H_Mahran 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.

Paul Allaer "Glory Days" (2006 release from France/Morocco/Belgium; original title "Indigènes" (The Indigenous); 120 min.) brings the story of a band of North Africans fighting to liberate France. As the movie opens, we are told it is "Algeria - 1943" and we see a Muslim recruiter shouting "We must liberate France", to the enthusiastic reaction of the crowd. Next we switch to "Morocco - 1943", where a group of men is training to get battle ready. We then go to "Italy - 1944", where these North Africans encounter their first meaningful action against the Germans. At this point we're not even 15 minutes into the movie but to tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.Couple of comments: first, this is a solid war drama with some serious social undercurrents. The battle scenes are intense and realistic (even if the choice of tanks and guns may not always be 100% accurate according to history). Also, the historical significance of what these men accomplished cannot but denied. This is even more the case when you consider the social environment of these North African Muslims: the French discriminate openly and without scruples (as this was the accepted norm 70+ years ago), and don't hide their disdain towards them. Contrast this to the almost naïve love for "the motherland" (i.e. France), even though none of them has ever been there until the French shipped them there to fight the Nazis. It just makes you wonder why the North Africans felt that way. The movie features a bunch of no-names (for me anyway), who bring mostly heartfelt performances."Glory Days" scored an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language movie in 2007, and it is easy to see why: engaging war drama, with important underlying social issues. I recently stumbled upon this movie while browsing the foreign language section at my local library. So glad I picked this up. "Glory Days" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

LaughingOctopus I see most of the reviews here say this a really good movie, so maybe my judgment is off. But I found the movie very boring and predictable, and pretty corny in quite a few of the scenes.And I don't see how no one else noticed, but the ending of this film is a complete rip off of "Saving Private Ryan". The troops are held up in a small town, many German troops are coming to the town, so they are out numbered, but do fight back. They end up killing a lot of the German, but quite a few of the main characters are lost, then right when the main character is about to die, the French soldiers just come to save him. Then the main character is at the cemetery as an old man mourning his sergeant who had died in the battle. That is completely parallel to the ending of "Saving Private Ryan", this movie stole the ending pretty much.If you have not seen it, watch "Saving Private Ryan". It is a much better movie than this one, I know I just ruined the ending for you, but the movie is still a really good movie. It manages to entertain throughout the whole movie, and not rip off others.

Theo Robertson There's two types of French film . 1 ) The sort that is beloved by Cahiers Du Cinema that often feature people standing about talking about existentialist themes and often don't find a market outside France 2 ) The sort that is despised by Cahiers Du Cinema that often feature action and plot and appeal to an international market DAYS OF GLORY is certainly in the second camp . The problem is that it's a bit too international . The theme of colonial soldiers fighting for the mother country could have easily have featured British dominion troops fighting in the Boer war , of Indian troops fighting at El Alamein or even of black Americans fighting in the second world war . Some people on this page have criticised this movie as not being a Gallic version of GLORY and you can see their point . There's little in the way of an idiosyncratic voice Worse still despite the subtitles you could easily be watching a war film that was made in Hollywood . Much of the plot could have easily been lifted from Sam Fuller's THE BIG RED ONE as the story jumps from North Africa , Italy and eventually France . It's also impossible not to notice that the final climatic battle owes a lot to the climax of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN . Perhaps that's why DAYS OF GLORY received high praise down to its familiar story that English speaking fans of war films have seen so many times before ?It could have been much worse though . On a technical level it's a competent enough movie and it doesn't go overboard that the Goumier troops are some how slaves press-ganged in to joining the Free French forces but it does effectively ignore the sometimes horrendous reputation Goumier troops had in Axis territories where women are concerned . The 1960 Italian film TWO WOMEN goes in to this in detail and you can imagine that's why the protagonists service in Italy is skated over very slightly . One wonders if the producers might have been worried about an international audience being alienated by bringing up the subject in any length ? As it it stands DAYS OF GLORY is a good enough war film though very traditional