The meaning of the scenes of the ever-training soldiers of the French Legion is not clear to the spectators. They are left guessing what these military routines signify and what purpose the Legion now has. The episodes seem to symbolize the loss of the meaning of this part of the French military, founded in the first half of the twentieth century. The Legion had to play the primary role when France colonized countries in Africa and beyond but almost lost its meaning in the 1950s and 1960s.
During the drills, the locals, who go about their everyday life, watch the soldiers, perceiving them as outsiders foreign to the land. Thus, the topics of foreignness and foreign bodies are connected to the past and present of the colonization and are found in Denis’s works in general and in Beau Travail in particular. The film “is the result of commission on the theme of foreignness by a TV channel…” As the plot is set in Djibouti, still a French colony back then, these scenes of the French military’s presence are relevant to convey how the French colonial past is linked to its postcolonial present. The fact that Sentain is saved by the locals, although he represents the colonizers’ military, testifies that the times have changed.
The moment in Beau Travail depicting Galoup and Sentain’s confrontation also looks like the one of the past and present where Galoup appears to represent the former and Sentain – the latter. These two men vie for their commander’s attention, and Galoup chooses a not-so-kind way to defeat his opponent. The main protagonist is depicted as a person who is detached from the goings-on of his division. He watches the drills from the side, not taking part in them.
It is as if Galoup distances ever further from his subordinates and the events of the present life. Chief Adjutant looks at all the strangers in the final scene of the film, where he is shown in a Djibouti discothèque dancing alone on the dance floor as if he is always utterly lonely despite his multiple comrades in arms and his girlfriend. In contrast, his subordinates’ camaraderie and togetherness are demonstrated numerous times throughout the film; for example, during their military routines, the legionnaires act collectively when they celebrate the birthday of one of their own – with a party and candles on the cake.
Galoup’s attitude to Sentain can also be seen as something resembling the brutal colonial past. However, the times have changed, and Chief Adjutant’s actions do not go unpunished. Galoup is sent to France for a court-martial and is discharged from the Legion, which seems to have destroyed the meaning of his life. The spectators watch the main protagonist lying on his made-up bed with a gun in his hand. He appears as someone who lost hope and is ready to take his life. This denouement probably hints at the fate of the colonial empire and the French Legion, the famed or infamous part of the military – depending on which opinion the spectators rely on, either the colonizers’ or of the colonized.
In the film, there are plenty of scenes where masculinity dominates. This overwhelming bare-chested physicality of the legionnaires looks sensual, they are of different races, skin colors, and eye shapes, but in their uniforms and with zero haircuts, the soldiers look similarly attractive. Some researchers even speak about the erotic theme in Denis’s oeuvre. In some instances, Djibouti women gaze at the legionnaires as objects of desire, not the other way around.
The perception that these representatives of the postcolonial French rule had been then viewed as objects is juxtaposed with the French colonizers’ view of the local population of the occupied countries. At the time, the locals looked foreign and were objectified by the French who disregarded the norms and traditions of the colonized and established the French rule and law on the occupied territories – now the tables have turned.