, graphically depicting torture and military brutality, for which it was banned in France upon its initial release and rarely seen elsewhere in Europe.

As stated above, ethnicities were often wildly mixed in these multinational productions, but Lost Command surely has one of the strangest bits of such casting with Jewish-American actor George Segal playing an Arab-born officer who leaves the French Army after its defeat in Indochina to fight for his people against Quinn and his forces in North Africa. Italian actress Claudia Cardinale plays his beautiful sister Aicha, who helps smuggle bombs and guns in and out of the Casbah. At least she is explained as an effective infiltration agent because of her ability to look "European."

This was the third time Delon and Cardinale appeared together on film, having been paired previously in Rocco and His Brothers (1960) and The Leopard (1963), both directed by Luchino Visconti.

The film was produced and directed by Mark Robson, whose widely varied career began in the legendary RKO horror unit headed by Val Lewton in the 1940s. After editing some of the finest of that unit's productions, including Cat People (1942) and I Walked with a Zombie (1943) not to mention uncredited work on The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) Robson made an impressive debut under Lewton's command with The Seventh Victim (1943), a story of Satanism set in New York's Greenwich Village. He got his earliest widespread acclaim, including his first of four Directors Guild nominations, for the hard-hitting boxing drama Champion (1949). From there his career meandered through a number of action films, the occasional comedy, and blockbuster melodramas such as Peyton Place (1957), his first Academy Award nomination, and Valley of the Dolls (1967). Robson died of a heart attack at the age of 64 during post-production of his final film, Avalanche Express (1979).

The Lost Command was shot on location in Spain by award-winning cinematographer Robert Surtees (Ben-Hur [1959], The Graduate, [1967], The Last Picture Show, [1971]). Its original title, taken directly from the 1960 novel on which it was based, was "The Centurions." During production the working title was "Not for Honor and Glory."

Director: Mark Robson

Producer: Mark Robson

Screenplay: Nelson Gidding, based on the novel The Centurions by Jean Larteguy

Cinematography: Robert Surtees

Editing: Dorothy Spencer

Art Direction: John Stoll

Original Music: Franz Waxman

Cast: Anthony Quinn (Lt. Col. Pierre Raspeguy), Alain Delon (Capt. Phillipe Esclavier), George Segal (Mahidi), Michele Morgan (Countess de Clairefons), Claudia Cardinale (Aicha).

C-129m. Letterboxed.

by Rob Nixon