Days of Glory
During World War 1, the French started to exploit their colonial subjects as soldiers between 1914 and 1948, because of the French’s conscription of colonial subjects that it can be a process of assimilation, and it means sharing French interests and obligations of military service with native Frenchmen. However, In reality, indigenous troops encountered discrimination in a restriction due to the cognition that they were incapable of performing, or even being trained to perform. The movie, Days of Glory, portraits well the anti-French sentiment that arose from the inequality in the French army between the French troops and the colonial troops towards the end of the war.
The movie starts with the story showing how French troops consist of colonial soldiers who wants to indulge into freedom .The director of the movie set up various characters having different reasons for fighting against the Germans. For example, Said fought for the reason that he has a possibility to go back to his country, Abdelkader to be promoted into a higher military rank, Messaoud to reunite with a French woman whom he fell in love with, or for the reason of feeling the same pride a French soldier feels when fighting. However, through the course of the movie, even if most of them have started to have feelings of doubt towards themselves and what they mean to the French, they would decided to continue and try even harder in order to obtain recognition from the French. Though Abdelkader decides to go forward in order to obtain recognition from the French, towards the end he realizes that even though he was the only survivor he did not achieve any recognition from the French army and that he wouldn’t be seen as more than just a corporal. Even in death, his fellow soldiers did not achieve the honor of being recognized as part of the french army since their graves are marked as foreign helpers of the French troops.
There are five scenes showing how the colonial soldiers are being treated differently from the native French soldiers in matters of being promoted into a higher military rank, learning French, and basic necessities for military life such as rations, morale-boosting concert, and obtaining vacations.
(Promotion)
There was a limitation for colonial soldiers reaching high rank positions within the French army. Evidence from the assigned readings prove this. As an example, Fotargy writes, “If the Moroccans occupied a high place in the hierarchy of martial worthy that was conventional wisdom in the French Army, they still did not rank as high as native Frenchmen.” (Fotargy p.79). The movie also addresses this issue. At the minute 57:33, in a conversation with a french captain, sergeant Martinez complaints that “the french get a promotion before anyone from North Africa”. Moreover, Sgt Martinez says that he doesn’t want a promotion because his men deserve it more, however the captain simply walks away when faced with Martinez’s rationale. The author Fogarty adds up to the promotion bias against the Africans when he writes, “These officers indigenous, merely a “dead letter” compared to French officers” faced discrimination and derision from their French colleagues, as well as insurmountable obstacles to advancement and a distinct lack of authority over their subordinates, he argued.” (Fotargy p.97)
(Food)
When it came to the distribution of provisions,the colonial troops were excluded from being distributed tomatoes, and felt disrespected and insulted by the kitchen staff with phrases such as “No tomatoes for you. Move!” It would be the direct scene that Indigenous troops were allowed to eat only cheap food such as kidney beans. In this scene starting at minute 28, we can observe the anger that the colonial troops felt towards the French discrimination when they react by crushing the crate of tomatoes and saying, “No one will have any now.” This situation escalated so fast that the French started to worry about a mutiny taking place. In the course of this dispute, Martinez who is an Algerian sergeant played an important role as a mediator between the colonial soldiers and French officers and managed was able to manage the situation well.
(Language)
Language was an important barrier that separated the colonial troops from the native French troops. Fotargy approaches this topic when he writes how “Language, a tool that ought to have enhanced the integration of these men into the French nation for which they were fighting and dying, actually served to isolate them, retarding or preventing their full participation in French life.” (Fotargy p.135)
The movie also seems to agree with Fogarty’s statement. In the scene at minute 42:13, corporal Abdelkader quotes the following excerpt of the Infantry NCO’s Handbook to Sgt Martinez, “ No soldier should return home illiterate from the army.Classes are obligatory for all men upon their enlistment.” However, this doesn’t sit well with Sgt Martinez who feels challenged and in response asks Said if he would like to learn how to write. Under the pressure of the Sgt, Said just answers that it is too late even though he had initially shown an interest when he saw Abdelkader reading the book.
(Basic necessities)
Not only in the distribution of provisions, but the colonial soldiers could not reap the benefits from the basic necessities for military life. In the scene at minute 67, we can see how their native culture in a sense was thoroughly ignored by being rewarded by watching a French Ballet show as a morale-boosting concert. Furthermore, the colonial subjects even could not obtain vacations like the native French soldiers have. Product of this, Messaoud tries to escape in order to see his loved one, however he gets apprehended and thrown in a cell. When asked why he did it, Messaoud answers, “ The French get to leave, we get nothing. Is that normal?”. There was no exception about injustice towards the colonial troops in regards towards an international couple, the love letters from Messaoud were totally excluded from being sent by the postal officers who classified the letters as “ Censored.” When Irene, Messaoud’s love interest shows up to ask for news about him the staff seem willing to help, however as soon as she speaks out his name their willingness to help is transformed to a cold dismissal with the words, “ If we hear anything, we’ll let you know.”
(Summary)
During the revolution of 1789, French Republican ideologies influenced French thinking about race with the enlightenment principles of “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity” through the declaration of the rights of man and citizen. Fogarty also talks about France as a color blinded country, because the basic rights of non-white people were guaranteed in France without racial discrimination unlike in America. However, reality was much more different. While the colonial troops held high hopes towards their social rank after enlisting in the army, the French viewed their colonial troops as second class soldiers unqualified to attain positions of command or even learn their language, and providing appropriate military supplies. “The power of the ideal of assimilation provided important justifications for demanding sacrifices from colonial subjects. These justifications were more than just cynical manipulation and empty rhetoric…” (Fotargy, p.271). With this quote Fogarty talks about how important it was for the colonial soldiers to feel that they had achieve an acknowledgment from the French society due to their service in the fight of France against Nazism. An epitome of the ambitions of the colonial soldiers is portrayed in the minute 33 of movie by Said when he says, “I free a country, it’s my country. Even if i never saw it before, it’s my country.”
(Citation)
Days of glory. Dir. Rachid Bouchareb. By Rachid Bouchareb and Olivier Morelle. Prod. Jean Bréhat. Perf. Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri, Roschdy Zem, and Sami Bouajila. N.p., n.d. Web.
Fogarty, Richard Standish. Race and war in France: colonial subjects in the French Army, 1914-1918. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins U Press, 2013. Print.