This is an intense examination, very loosely based on Melville's "Billy Budd", of the corrosive effects of military life, that is visually stunning. Indeed, at times it is too much so. One wishes that director Claire Denis had paid more attention to crucial story points, such as why Galoup admires his commandant Forestier to the extent of becoming morbidly jealous of Forestier's interest in a young soldier, and, conversely, why Forestier rejects Galoup's admiration. Absent such attention to character and motivation the viewer is too often left with a series of powerful images, courtesy of brilliant cinematographer Agnes Godard, of half naked, well muscled male legionaires swimming, fighting, laughing and suffering in a barren yet harshly beautiful coastal desert landscape; images that are, alas, untethered to people with whom the viewer can identify or empathize because he or she simply knows too little about them. Still, this is the first Claire Denis film I've seen and I am eager to view others. Give it a B plus.
Review of Beau Travail
