The Desert Rats

Interesting story I never heard about before. Balanced audio and video quality. Highly recommend it if you enjoy WWII films.

Desert RatsThis is a fictionalized story of the defense of Torbruk by a green band of Aussies under the command of a British commander, Tommy (played by Richard Burton).The Aussies are green alright, and they're grousing about their Brit commander and though they try to do the right thing, they're often chastised by Tom. Tom is of the mind that disobedience to orders or to follow your heart, rather than being cold and calculating can mean death to the battalion.Regardless, he softens a bit, especially with one of the men who used to be his school teacher back in the day, a man who admittedly is a coward, and who tries to guide Tom through this rough time.James Mason reprises his role as Rommel, the supreme German commander. Mason does not get a lot of "air time" in this film, but when he does he does it so well. Unlike "Desert Fox", his commanding presence, and near perfect German is admiring.The realistic war scenes, the bombs exploding, the death and sacrifice are as realistic as Robert Wise can make it.This film reminds me of the old TV series, Rat Patrol.Will an out-gunned and out-numbered force of green soldiers be able to out-match the superior German forces? If they don't, the Germans will capture the Suez and thus take control of a major shipping and supply line to the Allies, and control the oil coming out of the Arabian Peninsula. Not a good thing.In watching these war pictures, one gets the feeling that we got lucky winning World War II. If it were not for Hitler's bungling, men like Rommel would have had the skill to take control of wide territories.But we had Richard Burton!Recommended!!Other James Mason films:The Desert FoxCross of Iron (Full Screen)Other Richard Burton films:Bitter VictoryWhere Eagles Dare

I knew what I was getting when I ordered it. It is from a diffirent era of movie making. Many of the British actors fought in WWII, and knew they were telling and important story that needed to be told right.They were great actors and they did exactly that.The story was one of the valor of all comprising that battle group, which eventually made its way down to the most frightened coward of the entire brave force; who, in the end gave his life to save his brothers in arms so they could live a little while longer.The story is one of Strategy and Heroism, as great as that of the Spartans at Thermopillae. The Allied General was as smart as his German Counter Part, rightly figuring out Rommel's plans and tactics to effectively thwart or reduce the affects of Rommels attacks. The movie titles should be reversed. The Desert Fox should have been the Desert Rat, because this group of Aussies, Brits, etc. lived and fought out of foxholes holding off Rommel and his Afrika Corps for the better part of a year until reinforcements finally came. A great story, well told. The acting compensates for all of the deficiencies for the lack of modern cinematography and effects.

Good movie about the North African Campaign

Great dvd

If you have the movie "Tobruk" then you have basically seem this movie but "Tobruk" was a better version. As a matter of fact it uses some of the same scenes as the original so in some places you feel like you are watching a 70s-80s TV series using "stock" footage. Obviously a cost cutting measure on the studio's part. If you can find a cheap used copy then it would be worth adding to your library.

It is of course an older genre, and holds up pretty well considering its age. However, what makes it great is to watch Richard Burton. I do believe the story lines were so much better back then. But back then racism and extreme nationalism was all the rage. Despite that, I love this movie and have watched it every few years, and still enjoyed it.

As Burton goes he's full of himself he must spend hours looking on and patting himself on the back, he was good made the one's now days sould and look retarted. The movie is good buy it you will ware it out and it you you have to understand war and hollywood and how much they didn't know about WWII or the people that fought in it 10% true ha but intertaining if you can by the bull shit the actors stick in. All Of that and I still love the war movies, me and my Pop watched them alot he cussing the actors for there John-Wayne crap running into a tank with a 45acp and stopping it hahaha but we loved it on our saturday night movie night. Like I said buy it cuss it and get another one beats the hell out of Friday night smack down... Wayne Hutchens IN.

It has sometimes been said that WWII, notwithstanding all of the horror, death & deprivation associated with it, was the last so-called "good war." Not only was it fought, on our side at least, by what has come to be known as the Best Generation, but it was also very clear cut. The Axis was unalterably evil, with none of the moral ambiguity that would come to characterize much of the post war years.And The Desert Rats is a WWII film with that lack of ambiguity. The Aussies & British who defend Tobruck from Rommel's Africa Corps are the Good Guys. With their backs to the sea & lacking every type of supply except courage, the Desert Rats fought Rommel to a standstill, finally proving that the Germans were not unstoppable super men. They invited Rommel to come waltzing Matilda: it was a waltz that spelled, as Churchill so aptly put it, ". . . the End of the Beginning."And that was a very, very good thing since the British & their Empire were on life support. By 1941, England stood virtually alone against the Axis. Mainland Europe belonged to Hitler. The Japanese had swept through SE Asia &, among other conquests, now occupied Burma, which shared a border with India. As if that were not bad enough, the Japanese were also shelling Port Moresby on the tip of Australia's NE coast in what many feared was a prelude to a Japanese invasion of the sub-continent. If the Africa Corps took Egypt &, with it, the Suez Canal & Middle Eastern oil, then continued English military operations might become untenable & a peace treaty might have to be sought, on Axis terms.Richard Burton plays the English commander of a contingent of Aussie troops. And there's no love lost on either side. Burton's character is well aware of what the Aussie's think of any British commander, while the Aussie troops see Burton as someone who would willingly sacrifice any & all of them to obey orders & save British lives. How these two mutually suspicious & hostile entities finally form a bond is one of the film's major features. In the end, you don't fight for King, or country, or orders. You fight because you're too proud to surrender & because you can't let down the bloke who's fighting beside you.The other noteworthy performance is turned in by Robert Newton playing an ex-public school Don who's too much of a coward to fight, but who was also too much of coward not to volunteer anyway. Newton would, in later & leaner years, play a very campy edition of Long John Silver. The image of him with a parrot on his shoulder, peg leg stomping along & tri-corn hat pushed back off a sweaty brow, would, unfortunately, come to define him for many, including the very snobbish & caste conscious British film establishment. They tend to forget that Newton, despite his fondness for liquor - a fondness shared by many of his contemporary thespians - was an accomplished Shakespearean actor who turned in a vastly under-rated performance in Noel Coward's "This Happy Breed." In The Desert Rats, Newton is in fine form in a role he never lets slip in mawkishness.Finally, there's James Mason reprising his role as Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox. My only complaint with his performance, although this flaw isn't his fault, is that, for some reason, some film-makers believe, Heaven knows why, that to add authenticity, they must have Germans speaking German. They seem to forget that the audience is well aware that foreign people speak a language other than English. We assume that the Germans being depicted spoke German to one another, as the French spoke French, etc. Driving home this point by having the actors speak in a language most of the audience won't be able to understand is a device whose efficacy still eludes me.This is the type of movie that TV stations used to broadcast on Saturday afternoons, or on weekday afternoons when old movies were shown instead of soap operas & witless game shows. A generation like mine grew up on this kind of movie. Needless to say, they don't make like this anymore!

je viens de recevoir et je regarde de suite le film!! et a la fin de celui ci me sent obligé de donnermon opinion....!!! pour moi un tres beau film du genre!! bcp nous parle de la guerre en europe mais trop peu de ce qui c est passé en afrique d ailleur meme a l ecole dans les livres d histoire on en parle que trop peu,rarement,voir pas du tout!!pour moi le fait que ce film soit en noir et blanc est un plus(comparé a d autres temoignages qui voudraientle voir en couleur)pourquoi un plus car grace a sa je l ai vu plus comme un documentaire sa fait vraiment tres vrai pour les moyens de l epoque et pas de super heros qui tue tout le monde et s en sort juste aves une foulure a la cheville qu il c est fait en poursuivant a lui seul toute une division de panzer...lol pour moi c est tres proche de la realité un dur combat qui dura des mois pour une ville...les rats enterré dans leurs trou et sortant la nuit pour des expeditions commando et de l autre rommel qui veux cette ville et s en donne tous les moyen....je ne vais pas vous raconter le film le mieux c est de le voir vous n en serez pas decu!!!

We all heard about Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox due to his way of using sandstorms to mask his tanks tracks and his constant closing his enemy in a steel ring. Master of exploitation. He did not like the Nazis, but was doing his duty as a gentleman soldier. Under German law, no military people could be members of the Nazi party. But had to obey their leaders. Rommel and Gen Heinz Guderian, father of the German armored units, were the best of WW2. The USA General George Patton fought in similar ways with his armour. Basically tanks are highly mobile artillery with heavy protection for the crew. German armour was the best right until war's end. The 88mm gun was fearsome. It could fire 6 miles. It had a 4700 foot per second velocity with flat trajectory. No tank could survive a hit. When that gun was mounted into a tank like the 57 ton Tiger, you had a terror weapon on the battle field. Our guns could not penetrate a Tiger armour. Here we have the Brits changing one general after another due to "incompetence". It is only when Patton arrived, Rommel was halted, and slowly driven back.

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The Desert Rats can be watched before or after the Desert Fox and works as a companion film in much the same way as the recent films Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwa Jima did. James Mason returns in this film in a few memorable scenes, but the focus is much more on Richard Burtons character and the soldiers under him. By the films end you certainly understand why they were known as 'desert rats'(diving in and out of holes and rock openings in the sand). At only 84 minutes the film is surprisingly short, I would have happily sat and watched these characters surviving in the desert for longer. The picture quality isn't the best, but for an old classic its good enough.