"French Foreign Legion films - accurate?" Topic

I don't mean in terms of plot or anything like that. Talking about location.
I was in a mood so I watched Beau Geste (Telly Savalas version) and March or Die. Both of those showed action pretty much in the middle of a sandy desert.
March or die kind of made sense because they were going to an archealogical dig -although it didn't look like they took near enough water for such an expedition.
I would think that they would build their forts near a water source at the very least. Were they really that remote? Or just dramatic license?

Well, here is some info on one in Morrocco. link

The sand dunes in the movies make for a more exotic location.

I'm not it fits, but I just watched a good one with Anthony Quinn as French Colonel (I think). Set in 1950's Vietnam and then Algeria. From what I recall the locations looked pretty good. And by recently I mean the past 6 months.

@KevinV: Lost Command (1966). imdb.com/title/tt0060637

It's not about the French Foreign Legion, but about French regular army paratroopers.

Good movie. I watched it on one of the streaming services late last year.

First season of "Captain Gallant" was actually filmed in Algeria. (Second season was filmed in Italy. Algeria was getting a little too dangerous for film crews. But can you spot the difference in the final product?)

I'd go with siting forts around or next to wells. If there's no water, there's not much else either side would fight over anyway and no way to hold the fort, which is why on old maps you see borders sort of fade out into the interior the way they do at sea. But if you check GoogleEarth or equivalent, there are a depressing number of ruined fortlets in absolute desert--some Foreign Legion, some much older. There had been water, once.

That said--and PC Wren knew this--water turns up here and there in the interior, so it was a normal "passing out" exercise for newly trained Legionaires to be marched from coastal Sidi bel Zid (Sp?) through desert to some interior fort with a well. It was a long, dry march, and a way of weeding out would-be Legionaires who weren't up to spec.

Interesting topic!