French Foreign Legion in popular culture

The French Foreign Legion is commonly portrayed in literature as a refuge for the wronged, as well as scoundrels and fugitives from justice. Several versions of Beau Geste, for example, have exploited this theme to dramatic effect.

Music

Édith Piaf
  • There is a French song originally created by Marie Dubas in 1936 but now mainly identified with Édith Piaf, called "Mon légionnaire", about a woman's longing for an embittered Legionnaire with whom she had a brief affair and who refused to tell her his name. The song was reprised by Serge Gainsbourg in the 1980s, the male voice singing the lyrics made famous by Piaf. The new version of "Mon Légionnaire" was a hit on French dancefloors.
  • Another of Piaf's songs was "Le Fanion de la Légion" (The Flag of the Legion), describing the heroic defence by the garrison in a small Legion outpost attacked by Saharan tribes. Both songs were written by Raymond Asso, a Foreign Legion veteran who was Piaf's lover in the late 1930s, with music by Marguerite Monnot.
  • The Legion adopted still another Édith Piaf song as their own, "Non, je ne regrette rien" (No, I regret nothing), during the 1960s when members of the Legion were accused of being implicated in a failed coup d'état during the Algerian War.[1] Today it is still a popular Legion "chant" sung when on parade, adapting it to their unique marching cadence of 88 steps to the minute.

Other

Books

Biography and autobiography
  • Adrian Liddell Hart, son of British military theorist Basil Liddell Hart, wrote an account of his time with the Legion in Indochina in the 1950s in Strange Company (1953).
  • Rolf Steiner, wrote an autobiography, The Last Adventurer, of his military career. The first two stints of his career were in the Legion in Vietnam and Algeria.
  • In the Foreign Legion by ex-legionnaire Erwin Rosen, published by Duckworth London (1910), and Frederic Martyn's memoirs, Life in the Legion: from a Soldier's Point of View (1911) are believed to have informed P.C. Wren’s fiction.
  • Memoirs of the Foreign Legion by the American Maurice Magnus, published posthumously in 1924, caused a feud between his editor D.H. Lawrence and his literary executor Norman Douglas.
  • Simon Murray wrote an account of his service in his 1978 book Legionnaire: The Real Life Story of an Englishman in the French Foreign Legion. The book is notable for its descriptions of the brutal training of a Legionnaire, the Algerian War and the failed "Generals' putsch" against de Gaulle.
  • Warrior-Adventurer and General (A Biography) by Croatian writer Nenad Ivanković is mainly about Ante Gotovina's service in the Legion during the 1970s.
  • British writer Tony Sloane wrote the autobiographical The Naked Soldier (2004), describing his five years of service in the Legion with the 2ème REP and 13e DBLE.
  • Pedro Marangoni, the author of "A opção pela espada" served in the French Foreign Legion in 1972-73.
  • Gareth Cairns Diary of a Legionnaire when he served in the 2eme REP, where he served on various overseas missions over the following five years.
  • Padraig O'Keeffe's biography Hidden Soldier mentions when he served as an Irish Legionnaire in Cambodia and Bosnia.
  • Jaime Salazar's Legion of the Lost (2005), is based on his experiences as an American citizen who joined the Legion in 1999, out of boredom with his life in corporate America. A revised 2nd edition of his book was released in 2016.
  • Dominique Vandenberg's autobiography The Iron Circle talks in depth of the martial artist running away to the French Foreign Legion to become a 2REP Paratrooper. (2005)
  • Milorad Ulemek wrote a partially biographical novel, Legionar, describing his early years in the Legion.
  • Australian lawyer David Mason wrote the autobiographical "Marching With the Devil" (2010) depicting his time in the Legion during the 1980s serving in France and Djibouti.
  • J. R. Lawrence wrote My Camp: Life in the French Foreign Legion in 2017 and it documents his service from 2007 - 2011, with an account of the Legion in Afghanistan.
  • Józef Białoskórski, veteran of Greater Poland uprising, was in 1919 forced to flee to France and there he enlisted to FFL. Based on his memories he later wrote “Ten years of hell in French Foreign Legion”, a book which describes service of Legionnaires in Morocco and French Indochina during interwar period.

Novels
  • In Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Ultimatum, Jason Bourne enlists the help of a former Legionnaire and a new recruit who fled Tennessee for quadruple homicide.
  • Ouida's 1867 Under Two Flags is technically about the Chasseurs d'Afrique, not the Foreign Legion, but nevertheless popularised many of the tropes found in Foreign Legion novels. It was filmed several times, most notably in 1936. Most of the film adaptations are set in the actual Foreign Legion.
  • P. C. Wren's 1924 Beau Geste tells the story of three brothers who run away to the French Foreign Legion. His 1926 sequel Beau Sabreur tells the story of the further adventures of the American friends from Beau Geste, Hank and Buddy. The third book "Beau Ideal" resolves the trilogy... which in fact is also mentioned or completed by "Good Gestes" and "Spanish Maine".
  • P. C. Wren also wrote, 1916, The Wages of Virtue (possibly made into a film starring Gloria Swanson), and other novels about the Legion.
  • In Biggles Foreign Legionnaire (1954) in W. E. John's Biggles series set in the '50s, the eponymous hero and his protégé Ginger join the Legion as part of an undercover operation trying to unmask a gang of multi-national arms dealers who are instigating war in global conflict zones.
  • The chronicle of Richard Halliburton's African flying adventure, The Flying Carpet, includes a description of the members of the Foreign Legion he befriends, plus several riveting anecdotes he hears from some of the older members.
  • Blood Money is a thriller about a former French Foreign Legionnaire, who must save the world. It is written by ex-Legionnaire Azam Gill from Pakistan.
  • In Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, a minor character named Kurt is introduced; Kurt had joined the French Foreign Legion in the absence of a German army after the First World War, but wounded himself to get out after the friend with whom he joined died.
  • The French Foreign Legion was one of the Hungarian novelist Jenő Rejtő's favourite subjects. Notable novels are The Three Musketeers in Africa or The Hidden Legion.
  • British publisher John Spencer & Co published 23 paperback / pulp novels in the "Foreign Legion Series" in the 1950s. These were written under pseudonyms such as Bruce Fenton, W.H. Fear, Jud Cary and Paul Lafayette.
  • In Ford Madox Ford's novel Some Do Not..., the first installment in his epic trilogy Parade's End, Christopher Tietjens reminisces about his pre-war desire to join the French Foreign Legion, should war break out on the continent (he didn't believe England would ever be involved).
  • In Man on Fire, the main character Marcus Creasy and his friend Guido Arrelio were members of the French Foreign Legion before becoming mercenaries.
  • In the "Internet Tough Guys" series by Bernard Maestas, one of the co-protagonists, Alex, is a former member of the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment.
  • In the 2013 crypto-thriller The Sword of Moses by Dominic Selwood, the French Foreign Legion play a significant role.

Science fiction and fantasy
  • Poul Anderson and Gordon Dickson, in their "Hoka" books, included a Hoka version of the Foreign Legion on the planet Toka. This was based on the popular culture version, with individual Hokas taking roles reminiscent of the stereotypes found in fiction about the Legion. The Hoka Foreign Legion plays an important role, living up to its model's traditions, in the story "The Tiddlywink Warriors."
  • Andrew Keith and William H. Keith, Jr.'s The Fifth Foreign Legion Trilogy chronicles the exploits of Legionnaires around the turn of the 30th century. These Legionnaires are members of the Fifth Foreign Legion which is a direct descendant of the French Foreign Legion. According to the chronology of the novels, the French Foreign Legion is considered the First Foreign Legion which was reorganized into the Second Foreign Legion after the First was destroyed, a process which occurred thrice more to make the present Foreign Legion in the novels the Fifth. The novels are rife with Legion traditions, terminology, and famous quotes. Although the Legion of the novels now serves the human Commonwealth as a whole (made up of Earth plus numerous colonized planets) rather than France alone, its composition and function are virtually identical to that of the French Foreign Legion of the past and present. The three novels are titled: March Or Die, Honor and Fidelity, and Cohort of the Damned.
  • In Terry Brooks' The Elfstones of Shannara, there is a unit of Callahorn's army that is quite similar to the French Foreign Legion, named the Free Corps. Anyone is allowed to sign up with them, no questions asked.
  • In Jerry Pournelle's Future History, involving a future soldier of fortune named John Christian Falkenberg, there is a central role to the CoDominium Armed Forces, which fights on all kinds of planets far away in space, and which had been created out of the French Foreign Legion and still keeps many of its traditions such as the aforementioned "Camerone Day".
  • Pournelle's fellow SF writer David Drake, the author of the Hammer's Slammers series, also bases his mercenary unit on the French Foreign Legion. More specifically, the Legion after the Second World War, when most of its members had fled from prosecution from the Allied War Crimes Commission.
  • Yet another SF depiction is Frank Herbert's Man of Two Worlds (1986). Part of the story takes place on Venus, with a war occurring on the planet between the French and their Foreign Legion and the Chinese. Foot soldiers on both sides wear armored suits made of inceram, an incredibly heat-resistant material, to protect them from the planet's surface temperatures. Any damage to a soldier's armor which allows the Venusian atmosphere inside results in his body literally boiling into vapor.
  • In British comic fantasy author Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, the "Klatchian Foreign Legion" parodies the French Foreign Legion (the region of Klatch itself being roughly analogous to the Middle East/North Africa). It is generally regarded as a "place men go to forget", and appears to be very effective in this, as evidenced by its members' frequent failure to recall its name, or in many cases, their own names. It is jokingly described as "Twenty years service and all the sand you can eat."
  • Science Fiction author William C. Dietz has written a future history where the Legion is now the official armed forces of the "Confederacy", a multi-species political entity. The books to date are: Legion of the Damned, The Final Battle, By Blood Alone, By Force of Arms, For More Than Glory, For Those Who Fell, When All Seems Lost (2007), When Duty Calls (2008), A Fighting Chance (2011), and the prequel Andromeda trilogy, Andromeda's Fall (2012), Andromeda's Choice (2013) and Andromeda's War (2014).[2] The Legion in Dietz's novels still celebrates Capitaine Danjou and the Battle of Camarón.
  • The Night's Watch in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series is a military organization similar to the romantic view of the French Foreign Legion. Many of the members of The Watch are sons of nobles with little claim to their father's holdings or criminals that chose lifelong service with The Watch instead of suffering the typical punishment for their crime (usually execution). One of the tenets of the organization is that all men are equal once they "take the black", regardless if they were noble or commoner before joining.
  • Robert Asprin's Phule's Company novels revolve around a "Space Legion" that any being can join. They choose a new name and their crimes are erased.
  • Philip Gordon Wylie's Gladiator (1930) follows the adventures of Hugo Danner, an American man born with superhuman strength, speed, and bulletproof skin via prenatal chemical experimentation. He later joins the legion during World War I and uses his skills to combat the German Empire.
  • In the Code Geass manga, Nunnally's Nightmare, the Britannian Foreign Legion appears as main antagonists.
  • In Max Brooks's The Zombie Survival Guide French Foreign Legionnaires are mentioned in a recorded zombie siege at Ft. Louis Philippe in North Africa, 1893.

Art

In his oeuvre Danish artist Adam Saks has concerned himself extensively with the French Foreign Legion and its colonial history as well as with the individual's solitude and aggression.

Pulp magazines

Foreign Legion fiction was commonplace in American pulp magazines from the mid-20s through the late-30s. Magazines which published Foreign Legion stories include Frontier Stories, Battle Stories, Blue Book, Action Stories, Adventure and Argosy. Short Stories, in particular, included a lot of Foreign Legion stories. In 1940, a Munsey pulp, Foreign Legion Adventures reprinted stories from early-30s issues of Argosy; it only lasted two issues. Certain authors specialized in these stories. Among the most popular were J.D. Newsom, Bob Du Soe, Theodore Roscoe, and Georges Surdez. [3] P. C. Wren appeared in Blue Book in the mid-30s. The settings for Foreign Legion stories were almost always in North Africa, although sometimes "off-trail" locations were used, e.g. Indochina, the Western Front, Haiti. Stories often centered on the various nationalities of the soldiers.

Comics
  • G.I. Joe villains Tomax and Xamot and Major Bludd served in the French Foreign Legion before joining Cobra.
  • Mickey Mouse joined the Foreign Legion in a 1936 story by Floyd Gottfredson
  • Action Comics issue 16 (September 1939) features a legionary on the cover.
  • Monty Wedd created a French Foreign Legion comic strip, Sword and Sabre, for Middy Malone's Magazine.
  • In the 1960s, the British boys' comic Eagle featured a popular adventure strip called Luck of the Legion, set in the classic period before World War I, of soldiers in blue coats, white kepi covers, white scarves and white (or red) trousers marching across endless desert under the gaze of treacherous Arab warriors.
  • The long-running British war strip Charley's War spent many weeks telling a side story about the exploits of a Legionnaire called "Blue" (actually a British Legionnaire), most of which was based around the Battle of Verdun. Blue later made a return when the story moved on to the mutiny at Etaples (the hotly disputed Étaples Mutiny), where Blue was using a variety of identities whilst leading a group of deserters who were hiding out in the surrounding area.
  • The Legion is the setting for the UK comic strip Beau Peep.
  • The Legion of Super-Heroes of DC Comics is similar to the French Foreign Legion in several aspects: 1) Teenaged super-heroes (both boys and girls) may apply for membership in the Legion regardless of their race, religion, or planet of origin; 2) Each applicant must have at least one natural super-power (no devices allowed) not possessed by any current member. Applicants are accepted into the Legion based solely on their fitness of character and the usefulness of their super-power(s); 3) Each super-hero accepted for membership swears service to the galaxy and absolute loyalty to the Legion and his or her fellow Legionnaires; 4) The Legion has its own flag as well as its own constitution, organization, history, and traditions; 5) The Legion apprehends interstellar criminals, patrols space, and might be dispatched by the Earth president or other authorities to deal with threats to peace and order anywhere in the galaxy; 6) The Legion is an absolutely fearless fighting force and, over the years, has lost Legionnaires in action.
  • The Adventures of Bob Hope issue 10 (1951) features the Foreign Legion.
  • Mickey Mouse Weekly issue 600 (10 November 1951) featured Donald Duck and Goofy in the French Foreign Legion.
  • Four Color issue 407 (June 1952) featured Bugs Bunny in The Foreign-Legion Hare. Gold Key Comics reprinted this story in issue 100 (1 July 1965) of Bugs Bunny.
  • In 1954 Cheerios 3-D giveaways featured "Donald Duck in the Foreign Legion."
  • The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis issue 20 (1955) features the Foreign Legion.
  • In a Gold Key comic book, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, while searching for a permanent living situation, decide to check out a boarding house advertising “sunny rooms and three meals a day”. However, they misread the address and end up in the recruiting station for the French Foreign Legion. Before they realize what they’re doing, both have signed up for a ten-year hitch. On the plus side, they do get the sunny rooms and three meals a day.
  • In the Australian edition of Joe Palooka (January 1958 no. 65), the main character appears as a legionnaire on the cover.
  • Dell Comics Beetle Bailey issue 20 (April-May 1959) has Foreign Legion characters.
  • In a Gold Key comic book (Woody Woodpecker Adventure Comics issue 77, September 1963), Woody Woodpecker becomes a private investigator. He gains fame as the “Cool Crook Catcher” because of the ease with which he captures criminals. He is recruited personally by an officer of the French Foreign Legion to capture a gang of desert bandits. Only later does Woody learn that he was recruited because the bandits are somehow able to function in the same blazing heat that is causing the Legionnaires to collapse from sunstroke. Obviously, the officer took that “cool” part too literally. But, Woody takes the job, solves the mystery of the bandits’ ability to function in the heat, and brings them in.
  • Gold Key Comics The Three Stooges issue 27 (1966), features the French Foreign Legion.
  • In 1966 Tales of Suspense introduced the character Batroc the Leaper, a former member of the French Foreign Legion.
  • Snoopy, from the Peanuts comic strip, often imagines himself as a member of the Foreign Legion, usually defending or reclaiming Fort Zinderneuf (a reference to Beau Geste). He often embarrasses himself and his troops, the birds. Snoopy often leads them through the desert (the sand traps on the golf course), and in one story line went to Charlie Brown's school on the bus (apparently their "camel broke down"), and he and his troops were sent to the Principal's office, where they were attempting to be generous in surrender, offering the Principal a "free balloon if you surrender immediately". In the end, the "Foreign Legion" was seen next to Snoopy's dog house, when Snoopy explained that they forgot that Fort Zinderneuf was closed on Saturday.
  • In a Sunday Peanuts comic strip, second baseman Linus comes off of the infield, claiming it’s too hot to play ball. Manager Charlie Brown dismisses Linus’ complaint, reminding him that a good ballplayer likes hot weather because it keeps him loose. Linus continues to complain, comparing the heat of the infield to the Sahara Desert. Charlie Brown admonishes him for exaggerating, but then, shortstop Snoopy walks by. Instead of his usual baseball cap, Snoopy is wearing a French Foreign Legionnaire’s white kepi, complete with neck covering. “Well,” concedes Charlie Brown, “maybe it is a little hot out there.”
  • In a French sci-fi comic Aquablue, the hero, Neo, must defend himself and his people against the Légion, an Earth Special Force which uses the same uniforms as the Légion Étrangère.
  • In the manga and anime Area 88, the protagonist, Shin Kazama, was tricked while intoxicated into joining the French Foreign Legion to serve in a mercenary airforce in the fictional Asran Kingdom of North Africa. The office that handled his contracts was located in Paris, France.
  • Jeremy MacConnor, the main character in the Australian comic Platinum Grit, is depicted wearing a French Foreign Legion hat.
  • The long-running King Features Syndicate daily comic strip Crock, by Bill Rechin, Don Wilder and Brant Parker, depicts the French Foreign Legion.
  • Jean-Paul "Frenchie" DuChamp, sidekick of the Marvel Comics hero Moon Knight, is an ex-legionnaire.
  • Alien Legion, created by Carl Potts (Marvel Epic Comics) depicts a military unit called Force Nomad, composed of the "dregs of the universe". It mirrors the French Foreign Legion in many respects, right down to a heroic figure whose prosthetic hand is considered a holy relic to the unit.
  • Kyle Baker's The Cowboy Wally Graphic Novel included long sequences in which the main characters humorously joined the French Foreign Legion.
  • In the comic strip Modesty Blaise, Modesty's sidekick Willie Garvin is a former member.
  • In the graphic novel Crogan's March by Chris Schweizer, the main character Peter Crogan is a member of the French Foreign Legion in the year 1912.
  • A 1962 comic shows two members of the French Foreign Legion, with one explaining, "I was released by the Phillies."
  • In Archie Comics, a number of short stories have featured Archie Andrews and various other male teenage friends joining the French Foreign Legion to forget a girl. Often they change their name to the same name as each other, and while the girls can at times vary from guy to guy, it often features one or all of them trying to forget the same girl who looks like Veronica Lodge, but who goes by a different name. Usually they throw the picture away in a trash can at the beginning of the story, the pictures sometimes being the same exact picture. Whenever the girl who looks like Veronica, but with a different name, is used as the plot device, she usually shows up to tempt the guys somewhere in the story.
  • Aquí La Legión, a strip published in one of Argentinean publisher Columba's comic anthology magazines (Nippur Magnum, D'Artagnan, etc.), was very popular and lasted years.
  • In August 1979, Creepy (No. 112) featured a foreign legion story "Warrior's Ritual" by Archie Goodwin and John Severin.
  • In 1982, G.I. Combat (No. 242) introduced The Mercenaries, who were three deserters from the French Foreign Legion.
  • Johnny Goodbye was a Belgian-Dutch comic strip. One story, Vreemdelingenlegioen (The Foreign Legion) was released in comic album format.
  • La Légion 1: Camerone
  • La Légion 2: Bir-Hakeim
  • La Légion 3: Diên Biên Phu
  • La Légion 4: Kolwezi
  • Legio Nostra: La Légion étrangère d'hier et d'aujourd'hui

Films, television and radio
See also: List of films featuring the French Foreign Legion
  • In BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, Grandad recalls the time he and a friend attempted to join the French Foreign Legion. Unfortunately, their attempts failed, and they both became gunrunners during the Spanish Civil War.
  • P. C. Wren's Beau Geste has been the basis for three movies in 1926, 1939 and 1966, one parody in 1977 and one BBC mini-series in 1982. The stories all feature three brothers who hide out in the French Foreign Legion. The Carry On team added their version of the story in Follow That Camel in 1967.
  • P. C. Wren's Beau Sabreur (a sequel to Beau Geste), was made into a silent movie in 1928, but only the trailer now survives.
  • Marlene Dietrich's first Hollywood film, Morocco, shows her in love with a legionnaire, played by Gary Cooper.
  • The Three Musketeers, 1933.
  • Buddy of the Legion is a 1935 American animated short film about a young man who daydreams of joining the French Foreign Legion.
  • Little Beau Porky, 1936.
  • In the Three Stooges short Wee Wee Monsieur (1938), Moe, Larry, and Curly join the French Foreign Legion (having confused it with the American Legion). Posted in the desert, they are assigned to guard their captain. Naturally, they bungle the assignment, and their captain is abducted by the natives. The Stooges disguise themselves as natives and infiltrate their camp to affect rescue.
  • The 1939 comedy, The Flying Deuces is one of the most popular films to star the duo Laurel and Hardy. The film begins with the pair joining the Foreign Legion and much of the comedy comes from their experiences. Laurel and Hardy had made an earlier comedy also set in the Legion, Beau Hunks, in 1931, in which the pair enlist so that Hardy can forget a woman that jilted him. The line in both movies, the enlisting officer asks Hardy, "Why did you join the Foreign Legion?" Laurel replies, "To forget!" The officer inquires, "Forget - What?" Laurel answers, "He Forgot!"
  • Ali-Baba Bound, 1940.
  • In Night and Day, the 1946 biographical film of the American composer Cole Porter, the main character—who was confirmed to have served in the legion—is portrayed wearing a World-War-One French uniform.
  • Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion is an American 1950 movie featuring the comedy duo Abbott and Costello.
  • In 1951, Burt Lancaster starred as a sergeant in the Foreign Legion in the movie Ten Tall Men.
  • In the 1952 American movie What Price Glory, there is a scene where US marines perform conditioning exercises while singing a song which mentions joining the foreign legion.
  • In the 1952 animated cartoon Little Beau Pepé, Pepé Le Pew tries to join the Foreign Legion and empties a desert fort with his stench.
  • In the 1954 American animated short film Donald's Diary, Donald Duck joins the Foreign Legion instead of getting married.
  • Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion is a television series which ran on the NBC network from 1955 to 1957. Buster Crabbe starred as the title character, while his real-life son Cullen played his ward, "Cuffey" Sanders.
  • The 1957 American comedy The Sad Sack, has a scene in which the main character portrayed by Jerry Lewis deserts the US military and tries to join France's Foreign Legion, but instead joins the bogus "Suicide Division of the Foreign Legion."
  • The 1958 Czech film The Black Battalion tells the story of legionnaires fighting in Indochina.
  • "Legion Bound Hound" of The Huckleberry Hound Show.
  • In a 1960 episode of Popeye the Sailor—"Insultin' the Sultan"—Popeye joins the Foreign Legion after breaking up with his girlfriend.
  • In an episode of The Alvin Show the Chipmunks are shown wearing foreign-legion-style kepis.
  • In 1962, Stewart Granger starred in the Italian-made Marcia o Crepa (meaning "March or Die" in Italian), released in the U.S. as Commando and in the UK as The Legion's Last Patrol. Captain LeBlanc (Granger) leads a group of men across the desert to capture a rebel leader during the Algerian independence war. The haunting theme music was a number 4 chart hit in the UK the following year.
  • In the 1964 Pink Panther movie A Shot in the Dark the character Inspector Clouseau, after being banished to the French colony Martinique for having bungled an investigation, is shown wearing a kepi with a foreign-legion-style havelock (couvre-nuque) while packing his bags.
  • The 1964 movie The Unvanquished tells the story of a French Foreign Legion deserter in Algeria during the 1960s.
  • In a 1966 episode of the cartoon series Super 6 titled "Heau Beau Jest", the Matzorileys, three brothers who share the same body, portrayed legionnaires defending a fort's water supply against Arab raider Ali bin Loudmouth.
  • In the American TV series The Rat Patrol, the character Corporal Hitchcock wears a kepi which resembles kepis worn by the French Foreign Legion around the mid-nineteenth century.
  • The 1967 British film Casino Royale features Jean-Paul Belmondo as a legionnaire.
  • Dark of the Sun, a 1968 film, features Rod Taylor as an ex-legionnaire working as a mercenary in Africa.
  • How I Unleashed World War II is a 1970 Polish comedy about a man who serves in various armies during World War II.
  • Oasis is a 1972 Czech-Soviet film about a legionnaires fighting against Germans in North Africa during World War II.
  • The 1973 French movie Le Complot has characters who are former legionnaires.
  • Les Douze Légionnaires (1976), was a French TV series about legionaries in contemporary Africa.
  • March or Die (1978), (also known in France as Marche ou Crève) stars Gene Hackman as Colonel Foster, an embittered Legion veteran who returns to Algeria from the Western Front shortly after the end of World War I.
  • Heckle and Jeckle appear in 1979 animated short film "Foreign Legion Birds."
  • In the 1979 romantic comedy French Postcards, one of the characters—an American student—said that he would have joined the French Foreign Legion.
  • "Popeye the Lone Legionnaire" is an episode of The All New Popeye Hour.
  • La Légion saute sur Kolwezi (1980) is based on a real operation in 1978
  • Les Morfalous is a French 1984 film set in Tunisia during the Second World War. It tells the story of a Foreign Legion convoy, led by Sgt. Pierre Augagneur (Jean-Paul Belmondo), which is charged to secure gold bars worth six billion francs stored in a bank in El Ksour and to bring them into a safe place.
  • In Rambo: The Force of Freedom, The European mercenary Gripper was discharged from the Legion for failing to recognise the white surrender flag.
  • In a third season (1987) episode of The Jetsons, entitled "Two Many Georges", George Jetson leaves to join the French Foreign Legion after determining that his clone is superior to him.
  • The Italian TV series The Secret of the Sahara has characters who are foreign legion deserters.
  • In the episode "Beau Duckula" of Count Duckula, Duckula joins the French Foreign Legion.
  • In a 1990 episode of Tom & Jerry Kids—"Foreign Legion Frenzy"—the French Foreign Legion is featured.
  • In the episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles entitled "Tales of Innocence", Indiana Jones joins the French Foreign Legion in Morocco during World War I.
  • The American movie Savate (1995), about an ex-legionnaire and Savate martial arts expert ; Joseph Charlegrand heads to a martial arts tournament in the wild west.
  • A három testőr Afrikában (The Three Musketeers in Africa) is a Hungarian 1996 comedy about three friends in the Foreign Legion.
  • In the animated cartoon show Johnny Bravo, episode "Over the Hump", Johnny is lured into the French Foreign Legion by pictures of beautiful women.
  • In episode 34 of The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries which was shown in 1998, the French Foreign Legion is featured.
  • Legionnaire (1998), starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, depicted the Foreign Legion's battles against Moroccan Berbers. In the 1990 film Lionheart, Van Damme stars as a Legionnaire who deserts in order to help his sister-in-law and niece after his brother is killed.
  • In Savior (1998), Dennis Quaid is a former Legionnaire who has become a mercenary for the Serbian militia.
  • The Mummy (1999) stars Brendan Fraser as Rick O'Connell, a member of Foreign Legion at the beginning of the film.
  • Beau travail (1999) by Claire Denis adapts Herman Melville's novel Billy Budd to take place in today's Foreign Legion. While stationed in Djibouti, a sergeant-major feels increasingly threatened by a popular new recruit.
  • The 1999 German movie Straight Shooter tells the story of an ex-legionnaire who goes on a killing spree.
  • In the 1999 American movie Three Kings, there is a medical officer who wears on his sleeve a French Foreign Legion écusson, which is a diamond-shaped, green and dark-blue patch with a flaming bomb insignia.
  • In an episode of CI5: The New Professionals there is a character who is a former legionnaire of the 2e REP.
  • In the film Proof of Life (2000), the character Eric Kessler, played by German actor Gottfried John, lives semi-voluntarily in a rebel camp along with ransom hostage Peter Bowman, played by David Morse. Kessler pretends to be somewhat insane in order not to raise suspicions, but he is actually fully lucid and an ex-Legionnaire, as revealed when Bowman notices a tattoo (2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment insignia) on his arm.
  • The 2002 movie Deserter starring Paul Fox and Tom Hardy.
  • The 2002 movie The Quiet American shows a legionnaire patrolling a Saigon street.
  • In the 2002 American war movie We Were Soldiers, there is a scene which shows French paratroopers commanded by French Foreign Legion officers.
  • In the 2003 Spanish movie Soldados de Salamina one of the characters is a former legionnaire.
  • In the 2005 American comedy Wedding Crashers one of the characters mentions having served in the French Foreign Legion.
  • The Legion was revealed in a July 2005 documentary Escape to the Legion, commissioned by the British television channel, Channel 4. In this four-part series, 11 volunteers with Bear Grylls explored the myths, romanticism and rigours of basic training in the French Foreign Legion.
  • The French Foreign Legion also appears in the Disney animated television series The Legend of Tarzan in an antagonistic role, due to its leadership under the relentless and cruel Lieutenant-Colonel Staquait, who aims on several occasions to capture, imprison or kill Tarzan's newfound friends Hugo and Hooft, American volunteers who betrayed Staquait's orders to slaughter a village full of women and children.
  • Secondhand Lions (2005) stars Robert Duvall and Michael Caine as Hub and Garth McCann, uncles to nephew Walter Coleman played by Haley Joel Osment. An important part of the back story is the uncle's service in the Legion.
  • In Season 3 of Deadliest Warrior, the French Foreign Legion went up against the Gurkhas.
  • In Series 4-6 on Soldier Soldier, Fusilier Joe Farrell (David Groves) joined the French Foreign Legion before he joined the Kings Own Fusilliers.
  • In Steven Spielberg's 2011 movie The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, Tintin and Captain Haddock, whose plane crashed in the Sahara, are rescued by Méharistes of the Foreign Legion.
  • Two episodes of The Goon Show are set in the foreign legion - "Under Two Floorboards" and "The Gold Plate Robbery."
  • In the 1998 American adaptation of Godzilla, Matthew Broderick's character, an American researcher, expresses that he's always wanted to join the French Foreign Legion.
  • In the 2011 Cabin Pressure episode "Qikiqtarjuaq", First Officer Douglas Richardson forces Captain Martin Crieff to put on a French accent and make up an "anecdote" from his (fictional) time in the Foreign Legion about how he "outwitted [a polar bear] armed only with … an egg whisk and a pogo stick". Crieff explains that they were stationed in Alaska (which is remarked upon as being "unusual for a desert regiment") and he "put the egg whisk into the snowdrift, whisked it up like a blizzard in the bear’s face, then … bounced away on the pogo stick" in order to escape.
  • The 2015 movie War Pigs, Captain Hans Picault (Dolph Lundgren) is a Legionnaire tasked with leading a rag tag US Army squad of misfits known as the War Pigs must go behind enemy lines to fight the Nazis by any means necessary.
  • "Love Is in the N2-O2-Ar-CO2-Ne-He-CH4" is the 587th episode of The Simpsons in which the opening sequence shows the family couch joining the French Foreign Legion.
  • The third episode of the first season of Todd Sampson's Body Hack was shot in Guyana with the 3e REI.
  • The Korean Drama Two Weeks has a character that served has served in the Legion.

Video games
  • Code d'Honneur: Légion Etrangère
  • Code d'Honneur 2: Conspiracy Island
  • Code d'Honneur 3: Mesure d'Urgence
  • In Boiling Point: Road to Hell, the main character is a foreign legion veteran.
  • In Hitman: Codename 47, all prime targets are revealed as former members of the French Foreign Legion.
  • In World in Conflict, if the player is commanding NATO forces French Foreign Legion soldiers can parachute into the battle.
  • In Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness the character of Kurtis Trent is an ex-legionnaire.
  • In Battlefield: Bad Company it is revealed through in-game dialogue that the primary antagonist, The Legionnaire, was a member of the French Foreign Legion who killed his commanding officer in a dispute and convinced the rest of the unit to defect and form their own mercenary company: The Legionnaires.
  • In Civilization V the Foreign Legion is a French unique unit which receives a bonus when fighting on enemy territory.
  • In FarCry 3, F1 assault rifles are available to the player because of former Legionnaires who stole them from an armory.

Board and card games
  • In 1955 Transogram released the board game Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion.
  • In 1959 Chad Valley released the board game Sahara Patrol. This was a game for two players: who either took the part of the Foreign Legion or the Arabs, and fought for control of forts in the Sahara.
  • In 1960 the English card game manufacturer Pepys produced the Foreign Legion Card Game.
  • In 1982 Yaquinto released the board game French Foreign Legion.
  • In 1995 B&B Miniatures released the board game March or Die: Rules for the French Foreign Legion.
  • In 2000 Decision Games released the board game French Foreign Legion.
  • A-Toys released the board game Action Foreign Legion.

References
  1. Porch, Douglas (1991). The French Foreign Legion: A Complete History. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-43427-7
  2. https://www.goodreads.com/series/42234-legion
  3. Goulart, Ron (1972). Cheap Thrills: an informal history of the pulp magazines. New York, Arlington House. ISBN 0-87000-172-8
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