This has always been a fond memory for me, one those films that always turned up on TV when I was young and I was blown away by the literal ending of the film, which is very well edited. Battle scenes are hard to do and the construction here is well done.
YES the tanks are not period and even PRIVATE RYAN used the Yugoslav T-34 to Tiger Tank conversion, only FURY used the world's only real, running TIGER I Tank. Perhaps one of the best tank-battle scenes ever so I can easily forgive the M47 and M48 Patton tanks, they show up in almost every film. One of the problems with World War II films is that realistic stuff is hard to get --- until you have CGI when it can be made up.
Performances - real, gritty and somewhat to be expected. Peppard is excellent, Hudson his rock solid self and Nigel Green always good as a British stiff upper lip commander.
Plot - fairly obvious really, a long desert ride to meet a ton of Germans and blow stuff up with complications.
Special effects - for 1967 this was excellent! The final confrontation is spectacular, quite the largest explosive work in a film before or since.
So, while it is not the most thoughtful film, it is a ride through the desert to get to a fight, and not bad. Only THE DESERT RATS is superior in it's own way, far smaller and centered on Tobruk too. I recommend both and slip in THE DESERT FOX if you have time and an excellent evening indeed.
Just watch out for the explosions at the end.
YES the tanks are not period and even PRIVATE RYAN used the Yugoslav T-34 to Tiger Tank conversion, only FURY used the world's only real, running TIGER I Tank. Perhaps one of the best tank-battle scenes ever so I can easily forgive the M47 and M48 Patton tanks, they show up in almost every film. One of the problems with World War II films is that realistic stuff is hard to get --- until you have CGI when it can be made up.
Performances - real, gritty and somewhat to be expected. Peppard is excellent, Hudson his rock solid self and Nigel Green always good as a British stiff upper lip commander.
Plot - fairly obvious really, a long desert ride to meet a ton of Germans and blow stuff up with complications.
Special effects - for 1967 this was excellent! The final confrontation is spectacular, quite the largest explosive work in a film before or since.
So, while it is not the most thoughtful film, it is a ride through the desert to get to a fight, and not bad. Only THE DESERT RATS is superior in it's own way, far smaller and centered on Tobruk too. I recommend both and slip in THE DESERT FOX if you have time and an excellent evening indeed.
Just watch out for the explosions at the end.