Diagonaldi Very well executed

Seraherrera The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

ma-cortes Decent Italian/German co-production with enough action and dramatic events to make it worth looking in on . It concerns about the usual commando operation against Rommel 's forces in North Africa , October 1942 , about the Operation Torch . It deals with the inexperienced but stalwart Lieutenant Valli (Jack Kelly) who puts together a group of Italian-Americans (Giampiero Albertini , Pier Paolo Capponi , Ivano Staccioli) led by a tough sergeant (Lee Van Cleef) . They have to take an oasis where there is an indispensable water depot and subsequently they must secure this desert base in advance of Allied landings .All the while these Italian- Americans pretend to be Italian soldiers , disguising as Axis soldiers . After the soldiers have knifed the Italians in their beds , they take the strategic location and meet a beautiful prostitute (Marilu Tolo) living at the base. Sullivan's commandos are to hold this camp and its weaponry until an American battalion arrives . But there is a hidden man (Helmut Smith) on the fort , and problems emerge and things go awry.It follows the commando-sub-genre with familiar plot and cliché-filled, as an expert group of soldiers into disguise as Italian soldiers in order to infiltrate a North African camp held by the Italians and often hosting the enemy , but things go terribly wrong after that .It displays thrills, noisy action, extreme violence, fatalism and impressive final battle . Violence is extended throughout , as commando members kill in cold blood , point blank , while enemy sleeping and back . Moving and stirring screenplay plenty of twists and turns , written by 6 screen-writers , including the famous Dario Argento and Menahem Golam . Nice acting by Lee Van Cleef as unsettling sergeant who has a war trauma and constantly argues with his superior and fine performance from Jack Kelly as a green by-the-book officer . Support cast is frankly excellent , full of secondaries usual in co- productions (Spaghetti , Eurospy , Peplum) such as Giampiero Albertini , Marino Masé , Götz George , Pier Paolo Capponi , Duilio Del Prete, Ivano Staccioli , Marilù Tolo , and Joachim Fuchsberger from Edward Wallace series , among others .Evocative and atmospheric cinematography in Cromoscope, being shot during July , August 1968 in Cerdeña.Enjoyable and adequate musical score by Mario Nascinbene.The motion picture was well directed by Armando Crispino . Armando was a good craftsman who written/directed all kinds of genres as Spaghetti , Wartime , Nunexploitation , Thriller and Gialli such as ¨John Il Bastardo¨, Requiescant¨, ¨Rififi in Asterdam¨, "The Castro's Abbess" , ¨Dead or alive¨ ,"auptopsia" and several others

OC47150 Commandos is one of those movies I remember watching on the late-late-late show back in the late 70s and early 80s. It aired frequently.I was quite surprised to find it included in a WWII movie multipack I bought at WM. An entirely different description of Commandos was listed, so imagine my surprise when I saw it was the old Lee Van Cleef movie! This movie isn't going to win any awards. There's no historic accuracy to it at all, other than the Germans and Italians were fighting in North Africa (or the Western Desert, for our British friends). But it's still fun to watch.

Steve Nyland (Squonkamatic) I've now watched this one about five times and just don't get the vibe. It might be because this is more or less a straight-up war movie that happened to be made by Italians rather than a Spaghetti Western with tanks instead of horses. The film seems to be lacking in the "fun" department too, with a heavy handed musical score, shameless overacting by the usually more low-keyed Lee Van Cleef, a cast of hundreds of nobody's rather than just a dozen or so, and a brooding sense of doom that builds into an over-the-top final battle scene where everyone of importance to the movie dies horribly. Thank God. Even the funky desert goggles couldn't liven things up, might as well kill everybody.War Is Hell and of course it shouldn't be fun, so fans of mainstream war films will perhaps enjoy this more than the cultists -- and they got the stupid machine guns + uniforms etc right for once, thank freakin' God for that ... I also recognize another Euro War formula element here, and that is the Singing Germans scene. This is where the decadence of the Nazi chic is portrayed by having the high ranking "Krauts" sit around a table enjoying first a hearty, fattening meal & then group-assaulting whatever liquor is on hand. Preferably expensive French wine (looted from the innocent) or top shelf German schnapps (withheld from the lower ranks). And as they get drunk, the Germans begin to sing some Vaterland schnitzel song that has them waving glasses, embracing each other, smiling like fools, and not noticing as the spy in their midst readies his stiletto for a quick execution or perhaps French Partisans loot the ammo dump. Look for Singing German scenes in HELL IN NORMANDY, CHURCHILL'S LEOPARDS and BATTLE OF THE LAST PANZER for more information.COMMANDOS does have a great sequence where the captured Italian officers break out of their jail cell to fight their American commando captors, and like with Umberto Lenzi's DESERT COMMANDOS this movie sort of tricks you into rooting for the Axis soldiers, including a sympathetic German officer who comes off as rather a decent chap. Lee Van Cleef on the other hand comes across as a sweaty faced, sneering, jittery psychopath barely able to contain his homicidal rage, and the best image of the film has him staring into the eyes of a dead man he killed with his bare hands, reliving a flashback to a disastrous raid gone bad from his days fighting in the Pacific. He is a great exaggeration of the battle scarred WW2 vet, burnt out to the point of not caring about the difference between right & wrong, but so over-wrought that you wish someone would get him his black suit & horse.The closing battle is a doozy for sure, but I don't know about this one: It's a slog, and sense desperation in the 26 credited scriptwriters. And by the way, those miraculous widescreen bargain bin releases were made from a (now discontinued) Japanese DVD release -- "Clara Vision" or "Front Row" didn't do anything but rip off a nice rare DVD for their commercialized re-burn, and congratulating them for their work is like rooting for BitTorrent. Welcome to the world of public domain genre films, where the point is to rip off the best version possible, undercut the original releases with a ridiculously/suspiciously low price, and as such de-value a rugged little distinctive movie into a bit of garbage on sale for $.49 cents in the store where people go to buy things like forks, mutated Doritos or cheap party decorations. If that's your idea of progress, here you go. 4/10

SgtSlaughter "Commandos" was released in 1968 and has been in circulation on public domain home video (and now DVD) in the United States and abroad since the early 1980s. A great widescreen print has now surfaced on DVD, one from the Platinum Disc Corporation and another from St. Clair Vision. This is one of the easiest to find Italian war films, and it's really not too shabby, either… On the eve of the American landings in North Africa, a band of Italian-American soldiers are recruited for a special mission behind the enemy lines. They will capture and hold a vital oasis the day before the Allies land. Unfortunately, the garrison of Italian soldiers and a German Panzer unit will do anything to stop this takeover. Director Crispino is all about style, and just about everything else is disregarded here. The main conflict is between Sergeant Sullivan (Lee Van Cleef, "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly") and Captain Valli (Jack Kelly, "To Hell and Back"). Sullivan is an experienced veteran, and Valli is a rear-echelon officer who really shouldn't be in charge. Sullivan questions Valli's authority every step of the way. Unfortunately, this conflict remains shallow throughout, and the characters do little besides yell at and threaten each other. As an individual, however, Sullivan is a fleshed-out, battle-scarred veteran who's haunted by images of a failed campaign in the Pacific. Sadly, Van Cleef overacts through every scene, chewing up the scenery so much that it's hard to take him seriously. The kudos go to the supporting cast, who manage to put on a convincing show from start to finish. Joachim Fuchsburger is fabulous as Lt. Heitzel, a German professor who is now drafted as a Panzer officer. He hates the war, but does his duty for country. Heitzel's character draws sympathy from the audience is his character is naturally fleshed out over the course of a long dinner scene with Valli and Tomassini. It's very nice to see a late-1960s war film in which a German character has a sympathetic role, rather than a clichéd "evil Nazi" part which was so common in other action films produced during the era. On the other hand, Götz George is equally good as Lt. Rudi, a dedicated Hitler Youth-type. The Germans and Americans discuss culture and politics over dinner in one long scene, and this makes their face-to-face encounter during the final battle all the more moving. Finally, there's Marino Mase ("The Five Man Army") as Lt. Tomassini, who commands the Italian garrison and will stop at nothing to escape with the survivors and liberate what's rightfully his. Add to this long list some excellent small roles filled by Ivano Stacciolo, Pier Paolo Capponi, Heinz Reincke and Romano Puppo. Crispino's focus is on the action, and makes the characters just believable enough to appreciate the big, explosive proceedings. The American takeover of the Italian garrison is excellently shot and finely edited, and the climactic tank battle in the oasis is purely awesome. It's filled with great shots of people getting shot, tanks exploding, bullets kicking up puffs of dirt – there are some shots with action going on in both the background and foreground, making for interesting composition. The movie has a very realistic look and feel to it, as well. The Americans and Germans are appropriately armed and clad for the time period. The sweltering sun and dry desert are completely convincing. The oasis set is massive and Crispino makes use of every part of it. The interiors, particularly the big dining room, are well-captured with wide shots and pans. At night, the set is well-lit and the action is completely clear. "Commandos" is a well-written, well-shot and action-packed war drama with a fine supporting cast and some nail-biting combat sequences, which put it a notch above many other Italian war productions in the same vein. 7/10