I've read a number of takes on here that a strong theme for this and particularly with Denis Levant's Galoup is jealousy, but what I thought I saw as more potent and compelling as a consistent idea here was exploring control.

For men in a military situation control is what it's all about, keeping in control of one's own skill set and physicality, being able to control one's body over a big wall or doing push ups or firing a gun or, of course, of one's emotions. It's control that Galoup wants to see with his men but in himself especially; look how he has to make sure those plates are just so, or how his soldiers are ironing their clothes. A Commandant with so little to actually *do* and without any real battle to fight, and may have some self loathing over his station (that's more on the actor's countenance which I'll get to),it's a bad combination. Beau Travail is most fascinating as a series of poetic-meditative-physical portraits on control, the lack of it, losing it and (by the very end) embracing the loss of it.

It's not always a sit that is easiest to take as a conventional narrative - other reviews behave noted the aspect of this all being like dance than a solid plot, like to my mind even another existential film about the mundanity of military men without any goals like Jarhead is more full of action than this - but it is what kept me engaged, more often than not. There are times where it is more functioning like an experimental film where it's about how bodies and masculinity itself can bend and fold and sweat and do a dozen other things (and yes, hugging is as intensive as crawling on the ground under wires, man that's an amazing beat),though I think my expectation of there being more tension, gay or otherwise, between Galoup and Sentain made me wonder "where is this going, ok there's more male bonding over a fire and grunting and oh birthday cake."

Perhaps it's all one steady stream of masculine harrowing malaise and frustration, of how these bodies tasked to do things like (as if prisoners) breaking rocks in the hot African sun or walking as a brooding pack at night on a road making a car practically go around them, it's all of a piece where you can feel director Claire Denis filming this in a distinctly and demandingly poetic style. It's all about what the camera through visual movement, of these bodies and faces - more so by design the bodies, as I don't think any of them outside of Galoup, Sentain, who is the new guy, and Forestier the man above Galoup and has his own tortured military past (Algeria is name dropped),have names to speak of. Adding to this is the music and sound design which is coarse and abrasive, like the feeling of getting one of the soldier's boots under your chin.

In a way it's a more engrossing film to think about once it ends than to experience in the moment. But that But that brings me back to Levant, who definitely makes this closer to a must see than anything. That's really Denis's masterstroke as a filmmaker is to cast him as he's the kind of performer who almost can't help but be interesting when he's doing very little on camera - or I should say I have to wonder how sparse the screenplay was or if at times Denis gave Levant direction to do something and he took it to a place she wasn't expecting.

Of course when he goes large with his movements he is mesmerizing, but it's also how he can give a glance or a look to someone in his group of legionnaires, or of course Sentain who I wish got a few more lines (I don't even need more of a backstory than what we got, just a little more personality to make Galoup's obsessiveness over him make sense). And once it gets towards the latter part of the film, where this tension is mounting even further for Galoup, Levant can show it through his inaction if that makes sense, how he lays on a bed or holds a gun or drives away in the truck in that desolate wasteland. There's so much in his eyes, in even something out of his control like a throbbing vein, it's wonderful work (and all the more surprising he didn't get time to do prep work due to scheduling issues, according to an interview with Criterion.

Aa for the dancing at the end, I'm sure other writers have spoken more at wiser length than I can, but it does put to a great point what I mentioned earlier about control; he's lost his station in life but now he's free to tear up the friggin dance floor and let go of the control that he's held on to - or maybe opposite that it's held over him. The rigors of masculinity and discipline, of how men are "supposed" to be in some unspoken but totally recognized code of conduct or manners or whatever is on display throughout the film, to a practical fetishistic degree is on display in Beau Travail, and we know it is because Denis contrasts it with the native Djibuti peoples who are more natural and calm and friendly and sensual, and if the ending is extraordinary it's because the filmmakers and Levant earn this explosion of emotional release (or rescue even) from the patriarchal chokehold of control.

So, this is unique and with an absorbing lead performance. If it let me in even a smidgen more emotionally it'd be one of my favorite films of its year.

I understand that Claire Denis has made a number of movies addressing France's colonial history. Therefore, her "Beau travail" is par for the course. The movie takes place on a military base in Djibouti*. One can see a stark contrast between modernized France and Djibouti, where people have to walk around selling things to make a living.

It was only after watching the movie that I learned that it's based on Herman Melville's "Billy Budd". I recently saw Peter Ustinov's 1962 movie version of that novel. I would not have made the connection. No matter, it's an intense, interesting movie with complex characters. It won't be for everyone, but how often is it that we even get to see Djibouti onscreen? I recommend it.

*Djibouti also hosts both a US military base and a Chinese one. Sounds precarious.

1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die is a book that has given me many titles I would never heard of or seen before reading it, and this French film is another of those films inside that I was looking forward to trying. Basically ex-Foreign Legion master sergeant officer Galoup (Denis Lavant) is reminiscing about his time leading his men, under the direction of Commander Bruno Forestier (Michel Subor),in the desert, mostly supervising the psychical exercise and other routine duties. The troop is one day joined by good looking, socially skilled and bold Gilles Sentain (Grégoire Colin),who Galoup becomes malicious of, there are suggestions of possible homosexual feelings awakened as well. There is a point when Sentain disobeys his orders to save another soldier, and there is a chance to destroy him for the master sergeant, so he punishes him sticking him in the middle of the desert and forced to walk back to base. Galoup makes this impossible for him with the lack of drinking water and a broken compass, so Sentain looks doomed to suffer exhaustion and dehydration, but he is found and rescued on the salt flats by a group of Djiboutis. In the end Galoup is given a court martial, his time ended in the Foreign Legion and sent back to France, and he is supposedly going to commit suicide, but the ending seems to be an all over the place interpretive dance. The acting is as good as you can get, especially good is Lavant, I may not have understood the full story, but I was engaged by many moments of the film. Most memorable moments were the fantastic disco scenes with great soundtrack, like the French dub of "Kiss Kiss" by Holly Valance (or "Simarik"),and the final dance to "The Rhythm of the Night" by Corona, and the exercise training and desert walk scenes stand out, overall it is an intriguing psychological drama. Very good!