Diagonaldi Very well executed

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

k-thomas I have this year bought the entire five seasons of this terrific series on DVD and am now just finishing series three. I was living in Cyprus when i first Combat on T.V as my father was stationed there with the British army and we used to watch it every week without fail. As stated in some of the other reviews, the characters were people who we would look up to as kids, but were also role models unlike today.In the sixties there were a lot of good T.V series with characters for kids to look up to such as Bonanza, Laredo, Star Trek and these programs were suitable for children. So i find it disturbing to find that kids of seven, which i was when i first watched Combat in 1964, looking up to people like Sylvester Stallone in Rambo or Arnold Swartzenegger in Total Recall. These films were certainly not fit for kids of that age to watch. It's nice to see some of the old Hollywood greats in supporting roles, for example Charles Bronson in a passive role James Coburn, Roddy McDowell. Also watching Richard Baseheart, James Caan and William Smith from Rich Man Poor Man and Richard Jaekel playing Germans and speaking German. In the case of James Caan in the entire episode. Also i liked it that not all the time the Germans were portrayed as the brutal Hun for example the episode A Cry In The Ruins from season three where after an American barrage on a village, German soldiers are seen trying to rescue a baby trapped under the rubble. The one thing i could never understand was after Combat the main actors with the exception of Vick Morrow, namely Rick Jason, Piere Jalbert, Jack Hogan, Dick Peabody etc etc were hardly seen again and regarding Vic Morrow, why such a terrific actor kept being given these cheap rubbishy bad guy roles in movies like Bronx Warriors and Monster with another good actor The Virginians Doug Maclure. Also it was a big tragedy the way Vic Morrow died in that terrible accident while making his last movie The Twilight Zone. So you now know that the complete series of Combat is out on DVD and therefore to all the fans please by it. Kevin Thomas.

eflapinskas The very successful and highly acclaimed series which first aired on TV in 1962. It's main star, Vic Morrow, plays the part of Sgt. Chip Saunders. The other main character, Lt. Hanley, is played by Rick Jason. The Saunders character is somewhat unbelievable in his constant devotion to duty under ALL conditions. The Hanley character is cast a little more believable in that although he is more a "rules" type, like all officers are, he shows a more HUMAN side than Saunders. What really was the success of this series was the involvement of the human kind in various combat conditions and situations. Watching the tactics apllied by both the allies and the Germans is rather ridiculous. It seemed that the Americans were out manuvering the Germans for some reason and Saunders was always sticking out his squads "NECK" by taking unnecessary risks. As a combat veteran myself I would have questioned these leaders tactics as borderline suicide or just plain idiocy although one really sleeps with the other.The show was really about humanity and drama which was aptly displayed. They must have been doing things right or people would not have tuned in every season from 1962 to 1967. My own observation is that when they changed over to color filming 2 things happened. The tactics became more unbelievable and the missions as well.Strangely enough both the lead characters died untimely deaths.

surf66ocbp Combat ! It came on late on WFIL-TV in Philly. I'd sit there with a pint glass of milk and ten Ivan spiced wafers and pace myself through the four acts of every Combat episode week in and week out. It was great because after Combat were re-runs of the Untouchables. Enough of that. Combat was realistic and well put together. There was no better infantry squad portrayed that I've ever seen in the movies or TV than Chip Saunders squad (with the R/T call-sign "King two".) When I went in the Army in '68 I had to relearn military phonetics.... Baker was Bravo, King was Kilo, Nancy was November....I had watched Combat and Twelve-o'clock High so often. Let me tell you something: having my last name called by a Sargeant and being put on the 'point' or the 'flank' for the first time in the real Army was almost a familiar situation! You learn right away whats Hollywood and whats reality however. The first lesson is helmet etiquette; chin straps never hang loose. You never 'one-arm- hang' your weapon, (sling or port-arms or you are using it.) ad infinitum.....but there was a ton of believability in Combat regardless.All the actors knew how to salute. This is unbelievably critical to convey a sense of reality. Just look at Cuba Gooding playing a military guy if you want a real laugh. I believe two of the actors were ex-military Navy. The actors knew their weapons...so much so that you identified each weapon with the soldier. M-1 Garand with Littlejohn, Saunders with the Thompson, and Kirby with the BAR....Caje with a knife... Kirby, by the way, lugged an authentic Browning Automatic Rifle through every episode. The Radio Operator ALWAYS "got-it" but the R/T traffic was authentic and the unit itself seemed to be as ubiquitous as the weaponry. This crew used to go on-location frequently too. Korbel Winery was one location. To this day I buy their champagne because of it. And there was the back lot at MGM where they shared the set with 'Man from Uncle" and some westerns.Vic Morrow was to Combat and all military movies (both screens) as William Shatner is to James T Kirk: unassailable. The shame of Vic Morrows death is that he was put in a dangerous situation by a movie director later in his career and died because of negligence: plain and simple. Hence Vic Morrow as Sgt Chip Saunders stands forever in my mind, looking over the barrel of the Thompson perched on his hip....as the hard-bitten squad leader: best NCO in the European Theater bar none.The actor who portrayed Littlejohn was an accomplished writer. His recollections of those days are priceless and recommended for any fan of 'Combat!"

ETO_Buff Although I'm a big fan of any movie or TV show dealing with the European Theater in WWII, I was not originally going to rent this series. Series just take too long to watch, but the reviews on this show by other people were so positive that I decided to view it anyway. I was very disappointed! Each show was completely unrealistic, and the combat scenes border on comical. Some combat scenes even introduce an element of comedy into them, such as in the first episode when Saunders was sneaking up on a house occupied by Germans who had some American prisoners. One of his squad members was supposed to cover him by firing a rifle grenade at a tank, but kept hitting right near Saunders as he moved (near enough that in real-life he would have killed or wounded Saunders). Saunders kept looking back at him and giving him a sarcastic look. So much for gritty realism. The second episode focused on the characters taking shelter from a series of German air-raids on a French town. The problem is that the Luftwaffe was literally grounded long before D-Day, and last thing the Allied invaders had to worry about was German air-raids. I suppose it must have been difficult for the writers to create material for a series, but I have to say that I didn't care for the show because of what they created.