French army colonel Pierre Raspeguy (Anthony Quinn) is defeated by the Vietnamese at Dien Bien Phu. After the armistice is signed, he and his troops are sent back to their homes far away. One of the troops is an Arab named Mahidi (George Segal!), and when he gets back home to Algeria, he joins the revolution against the French colonial powers, eventually becoming a notorious leader of the uprising. Raspeguy is sent to quash the rebellion. Also featuring Alain Delon as a conscience-stricken soldier, Claudia Cardinale as Mahidi's sister, Michele Morgan, Maurice Ronet, Gregoire Aslan, Jean Servais, Jacques Marin, and Burt Kwouk.

If the casting of Segal and Cardinale as Algerian Arabs didn't clue you in, this is a very Hollywood look at this historical conflict. Some of this works as an action flick, some of it as a melodrama, but as a whole it's lacking, with a facile presentation of the complicated real-world bloodshed.

See it – This isn't a great war movie, but it's a pretty good action movie. Anthony Quinn leads French commandoes against a band of rebels in the Algerian War for Independence. The title is a bit misleading. It's not about a group of men who have gotten "lost" behind enemy lines. It's about Quinn's character, who loses command of his unit after a campaign in Middle China, and is given one last chance in Algeria to redeem himself. Willing to do anything to complete his mission, Quinn and his men tread the path of anti-heroes. The story doesn't flow particularly well, but the action and adventure is definitely there.

Remember that Henry Fonda movie THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE ? That`s the war movie that was set in the fog shrouded snow bound forests of the Ardennes in December 1944 but for some reason the movie`s big set piece battle takes place on an arid desert plain . LOST COMMAND starts with a very similar error in geography involving the battle of Dien Bien Phu where the French built a heavily fortified base in the middle of a mountainous jungle in 1954 , except this film would have us believe that the battle took place in the middle of a desert !

But I`m more than willing to forgive this goof as LOST COMMAND is a good film , it`s maybe not a great film but if you like action adventure / war films you`ll hopefully enjoy this as much as I did and director / Producer Mark Robson should be congratulated for making a film showing the French fighting man in a good light . Say what you like about French political leaders but France does have a long noble military tradition with a glorious defeat being every bit as courageous as a glorious victory . But the screenplay doesn`t glorify conflict and rightly points out that violence breeds violence , it pits former friends against one another , and it`s always the most innocent who suffer the most