March or Die is a 1977

1977 in film

The year 1977 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*In the Academy Awards, Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway and Beatrice Straight win Best Actor and Actress and Supporting Actress awards for Network....

 film directed by Dick Richards

Dick Richards

Dick Richards is an American film director, producer and writer.After working as a photographer, Richards went on to direct commercials. His career in film began by writing and directing a western, The Culpepper Cattle Co. , and continued with such films as Farewell, My Lovely , March or Die , and...

, starring Gene Hackman

Gene Hackman

Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman is an American actor and novelist.Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two, Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde...

, Terence Hill

Terence Hill

Terence Hill is an Italian actor. He is best known for starring in multiple action and western films together with his longtime filmpartner Bud Spencer.-Biography:...

, Catherine Deneuve

Catherine Deneuve

Catherine Deneuve is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof and mysterious beauties in films such as Repulsion and Belle de jour . Deneuve was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1993 for her performance in Indochine; she also won César Awards for that...

 and Ian Holm

Ian Holm

Sir Ian Holm, CBE is an English actor known for his stage work and for many film roles. He received the 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for his performance as Lenny in The Homecoming and the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the title role of King Lear...

.

The film celebrates the 1920s French Foreign Legion

French Foreign Legion

The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...

. Foreign Legion Major Foster (Hackman), a war-weary American haunted by his memories of the recently-ended Great War, is assigned to protect a group of archaeologists at a dig site in Erfoud in Morocco

Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

 from Bedouin revolutionaries led by El-Kirm (based on Moroccan revolutionary Abd el-Krim).

Plot

Soon after the Great War

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, Major Foster (Hackman), the commander of a detachment of the French Foreign Legion, suffers the haunting memories of leading an army of 8,000, now reduced to 200. He became an alcoholic as a result, and his only friend is his faithful Sergeant, Triand (Rufus Narcy).

Foster arrives in Paris to assume a new command: to return to the Rif

Rif

The Rif or Riff is a mainly mountainous region of northern Morocco, with some fertile plains, stretching from Cape Spartel and Tangier in the west to Ras Kebdana and the Melwiyya River in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the river of Wergha in the south.It is part of the...

 (Morocco) to re-establish French authority, as Bedouin and Berber

Berber people

Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...

 tribes have begun to revolt against French rule. Foster is also ordered to escort archeologists from the Louvre

Louvre

The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...

, who are uncovering an ancient city near Erfoud

Erfoud

Erfoud is an oasis town in the Sahara Desert, in in the Meknès-Tafilalet of the Maghreb region in eastern Morocco. It is located at .Erfoud is divided into several districts: Hay Salam, Hay Jdid, Hay Ziz, Hay el Bathaa, Hay Annahda, Hay el Hamri....

 buried by a sand storm 3,000 years ago. The site is the final resting place of a Berber saint, "The Angel of the Desert". Foster was chosen for the assignment, as he is the only French officer alive who served in Morocco before the war. He had helped to develop diplomatic ties with the tribes, especially with El Krim, the de facto leader of the scattered Rif tribes. Foster had vowed to El Krim that there would be no further archeological excavations.

Foster’s force is assembled. Among those who volunteer, willingly or unwillingly, is "the Gypsy" Marco Segrain (Terence Hill), a charming jewel thief famous for a three-year crime spree on the Riviera until French authorities managed to apprehend him. Gypsy befriends three other recruits: the Russian giant Ivan (Jack O'Halloran), formerly a member of the elite bodyguard of the deposed Russian Imperial

Romanov

The House of Romanov was the second and last imperial dynasty to rule over Russia, reigning from 1613 until the February Revolution abolished the crown in 1917...

 family; “Top Hat” Gilbert Francis (André Penvern), a fashionable man and musician who lacks the physical traits needed in a soldier; and Fredrick Hastings (Paul Sherman), a romantic young English aristocrat who missed the Great War.

The four friends are soon disillusioned by the harsh realities of life in the Legion. A fatal fight breaks out among the men while traveling to Morocco over a homophobic insult to Maj. Foster's honor, to which Sgt. Triand takes exception. Foster does not hesitate to harshly discipline his men, especially Marco, who frequently disobeys orders, though he does care for his men. During the voyage, Marco charms Mme. Picard (Catherine Deneuve), daughter of a murdered archaeologist.

During their land journey to the Legion fortress, the train carrying the Legionnaires and the archaeological team is stopped by El Krim (Ian Holm) and his men. El Krim greets his old friend Foster but also declares that he is determined to unite the Berber tribes to drive the French out of Morocco. El Krim gives a "gift" to Foster to take back to the Premier of France: the archeologists of an earlier dig, who have been blinded and whose tongues have been cut out. He warns Foster not continue the excavation.

Training in the desert is so harsh, it pushes Top Hat to the point of suicide. Later, at the digging site, Hastings is kidnapped while on guard duty and tortured to death by one of El Krim’s men, whom El Krim excuses as being merely over-zealous. Marco retaliates. Instead of disciplining him, Foster merely defends him, using El Krim’s previous excuse for the actions of his own man.

Eventually, the tomb of the Angel of the Desert is found, and her golden sarcophagus is excavated. Foster offers it to El Krim as a token of peace, but El Krim rallies the warriors of all Bedouin tribes to fight a climactic battle. With the Legionnaires being heavily outnumbered, the digging site is eventually over-run. Ivan is killed, but Marco fights on, single-handedly fending off a flank attack. When Foster is killed, El Krim immediately calls off the fight, sending the surviving Legionnaires “to tell the world what happened” and out of respect for his dead friend.

There are two endings: the TV version ends with Marco taking up Mme Picard's offer to desert. The theatrical ending shows Marco (after having been promoted for his bravery in battle) staying behind and training more Legionnaire recruits, welcoming them by reiterating Foster's warning: "If the desert doesn't get you, the Arabs will. If the Arabs don't get you, the Legion will. And if the Legion doesn't, then I will. I don't know which is worse."

Cast

Actor	Character
Gene Hackman Gene Hackman Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman is an American actor and novelist.Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two, Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde...	Major William Sharman Foster
Terence Hill Terence Hill Terence Hill is an Italian actor. He is best known for starring in multiple action and western films together with his longtime filmpartner Bud Spencer.-Biography:...	Marco Segrain
Catherine Deneuve Catherine Deneuve Catherine Deneuve is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof and mysterious beauties in films such as Repulsion and Belle de jour . Deneuve was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1993 for her performance in Indochine; she also won César Awards for that...	Simone Picard
Max von Sydow Max von Sydow Max von Sydow is a Swedish actor. He has also held French citizenship since 2002. He has starred in many films and had supporting roles in dozens more...	Francois Marneau
Ian Holm Ian Holm Sir Ian Holm, CBE is an English actor known for his stage work and for many film roles. He received the 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for his performance as Lenny in The Homecoming and the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the title role of King Lear...	El Krim
Jack O'Halloran Jack O'Halloran Jack O'Halloran is an American ex-boxer and actor.-Boxing:O'Halloran was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Fighting as "Irish" Jack O'Halloran out of Boston, Massachusetts, he was a heavyweight boxing contender active from 1966 to 1974...	Ivan
Rufus Rufus (actor) Rufus is the stage name of Italo-French actor Jacques Narcy. He is also called Zio Vittorio...	Sgt. Triand
Marcel Bozzuffi Marcel Bozzuffi Marcel Bozzuffi was a French film actor, perhaps best remembered for his role as a brutal hitman in the Oscar-winning US film The French Connection...	Lt. Fontaine
Andre Penvern	Top Hat
Paul Sherman	Fred Hastings
Vernon Dobtcheff Vernon Dobtcheff Vernon Dobtcheff is a French and British actor.Dobtcheff was born in Nîmes, France, to a family of Russian descent. He attended Ascham Preparatory School in Eastbourne, Sussex, England, in the 1940s, where he won the Acting Cup...	Mean Corporal
Marne Maitland Marne Maitland James Marne Maitland was an Anglo-Indian character actor in British films and television programmes.He made his film debut in Cairo Road , and went onto be type cast as villains from the Far East, particularly for Hammer Film Productions...	Leon
Gigi Bonos	Andre
Wolf Kahler Wolf Kahler Wolf Kahler is a German actor.Born in Kiel, since 1975 he has appeared in many US and UK television and film productions. Due to his height - he is 6 feet 2 inches tall - sharp features, blond hair and blue eyes he is often cast in roles as Nazis or other unsympathetic German characters...	First German
Mathias Hell	Second German
Jean Champion Jean Champion Jean Champion was a French film actor. He appeared in 60 films between 1962 and 1996.-Selected filmography:* The Umbrellas of Cherbourg * Le Cercle rouge * The Invitation...	Minister
Walter Gotell Walter Gotell Walter Gotell was a German actor, known for his role as General Gogol, head of the KGB, in the James Bond film series.Gotell was born in Bonn, Germany; his family emigrated to the United Kingdom after the Nazis came to power...	Col. Lamont
Paul Antrim	Mollard
Catherine Willmer	Petite Lady
Arnold Diamond	Husband
Maurice Arden	Pierre Lahoud
Albert Woods Albert Woods Sir Albert William Woods, GCVO, KCB, KCMG, KGStJ, FSA was an English officer of arms. The Woods family has a firm tradition at the College of Arms. Albert Woods was the son of Sir William Woods, Garter Principal King of Arms from 1838 until his death in 1842...	Henri Delacorte
Liliane Rovere	Lola
Elisabeth Mortensen	French Street Girl
Francois Valorbe	Detective
Villena Villena Villena is a city in Spain, in the Valencian Community. It is located at the northwest part of Alicante, and borders to the west with Castilla-La Mancha and Murcia, to the north with the province of Valencia and to the east and south with the province of Alicante. It is the capital of the comarca...	Gendarme
Ernest Misko	Aide in Minister's office
Guy Deghy	Ship's Captain
Jean Rougerie	Legionnaire 1 (at station)
Guy Mairesse Guy Mairesse Guy Mairesse was a racing driver from France. He participated in 3 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on September 3, 1950...	Legionnaire 2 (at station)
Eve Brenner	Singing Girl
Guy Marly	Singing Legionnaire
Margaret Modlin	Lady in Black