Beau Geste

No sign from the men on the walls.

Take the scouts.

The men at the walls, they're dead, sir.

Dead? All of them?

Not one man alive.

Then who fired those shots?

Column!

Halt!

Squads number 1 and 2, secure the fort.

Squads 3 and 4, extinguish fire.

Get those buckets full of water.

Get those fires out on that wall.

On the double! Get moving! Move!

Major!

There's a man alive over here.

Sergeant!

Can he talk?

Well, he's still weak from the loss of that arm,

but he's been stronger every day.

I'm sorry to impose this on you,

but it is time I completed my report.

I only have to know your version of what happened.

What happened. What happened. What happened.

My name is Dagineau.

Sergeant Major Dagineau.

You have been given over to my tender care.

It's my job

to make you fit to die for France.

Until then, you are nothing.

A line of zeros

with no past and damn little future.

We ask no questions.

We don't have to. We know what you are.

The scum of the earth,

liars, thieves, drunkards,

pimps, perverts and killers

flushed out of all the sewers of Europe.

Here's a zero with a look of a butcher.

- I was a German officer. - Same thing.

A lover.

- And a Frenchman? - I am Belgian.

And a liar.

Sergeant major, is this the time to register a complaint?

By all means.

You know, sergeant,

I am assigned to infantry by mistake.

I am Cossack, a horse soldier.

One more word and you'll be a gelding.

Boldini.

- So you've reenlisted. - Yes, my sergeant major.

Things get too hot outside the desert?

Suppose you tell us what kind of a zero you are.

I'm a professional soldier.

You are a lying, thieving, murdering, alcoholic pig.

And now and then we get a question mark.

A glory hunter,

a fanatic

or a coward here to prove he's a man?

Which kind are you?

I'm sorry. Would you mind going over the list again?

A man of the cloth or a man of letters?

I am sorry, sergeant. I seem to have lost your meaning again.

It seems we have a letter writer in our company.

This one is addressed to me.

He didn't sign it,

but he announces himself as one of the new recruits.

"Never mind my name," he says.

"Names count for nothing in the legion.

I joined for many reasons,

but first among them is this.

I come to kill you."

"You, Dagineau,

through your ambition and your madness

have been responsible for the deaths of many men.

For this, you will die.

Always remember,

your executioner will stand before you,

beside you and behind you

in the ranks of your own men.

You will die with a bullet in your back during a battle

when one misdirected shot will not be noticed.

I tell you this to give you time

"to think of it until it happens."

I treat this letter with the contempt it deserves.

But for one thing,

I want the man who wrote it.

So I leave it to you, all of you,

to ferret out this rat

and deliver him to me.

And I know you'll do this thing

because until it's done,

I will deal with each of you as if I were dealing with him.

Nothing in hell could be less pleasant...

I promise you.

Company, dismissed!

I find that drinking leads to thinking

and thinking leads to drinking.

And idleness leads to vice.

Join me, Dagineau, for once.

Thank you, no, lieutenant. I'm on duty.

Yes. 24 hours a day, Dagineau.

Well.

About...

these new men,

it seems hardly fair to hold them all responsible

for the ravings of one unknown fanatic.

That's up to them, sir.

And I promise you in that company,

he won't remain unknown.

Not for long.

He's an educated man, I'm sure of that,

from the wording of his letter.

You're a fool, Dagineau.

Any illiterate louse can buy an educated man

to compose a letter.

You're more clever than I am, sir.

That's why you command while I only follow orders.

No, I command because I'm born to command.

I come from a long line of commanding officers.

You follow orders because you were born a soldier.

I do my best, sir.

You're the kind of soldier I can't do without.

Thank you, sir.

But you're the kind of man

I can do without.

So don't ever give me a choice, sergeant major.

That's all.

It occurs to me one of us could simplify matters

by confessing now.

Come, come, if we're to be comrades,

let's have no secrets from one another.

You look the type to shoot a man in the back.

Me, Cossack?

But he practically accused this fellow.

Say what you will, I'll keep my eye on the Italian.

In that case, Frenchman, we'll be inseparable.

What better basis for camaraderie

than mutual distrust?

You are the one who has been here before.

You are the one who knows this Dagineau.

True, regrettably.

So you are the one most apt to want him dead.

True again.

But there you see is proof of my innocence.

How so?

Having served as a legionnaire,

heroically, of course,

I know better than any of you the four cardinal sins

a legionnaire must never commit.

One, never defy a sergeant.

Two, never desert.

Three, never commit suicide.

And four, never kill a legionnaire...

especially a sergeant major.

Again, Graves! Lunge! Thrust!

No good! Do it again!

Fall out! Fall in!

Keep moving! Do it again!

Hit the dirt! On your feet!

Do it again! Don't stop! Don't think!

Dig it deep! Do it! Once again!

You, Graves, keep moving!

Fall in! Fall out!

Left! Right! Left! Right!

Heads up! Shoulders back!

Double time!

Once again!

Hit the dirt! On your feet! Don't talk!

Don't stop! Don't think!

Do it again! Again, you scum!

Again! Again! Again! Again!

- Fouchet. - I hear you, my friend.

I have no intention of opening my eyes.

It's cool in here.

Cool and dark.

There is champagne in buckets of ice.

Every night, women and violins.

Do you suppose there's room in there for us?

Get up!

My apologies, sergeant major.

I... I closed my eyes against the sun.

I... I found myself dreaming.

I know, but you'll learn.

A legionnaire must never dream.

To stay alive, you'll stay alert,

awake or asleep, eyes open or closed,

or even when your back is turned.

Graves, Boldini, Vallejo,

you wanted to join the Frenchman?

It can be arranged.

On my command, you'll march...

and continue to march

until I give the command to halt.

But, sergeant major, if we should fail to hear...

Don't.

Attention!

Here we have an object lesson

in blind obedience...

for the darkness holds no terror

for the legionnaire who follows orders.