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March or Die (film)

March or Die

Movie · 1977 · 15 people

Dick Richards directed March or Die, a British war drama of 1977 that is sometimes also described as an adventure film. Made by ITC Entertainment in English, it runs 103 minutes, and David Zelag Goodman wrote the screenplay. Known in France as Il était une fois la Légion, in Germany as Marschier oder stirb and in Russia as Legionery, it opened in the United States on 5 August 1977 and in West Germany on 8 September 1977.

The story begins when a detachment of the French Foreign Legion is posted to Morocco in the 1920s. Gene Hackman plays Major Foster, a war-weary American haunted by memories of the Great War, which has only just ended. He is expected to guard archaeologists working at a dig near Erfoud, led by François Marneau. Among his men is Marco Segrain, a charming burglar who joined the Legion to escape prison, played by Terence Hill. Opposing them is El-Krim (Ian Holm), a powerful Rif chief inspired by the real Moroccan revolutionary Abd el-Krim, who sets out to stop the small column. Catherine Deneuve, Max von Sydow and Rufus complete the cast.

The tune Plaisir d'amour, about lost love and regret, returns again and again as the main musical theme. The film celebrates the Legion and its 1920s world.

DirectorDick Richards
Production companyITC Entertainment

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Cast

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Catherine Deneuve Catherine Deneuve Film actor · 83 years old Rufus Rufus Actor · 83 years old Gene Hackman Terence Hill Max von Sydow Jack O'Halloran Ian Holm Marcel Bozzuffi Vernon Dobtcheff Walter Gotell Lila Kedrova Clément Harari Liliane Rovère Jean Rougerie André Penvern

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Through different eyes

Yeşilçam Nostalgic A viewer raised on the classics, looking for warm storytelling and strong acting.

To my mind the heart of March or Die beats in its music: Plaisir d'amour, a song of lost love and regret, keeps returning and lends the desert adventure an unexpected melancholy. Seeing Gene Hackman, Catherine Deneuve, Max von Sydow and Terence Hill in the same credits is a gift in itself for anyone who misses the big productions of the seventies. A war-weary major and a burglar who joined the Legion to escape prison form the familiar, very human pairing of the old adventure films. Viewers used to today's fast cutting may find it heavy going, but the worth of such stories lies in their lack of hurry.

Action & Thriller Fan Puts pace, tension and set pieces first; little patience for slow drama.

The Legion, the desert, a small column and a powerful Rif chief standing in its way: on paper it is a full-blown adventure setup. But the film builds itself as a war drama, and it cares as much about a major weighed down by memories of the Great War as about the fighting. If you want a fast pace, that weight asks for patience. The real tension comes from one question: can the little column get through?

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

The film builds a story that celebrates the French Foreign Legion and its 1920s world, and from today's vantage point that is exactly what deserves discussion. The opposing El-Krim is inspired by a real Moroccan revolutionary, Abd el-Krim, yet in the story he functions mostly as an obstacle in the column's path. At the same time, an American major marked by the Great War and a burglar who joined to escape prison suggest the Legion can also be read as a place that gathered post-war Europe's drifting people. That the column's task is to guard a European archaeological dig is a telling detail about how Europe looked at North Africa.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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