Les Bidasses s'en vont en guerre (1974)
Directed by Claude Zidi

Film Review

The eighth in a run of film comedies featuring the popular musical troupe Les Charlots is, arguably their best.  At the time - the early 1970s - French cinema had successfully revived the military comedy, a genre that had been a mainstay of French cinema in the 1930s (Les Gaietés de l'escadron, Tire au flanc, Les Dégourdis de la 11ème).  It followed hot on the heels of Robert Lamoureux's Mais où est donc passée la septième compagnie (1973) and preceded the virtually identical Soldat Duroc, ça va être ta fête! (1975).  Public antipathy for military service (particularly among the young) may have been the main reason for the film's success - it attracted an audience of 4.2 million.

One of the most commercially successful of French filmmakers at the time, Claude Zidi lives up to his reputation as a mainstream comedy director par excellence in this, his fourth collaboration with the Charlots.  The film is a direct sequel to their first shared venture - Les Bidasses en folie (1971) - and is just as effective in lobbing comedy grenades in all directions for our amusement.  The sequence in which the fab four drag an oil pipe through a house and end up giving their commanding officer (the excellent Jacques Seiler) a skin colour change remains one of the funniest things ever to grace a French film comedy.  After this enjoyable romp, the Charlots would feature in another seven films, although by the end of the decade they were well past their prime.  When we reach the horror spoof Les Charlots contre Dracula (1980) the magic has all but evaporated.

Film Synopsis

Not everyone is suited for army life - as Gérard, Phil, Jean and Jean-Guy quickly discover when they begin their military service.  Their immediate superior, Sergeant Bellec, makes no allowances for their lack of discipline and tendency for making a complete mess of the simplest of instructions.  Not even Bellec could have foreseen the horrific consequences of his order to have the colonel's swimming pool heated.   In no time at all, the four friends find themselves confined to the camp prison, and it looks as if this is to remain their place of residence until they are let out to return to civilian life.  Providence comes to the rescue, in the form of a lorry that crashes into their cell, providing an easy means of escape.  Without delay, the four friends opt for a spot of French leave and head off for the countryside, hoping that their military escapades are well and truly over.  No such luck.  They end up at a remote farm which, unbeknown to them, is destined to be the target of an imminent military operation...