Galoup is an officer of the French Foreign Legion stationed in Djibouti. His unit trains there under the hot weather, while his superior is Commander Forestier, whom he greatly admires. One day a new soldier appears, Sentain, and Forestier dedicates too much attention towards him, which makes Galoup jealous. When Sentain tries to give water to a punished soldier who was ordered to dig a hole under the hot Sun, Galoup uses this as an excuse to drop Sentain in the middle of the desert with a broken compass, far away from the military base. Sentain falls unconscious from heat, but is saved by a local African tribe. As a punishment, Galoup is discharged from the military, losing his prestige, and spends his days aimlessly walking on the streets in Marseilles.
Even though it was critically recognized during its premiere, Claire Denis' film isn't a universal delight: the director takes on a loose, stream-of-consciousness approach with a minimum of dialogues, but unless this is done the right way, Malick-style, it can get tedious and lose the focus of the viewers. Denis spends too much time on overlong training exercises of the soldiers (in one of the most unusual ones, the soldiers "jump" at each other and embrace in a clinch, and then back off again, and again; they meditate and do hand moves under the Sun in the desert), when the movie needed a tighter narrative with a concise set of points leading to the finale. Critics analyzed "Beau Travail" as a meditation on routine, male physical beauty, repressed homosexuality, and toxic jealousy (the protagonist Galoup wants to get rid of the dashing Sentain, fearing the latter is attracting too much attention of his idol, Commander Forestier), yet these symbols work only on a certain level. Ironically, the most impressive moments are the opening and the closing sequences in the disco, playing outside the military world: the opening has a wonderfully synchronized moment of a soldier making a "smoochie" in front of the dancing people just in tune to Tarkan's song "Simarik" reaching the lyrics "Kiss Kiss"; while the ending has the protagonist doing incredible dance moves all by himself while the song "The Rhythm of the Night" by Corona plays in the background, at one point even dropping and rolling on the floor, exiting the screen. "Beau Travail" is good and enigmatic, yet also too vague at times, without rewarding the viewers to the fullest.
Grade:++
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