March or Die

The plot is a good one: a unit of the Foreign Legion is assigned to protect an archaeological dig, and the military presence results in all-out war between the unwelcome European visitors and the local Arab groups. The casting, too, is interesting: Hackman as an Army officer haunted by his involvement in the First World War; Deneuve and von Sydow as the archaeologists; Holm - in a rather silly bit of racial impersonation - as the resident mad mullah. Goodman's script, however, leaves everybody stranded in the desert - and the self-conscious attempt to duplicate the big-league excitements of Zulu invites unfavourable comparisons.