The Vultures

In the spring of 1943, a Foreign Legion unit travels through Tunisia to guard a fortune of gold bars heading home. An ambush by German forces wipes out most of the column, leaving a handful of survivors. Sergeant Pierre Augagneur leverages his street savvy and improvisation to turn the tide and keep the loot moving. The bank manager and his alluring wife enter the fray, and a German lieutenant is arrested by the French. Augagneur eyes the gold as a prize while warrant officer Edouard Mahuzard insists on doing his duty. Loyalties flip and falter as allies vanish and the gold slips deeper into the desert, changing hands along the way. The movie uses quick cuts and jaunty tempo.

Directed by Henri Verneuil with a screenplay from Michel Audiard and Pierre Siniac, The Vultures arrived in 1984 as a sharp blend of war grit and French comedy, anchored by Jean-Paul Belmondo in the lead. Period-appropriate sets reinforce the mood.

Audience reception appears mixed with an average of 5.97 out of 10 from 145 votes, signaling a blend of sharp dialogue, humor, and wartime action. The film probes loyalty and greed while keeping violence light through wit and brisk pacing. The balance between danger and humor is carefully kept.

The Vultures sits in the period where Belmondo graced French cinema with a confident mix of bravado and comic timing. Audiard's dialogue sharpens the clashes, while Verneuil keeps the tone taut. For fans of mid 80s French genre cinema, it offers a confident tonal balance. A memorable genre piece.

Box office figures for The Vultures are not publicly available in the sources consulted, so neither worldwide gross nor distribution footprint can be verified here. The film remains better known to fans of Belmondo and Verneuil for international audiences especially outside France today.