CrawlerChunky
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Roy Hart
If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.
Roxie
The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;
Robert J. Maxwell
Not a bad war film as these things go. Decent production values, nice attention to wardrobe, effective location shooting, and a couple of professional performances add up to a watchable movie along the lines of "The Guns of Navaron." A group of British Commandos and Jewish Special Servic Forces kidnap a Canadian officer, Hudson, to guide them through the desert in an attempt to destroy Rommel's fuel depot at Tobruk.The mission succeeds of course and an impending disaster by British forces is aborted. Most of the men die but a handful, including Hudson, manage to escape.It's not really worth going on about. The direction is by Arthur Hiller and is professionally competent. The story was written by Leo Gordon, who has given himself a small role as one of the raiders. Nigel Green as the Commando Colonel gives his usual compellingly hammy performance. The plot is a bit complicated. As in "The Guns of Navaron" and "Where Eagles Dare," there is a traitor in the group. If you can't pick him out after a few lines, you get no better than a D Plus in this course.George Peppard, born in Detroit, plays Bergman, the German Jew who speaks flawless German. The chief weakness in his performance is that he does not speak flawless German. My own command of German has deteriorated over the years into a kind of influence over it, but when Peppard gives an order like "Vorwarts!" (I had to leave out an umlaut) and it comes out as "Forvards!", even I have to wince.The climax is explosive and brutal, as it must be in a film like this.
naseby
Whilst there's always the obligatory talky parts in 'sixties films this still holds its own, especially with a latter movie-status Rock Hudson at the helm. Morose, enigmatic Canadian officer Craig, at odds with the CO on the mission, Harker (Nigel Green in yet another military role) stubbornly goes along with a plan to destroy the dumps at Tobruk to enable our boys to end the desert war asap.A good role is played by George Peppard as Bergman, German-Jewish leader of the Jewish Brigade, assisting the British-led attack ironically but essentially dressed as German Afrika Corps soldiers, with a plot to infiltrate the Germans by escorting 'British POWs' into the area they need to sabotage.Bergman's just as at odds with both Harker and Craig, as there's banter to the up-and-coming state of Israel, which of course Harker has had his 'bar-mitzvah' in Palestine (sorry about that!) Bergman and his chaps have almost the same mistrust of the allies as they have of the Nazis.Of course, there's a traitor in the midst among the rabble. There are fine moments of action. An attack on 'the convoy' of prisoners, albeit by a British P-40, unknowing of course of their mission is well-handled. A number of the soldiers are killed by their 'own 'plane' before they down it with obvious mixed feelings but it was necessary for the mission.Of course, they come across an Arab and his pals in the desert who happen to be a bit nasty too. Craig being fluent in German and Arabic poses as the Afrika Corps CO. (Suppose it's possible to find someone who speaks both - or is he a linguist/translator in peacetime Canada, who knows!), and negotiates with the Arabs (Who refuse his offer of a few rifles for two prisoners the Arabs say they have). Craig informs Sergeant Krug to open up with the MG42 and let the Arabs know they're not powerless with a good few rounds as they're demanding too much. They take the prisoners, Craig hands Harker the two 'British Passports', stating they're British (A father and daughter) - "They wanted to be taken to the Germans".Between these traitors and the traitor among the camp is the intrigue. The traitor's among the Jewish Brigade/Afrika Corps and this leads to tension when Bergman's men are singled out by Harker, as one of the two captured traitors is murdered by the 'brigade's traitor'. Then Mohnfeld (Guy Stockwell) finds one of Bergman's men down a tunnel leading from where the 'daughter' - traitor was killed (Stay with it!) but Mohnfeld kills him in a fight it seems - is this the brigade's traitor? Bergman says not, but because it's happened his men are let off the hook for the moment. The 'father'- traitor is wasted trying to radio Berlin or whatever, unwittingly by an Italian-Axis soldier who didn't know what he was doing out there in the desert, dot-dot-dot-dotting.As Bergman and his chaps have a reprieve, all goes more or less swimmingly along as we British would say to the dump, leaving Bergman to attack it with some flame-thrower action and Craig to take a tank into the area letting rip in good style. Bergman becomes a victim of his own flames after wasting quite a few Nazis though. Even though he's the hero, he gets done just like in 'The Blue Max' and 'Operation Crossbow' (Though he somewhat deserved it in The Blue Max!) but of course there IS another hero, and like it or not whether you're a Peppard or Hudson fan, it's the latter who's the real hero who's got to live (I mean, he hates authority, is always smarter than Harker and it's nice to show a Commonwealth soldier making it for once, right?).The boys manage to blow up the dump, Harker and his men are surrounded though and taken prisoner, and the 'traitor' unmasks himself for the info he wants thinking Harker's only going to be chivalrous. But he pumps this traitor with his pistol only to be mown down by the Nazis after a nice speech about 'being a soldier to the max' or words to that effect. (who was the traitor - watch the film, I'm not a total 'spoiler'!)This had a fair plot, some good angst between the authoritative Harker, Hudson and Bergman, good action, intrigue and a fine cameo of what an NCO is, namely the great Jack Watson playing one again, plus the two little British dregs, played by the fine character actors, Percy Herbert and Norman Rossington. Leo Gordon who plays the gruff Sergeant Krug actually wrote the screenplay. Check it out.
tmkwdi
Watched Raid on Rommel and Tobruk consecutively and was startled to see the same scenes and background actors appear in both films. Not re-shot scenes or newsreel footage, but actual duplicate footage in each. The P-40 strafing sequence conclusion is the most obvious, especially in its colorful conclusion, but there are many, many others. Another is an artsy shot of a half-track driver's rear view mirror and subsequent pan to the guy's profile. Same guy as in Tobruk. I know that making a movie is a costly enterprise, but someone went overboard in cutting costs for Raid on Rommel (1971). Anyone else notice this? Of the two films, I would give Tobruk the edge, but Raid on Rommel is nearly "Six of one, half-dozen of another."
colin-barron
I first saw "Tobruk" when it first came out in 1967. It is an entertaining action picture that delivers plenty of thrills.The main flaw of this picture (like so many American war movies before and since) is that German and Italian armour and vehicles are represented by Korean War - era American equipment. However the high budget "Battle of the Bulge" and the Oscar - winning "Patton - Lust for Glory" had the same fault.If "Tobruk" was being made nowadays,greater care would be taken to ensure that vehicles and equipment were correct for the period.Interestingly the cinema poster for this film shows the Germans using Panther tanks,a type which never saw action in North Africa as it had its combat debut at the Battle of Kursk in the Summer of 1943.
