Fort Saganne (1994)

Alain Corneau's sand-and-sun epic about a soldier's adventures in the Sahara Desert from 1911 until World War I is, despite its excruciating ironies about bravery and patriotism, a rather torpid affair. The ubiquitous Gerard Depardieu plays the good soldier, while the ravishing Catherine Deneuve shows up as a feisty journalist. Despite the lavish appointments of the Paris scenes and a few trumped-up moments, such as a memorable amputation, Fort Saganne is only vaguely interesting — and at three hours as seemingly endless as the desert itself.

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