Protraph Lack of good storyline.

ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

jovana-13676 What I like about this film is its uneven pacing in terms of character introduction, as well as the genre. It opens with a fortress full of dead soldiers (what a sight!), continues with idyllic childhood scenes that look like out of The Chronicles of Narnia, then there's a hint of screwball and we're back to the fortress. I must admit for the first 45 minutes I was trying to decide which one is more handsome: Gary Cooper or Ray Milland, but then I gave up and perhaps coincidentally the drama became more compelling. It's a film about heroism without superheroes and a good reminder that heroes do exist on this planet and they happen to be soldiers who kill other soldiers, not otherworldly creatures. So I'll stick with Classic Hollywood since I want to see films for grown-ups.

Hitchcoc This film is one of the masterpieces of movie-making. It is the prototypical French Foreign Legion film. It has been redone and copied numerous times. Start with the cast. Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, and Robert Preston are the principle characters. Then we have a who's who of character actors who fill the spaces. Then we take a mystery that spans decades, where everyone is implicated in some way. Where is that missing jewel and why was it taken? Put that aside and simply create the great dangers of the Sahara and all its challenges as the the three brothers cast their fates to the wind. The scene at the fortress where dead bodies are used as props and the oasis scene are some of the best that Hollywood has ever created. There is nothing pat or simple about the way all this plays out, but I won't ruin it for anyone. See this film if you never have. See it again if you have.

oscar-35 *Spoiler/plot- Beau Geste, 1939. Most men join the French Foreign Legion to forget, the three Geste's brothers joined to be forgotten by everyone. They're running from a family scandal of the theft of a missing 'Bue Water' sapphire. But their troubles are overshadowed in the burning Sahara desert under the tyranny of a sadistic sergeant and defending a desert fort from the native uprising Arab riflemen.*Special Stars- Gary Cooper, Ray Millard, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, J. Carrol Nash, Broderick Crawford.*Theme- Family is all important.*Trivia/location/goofs- B & W. One of the most remade film stories/plots in film history. Fort was in Yuma, AZ. The French flag is flying before a soldier is ordered to climb the tower to put it up. Several University of San Deigo students discovered the Location of the fort and then shot their own version of Beau Geste in the 40s.*Emotion- This is the best and most memorable version of the Beau Geste script. The wonderfully casted and acted lead roles make this film the hallmark of how the other remakes are judged. A gem of an entertaining and dramatic film that everyone should see at least once.

robertguttman The 1939 version of "Beau Geste" remains the ultimate Foreign Legion movie. That's hardly surprising considering the fact that the director, William Wellman, was himself a Legionaire. "Wild Bill" Wellman didn't become a move director by studying at film school, he began as extra and stunt man during the 1920s. Prior to that he served as a fighter pilot in the French Air Service, during World War I, as a member of the famous Lafayette flying Corps. Like all the other Americans serving in the Lafayette, Wellman entered the French Air Service via the Foreign Legion.Like "The Four Feathers", "Beau Geste" is based on a novel written at the turn of the last century. The world was a very different place then, so some aspects of the story might seem somewhat less than politically correct today. If they did a remake of "Beau Geste" today they would undoubtedly add entirely new sub-plots in an effort to make it more politically correct. In fact, that's exactly what they did do in the 2002 re-make of "The Four Feathers". Needless to say, the result was no improvement over Alexander Korda's spectacular 1939 version of "The Four Feathers". By the same token, it is doubtful that any similar meddling with the plot of "Beau Geste" could possible produce any improvement over Wellman's fabulous 1939 version. "Beau Geste" is a perfect example of how the old Hollywood studio system was able to combine the right material with the right cast and the right director to achieve a level of film making almost impossible to reproduce today.