Legionnaire (1998)
Legionnaire is a 1998 American drama war film directed by Peter MacDonald and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as a 1920s boxer who wins a fight after having been hired by gangsters to lose it, then flees to join the French Foreign Legion. The cast includes Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Daniel Caltagirone, Nicholas Farrell and Steven Berkoff. The film was filmed in Tangier and Ouarzazate, Morocco.
Plot
Alain Lefèvre (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is a French boxer in 1925 Marseille, France. His brother has asked for him to throw a fight so both can live with the money. Lucien Galgani (Jim Carter), the mobster who forced him to do so, requests he do it in the second round. Galgani’s girlfriend Katrina (Ana Sofrenović) is Alain’s ex-fiancée, whom he left standing at the altar. But Katrina forgives Alain, and the two hatch a plan to run off to America together. Alain does not take a dive in the fight, and instead defeats his opponent. Just as the escape plan is about to succeed, Alain’s brother is killed, and Katrina is captured by Galgani’s men. Alain shoots and kills Galgani’s brother; desperately needing a new escape plan,
he signs up for the French Foreign Legion and is shipped to North Africa to help defend Morocco against a native Berber rebellion of Rif warriors, led by Abd el-Krim.
Along the way, Alain meets some new friends, including Luther, an African American who has fled injustice in the southern United States and felt that by returning to Africa he would be treated well; Mackintosh, a former British Army Major who was dishonorably discharged due to a gambling problem; and Guido, a naive Italian boy who wishes to impress his fiancée back home by returning as a hero. But things will not be easy. The only real way to escape from the Legion is to survive the term of service and the rebels have them outnumbered.
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Cast:
- Jean-Claude Van Damme as Alain Lefèvre (nom de guerre Alain Duchamp)
- Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Luther
- Steven Berkoff as Sergeant Steinkampf
- Nicholas Farrell as Major Mackintosh
- Jim Carter as Lucien Galgani
- Ana Sofrenović as Katrina
- Daniel Caltagirone as Guido Rosetti
- Joseph Long as Maxim
- Mario Kalli as René Galgani
- Joe Montana as Julot
- Kim Romer as Captain Rousselot
- Anders Peter Bro as Lieutenant Charlier
- Paul Kynman as Rolf Bruner
- Vincent Pickering as Viktor
- Takis Triggelis as Corporal Metz
- Tom Delmar as Corporal Legros
- Kamel Krifa as Mohamed Ibn Abdelkrim