Bitter Victory (1957) User Reviews

"The Cinema is Nicholas Ray"

[Goodbye_Ruby_Tuesday · 8/10 · 29 February 2008]

A heavy-handed thing to say, but that's what Jean-Luc Godard proclaimed upon seeing this film at the Cannes Film Festival. The French knew it long before we did: Nicholas Ray was one of the most original and wisest directors to ever make films. He took a French anti-war book and he made it into a film that was so much more than that. Unlike his previous routine assignment to confirm his allegiance to Howard Hughes during the Red Scare FLYING LEATHERNECKS, there are more layers that stretch far beyond the sea of sand that cast Richard Burton and Curt Jurgens away from society. Unlike most war films of its time and like almost every film Ray ever made, the conflict lies not in the battles between the nations, but inside the hearts of the film's protagonists.

The brooding Richard Burton is given a great role as disillusioned soldier Captain James Leith, forced to carry out an assignment with Major Brand, a man he dislikes (the feeling is mutual--Leith had an affair with Brand's wife Jane a few years back, and the desire still lingers on, showing Leith's last trace of humanity). Their assignment is to travel behind enemy lines and take some German documents. The long journey through the desert becomes even more heated as Leith reminds Brand of his cowardice (Brand hesitated to kill a German soldier during an attack) and Brand tries in subtle ways to kill Leith to cover up his cowardice. But this isn't a black and white good-guy/bad-guy caricature; there are so many shades of gray in both characters. As Leith later says, the two are almost mirror images (although he is much wiser than Brand and accepts his futility, Leith is not as strong as some might make him to be; he admits to leaving Jane because he was scared to get close to someone else--like all of Ray's anti-heroes, the ones who reject love are the ones who need it the most), possibly explaining why Brand feels compelled to kill Leith.

BITTER VICTORY wasn't the first anti-war film, but it was one of the few to make its statement so eloquently (and it had the most profound title). Too subtle to connect with American audiences (the film flopped badly at the box-office and when the studio re-cut it several times, each time farther and farther away from Nicholas Ray's original vision, it didn't work) but revered by French audiences, BITTER VICTORY has grown more potent in the decades since its release. The futility of war isn't proclaimed by the horrible violence of battle like countless films, but through the impossible absurdity of a man's role in the war. After all, if Leith "kills the living and saves the dead," what difference does it make, other than that little matter of when and what for? By the end, how is Brand any different from the training dummies with hearts painted over them? The enlightenment that Brand finds by the film's end comes too late; he's already lost what's precious to him and all he has to show for it is a DSO. It truly is a bitter victory.

Okay...just okay

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 16 March 2017]

This film made a very odd casting decision. For some reason, the German actor Curt Jurgens was hired to play one of the leads...a British major serving in WWII! He doesn't sound the least bit British and this took me out of the film a bit. The other lead was Richard Burton....a man who grows to hate and have contempt for the major during the course of their suicide mission. This is because although the Major was in control of the mission, he is a coward and hesitates when they need to act. And, it appears that the Major might just be trying to get the Captain (Burton) killed off so that no one will know about his failings as a leader.

An interesting portrait of humans in war, it's worth seeing but isn't a great war film.

By the way, there was one scene that annoyed me. The Captain is bitten by a scorpion and INSTANTLY everyone thinks he will die. Death from scorpion stings is VERY rare and only about 2% of all scorpion species MIGHT be able to kill you...and mostly if your system is already compromised. And, just like snakebites, you DO NOT cut the wound to suck out the poison!!! Kids...don't try this at home!!!

More than cinema

[dbotoreales · 8/10 · 19 June 2006]

Before entering the cinema theater I read a review of the film made by Godard in Cahiers du Cinéma. He defined this movie 'more than cinema' and a pure reflection of life. The miserable and coward behaviour of the character (played superbly by Curd Júrgens), a bewildered Richard Burton when futilely carries over his shoulder a dying soldier through the desert until he realizes his death: 'I kill the living and save the dead! or the moment when Ruth Roman looks for "Jimmy" among the survivors of the expedition, and many more... are all beautiful pieces of life, probably bigger than life... How easy is killing!? I also wanted to emphasize the brilliant expressionist photography used in the film. Especially in the nocturnal sequences.

They shoot horses don't they?

[dbdumonteil · 18 May 2008]

Two errors in the cast:French actor Raymond Pellegrin is not credible as an Arab scout ,at least to French eyes;Ruth Roman is too cold to portray a Ray heroine successfully ;Hitchcock ,in Truffaut/Hitchcock ,said the same about her in "strangers on a train" .

But it does not matter because it's a man's movie .It is curious to have cast Jurgens as an South African officer but his playing opposite a young Burton is quite efficient.The cast and credits had warned us : the enemy you fight is not the one you think of .The last scene clinches it ,when the medal amounts to nothing.This is not Ray's best film ,but it is probably his most violent one : Burton saving the dead and killing the living is impressive ;Jurgens eaten with jealousy and hatred watching the scorpion..Compare the death of Burton with that of Burl Ives in "winds across the everglades" ,the follow-up to "bitter victory" .

The strange ancient city in the middle of the desert is an exact equivalent of the planetarium in "rebel without a cause" : those walls still standing and those stars in the sky will survive our little wars ,our glorious (or bitter) victories or our growing up angst.

Fair War Film But Rather Heavy Handed

[Theo Robertson · 6/10 · 31 August 2004]

This film is known as BITTER VICTORY in Britain and not by its French title AMERE VICTOIRE . I also couldn`t help noticing that the IMDB classes this movie as an American / French co -production . America and France co-operating on something ! I guess BITTER IRONY would be a great title for this movie with hindsight

The film makes the point that because someone holds rank it doesn`t necessarily indicate they`re the best man for the job which seems to be far more of a civilian sensibility far more than a military one . The point isn`t made well either and as noted several films have made the point much better , my own personal favourites include ATTACK and TOO LATE THE HERO . It also seems contradictory to have a movie with this subtext set in the North African desert with this particular campaign one of the effective in British military history . Wouldn`t the western front during 1914 -18 be a better setting ?

It also seems very heavy handed on the part of director Nicholas Ray . There`s a scene where Richard Burton`s anti-hero has to carry out a mercy killing for for a reason I won`t spoil can`t . He then carries a wounded man across the desert . This scene would have worked far , far better if it were much more subtle but the director insists on using melodramatic music and dialogue to hit the audience over the head as to how terrible some desicions are during wartime when combined with cruel luck when in fact the point didn`t need to be hammered home . There`s a couple of other examples through this movie

Despite this BITTER VICTORY is far from being a bad war movie and I can think of several worse war movies Burton has starred in like RAID ON ROMMEL , and the cast do a great job . Where this movie fails is when it doesn`t allow the audience to think for itself

A World War II Thriller About Courage and Cowardice

[zardoz-13 · 6/10 · 9 March 2008]

"Flying Leathernecks" helmer Nicholas Ray, the justifiably celebrated auteur of meaningful films such as "Rebel Without A Cause," "In A Lonely Place," and "Johnny Guitar," allows sudsy melodrama, pretentious writing, and ponderous pacing to sabotage his seldom exciting and altogether tedious World War II epic "Bitter Victory." The miscast but amenable Teutonic star Curd Jurgens of "The Enemy Below" and Welshman Richard Burton of "Where Eagles Dare" embark on a last-minute mission to raid Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Africa Korps headquarters in Benghazi and snatch valuable Nazi documents. Meanwhile, the supporting cast contains future Hammer icon Christopher Lee as a British sergeant and top-flight supporting actor Nigel Green who appeared as a sly officer in Arthur Hiller's World War II thriller "Tobruk." Indeed, the semi-cynical "Bitter Victory" paved the way for Andre De Toth's "Play Dirty" (1968) to issue its full-throttle anti-war sentiments. Unfortunately, "Bitter Victory" generates modest excitement for a war movie. Ray handles the raid efficiently enough without any gratuitous gore and/or bloodshed, but he spends most of the time with the British survivors as they trudge through the desert arguing their separate philosophies about murder, morality, and war..

The British plan a raid behind enemy lines on Rommel's HQ to obtain vital information, but General Patterson (Anthony Bushnell of "The Red Beret") objects to the timetable. "I can't be expected to find the right man for this at twenty minutes notice." He selects Major Brand to lead the commandos. Brand is a professional soldier with fifteen years of military service and commando training. Brand's chief drawback, however, is he has been behind a desk for that decade and a half and never tasted combat. Reluctantly, Patterson also chooses a younger officer as Brand's second-in-command. Captain Leith knows the Libyan Desert from his pre-war years as an archaeologist. Leith has lived with the Arabs and speaks their language. Initially, the ill-mannered Leith grates on Patterson's nerves when he regards the operation as "very difficult" and gives it a "one in a million" chance to succeed. Nevertheless, Leith confides in Patterson's subordinate that he wants to go on the mission.

The primary trouble between Brand and Leith involves the sudden appearance of Brand's wife. Jane Brand (Ruth Roman of "Ladies Courageous") picks the wrong time to show up and kindle jealousy between her husband and her former lover. You see, Jane was dating Leith regularly before she married Brand. The Leith & Jane romance ended abruptly when Leith left her standing in front of the British Museum and went to Libya without a word, as when Bergmann abandoned Bogart "Casablanca" in the rain at the train station. Jane accuses Leith of 'cowardice' for leaving her. Leith replies, "All men are cowards, in some way." Anyway, Brand is jealous of his subordinate officer whom he believes his wife displays more affection for in public. Interestingly, Burton replaced Ray's original choice for the role--Montgomery Clift. Later, Leith makes the ironic remark: "I kill the living and save the death." Friction arises between them because neither respects the other.

During the traditional briefing scene around a model of Rommel's HQ, the men learn two planes will transport them near their objective. They will bail out and then they will march three hours to their destination. They will split into two groups and launch their attack. Ray doesn't show them parachuting from the plane. We hear the sounds of the planes flying away as the men collect their parachutes. Everything goes according to plan as our heroes slip into Nazi-held Benghazi at night disguised as Arabs. Once they reach the German occupied town, things go sour as Brand cannot stab a German guard and Leith performs the chore himself. Leith, from this moment on, criticizes Brand for his cowardice. The entire raid lasts approximately 5 minutes with another 5 minutes dispatching the Germans in pursuit. Our heroes capture a German colonel, and Brand orders Leith to remain behind with the wounded. The virus of mistrust and no respect infects the rest of the commando regiment, especially a wise-acre soldier, Private Wilkins (Nigel Green of "The Ipcress File") who exploits his skill as a safecracker to burglarize the German safe housing the documents. Three British soldiers are casualties of the commando raid, and things soon fall apart. Brand leaves Leith behind to care for two wounded soldiers. Eventually, Leith kills a wounded German, but he cannot kill the wounded Englishman. Instead, he loads the dying man on his back and marches away to catch up with Brand. The soldier curses Leith for being a coward and not killing him. The man that Leith carries dies from his wound. Leith chuckles ghoulishly when he learns about the dead man and observes, "I kill the living and save the dead." After Leith reunites with Brand and the men, he is bitten by an scorpion. Brand could have warned him, but he refused to for fear that Leith would expose him once they returned to camp as a coward.

Altogether, admirable as it is, "Bitter Victory" is a bit too bitter for my taste. The setting and the storyline about one British officer willing to kill or let another British officer die is clearly ahead of its time. The British maintained a stiff upper lip in the presence of movies like "Bitter Victory" and the far superior but historically inaccurate "Bridge on the Rive Kwai." "Bitter Victory" lacks the one quality that "Kwai" boasted: it was an artistic masterpiece. "Bitter Victory" has languished too long, but despite its poignant message, quotable dialogue, and top-notch performances, this is simply lukewarm. As a point of reference, "Bitter Victory" with contentions among its Allied heroes predated Raoul Walsh's adaptation of Norman Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead" that appeared a year later in 1958. Although I am no champion of this movie, "Bitter Victory" deserved better treatment from Columbia in this DVD release. Hopefully, perhaps, Criterion will intervene for the sake of Nicholas Ray's memory.

One of Nicholas Ray's finest

[Howard_B_Eale · 9/10 · 29 November 2005]

Thankfully now available in its full 103-minute version, this is one of Nicholas Ray's strongest works and one of the handful that doesn't bear the marks of studio meddling. It's an unrelentingly grim tale of cowardice and lost love which is almost incidentally set during WWII. Richard Burton manages to deliver cutting, pointed dialogue without making it hammy, and Curt Jurgens' performance of a deceitful squad leader is extremely strong; a coiled spring which never quite releases.

I can't help but wonder if some of the comments above are based upon the US version, which was cut by a whopping 21 minutes, because this is unquestionably one of the best of the Nick Ray canon. Working in many of his trademark themes of sacrifice and loss but keeping the melodrama surprisingly low-key, it's also gorgeously photographed in 'Scope black-and-white and none of the performances falter. Those who have enjoyed ATTACK, HELL IS FOR HEROES, THE BIG RED ONE and particularly Anthony Mann's brilliant MEN IN WAR are well advised to check this out, and it's a must-see for Ray enthusiasts, right up there with ON DANGEROUS GROUND, THE SAVAGE INNOCENTS, JOHNNY GUITAR and IN A LONELY PLACE.

Couldn't Get Into This Movie At All

[verbusen · 6/10 · 31 July 2008]

I found this on DVD cheap in a bargain bin and saw a young Burton in a desert WW2 flick, so why not? Well, I'm sorry to say I'm in the minority here and couldn't get into it at all. I guess because I sympathized with the Jurgen's character more then Burton"s! For me the lines were not drawn nearly clear enough That Jurgen's Major was all that incompetent and that Burton's Captain all that outstanding. On top of that the love interest between the two seemed pretty unbelievable to have been all that wanted by a young Burton, she looks kind of old maid'ish to me, and definitely is not at all loyal to her husband in any scene. In the end I was much more sympathetic to Jurgen's then I was a rogue Burton looking to break up a war time marriage to a fellow officer. I also have a military background and I guess I feel a strong loyalty to senior officers (thats what makes a military work), I've actually been in a bit of wartime drama myself and stuck by my CO against an upstart enlisted person who was totally out of line in a war zone making many accusations that when asked my opinion later on by myself, I stuck by my CO, but in this movie I didn't get any of that same tension. I'll say that those guys were pretty stupid on the raid, blowing up a working jeep in the desert? C'mon! Your on a raid alone, you use the resources you have! They also shot or let escape two horses, I just couldn't get into it with any type of tension. In other words, boring! They give a DSO later on the spot? In The box? Without pinning it on? Give me a break! Also, when I saw on the DVD cover Jurgen's, I assumed he would play a German nemesis to Burton, wrong! I mean he is totally miscast as a fellow British officer (South African, Afrikaner) but I mean he doesn't have the typical accent to even achieve that, does he? Just a final note, Johnny Guitar is one of my all time favorite movies, I did not buy this disc based on it being a Ray made movie, I bought it for Burton and on a whim because it was cheap, I want to point out one quote that I saw of some of my all time favorite war movies and my view in reflection,quote: "Those who have enjoyed ATTACK, HELL IS FOR HEROES, THE BIG RED ONE and particularly Anthony Mann's brilliant MEN IN WAR are well advised to check this out,". My input is if you got this far in my feelings upon watching "Bitter Victory" is pass unless it's on cable and then check it out for free; 6 of 10 out of respect for those who love this movie, it does try to go were not many war movies went in 1957 (I actually think it rates lower like a 5/10).

Ego Cannot Replace Courage, But They Can Look Alike.

[jzappa · 9/10 · 30 October 2009]

Possibly Nicholas Ray's most masculine film, he begins with a great opening credits sequence and follows with a studious, procedural atmosphere. When it gets emotionally dramatic quite soon, it remains taut, spare, subdued. Because Ray doesn't tell us how to feel about it, our understanding of the histrionics is that much clearer and unclouded. By the twenty-minute mark, the tension is a natural agreement between us and the film, which sits back viewing objectively horizontal planes, or stationary horizontal shots of whatever natural blocking. Even a shootout in the desert night.

Bitter Victory is a rare treat, a military thriller involving war and covert ops, but focusing not on combat or conspiracies, but on the agitated envy two Allied officers who are situated on a commando raid together. We skip the parachuting in to Bengasi but we're quickly witness to their wordless close calls and perceptions of un-subtitled Arabic. This downbeat emotional drama is what no Jack Ryan or Jason Bourne film would have the nerve or insight to do. It sees combat violence, sneak operations and life-or-death situations, of course, but it does not see the core of the suspense in it. But one of the two central characters, yes, essentially just two, is burying his knowledge that he's unfit for his job and undeserving of his command as deep as he can beneath the assurances of his aggressive justification. Another is having an affair with that very commander's wife, whose emotions are displaced from her husband.

The on-screen violence is far from realistic, but building towards it and simmering down from it are steady and natural to the point that I might even say that it is Ray's most effective film about repression and male anger, even the great In a Lonely Place, in which Humphrey Bogart's outbursts betray an all-too-real recklessness in his eyes. The tension in Bitter Victory makes brief outbursts by, say, the latter said central character, played intensely by Richard Burton, feel twice the jolt of the violence which is expected of his mission. And the tensions heightened by the controlling anger of the commander, in a strong performance by Curt Jurgens, create a balance of ambiguity. We know the crushing inadequacies that haunt the very men we find so brutally cold.

"...I contradict myself...."

[Brucey_D · 7/10 · 25 June 2019]

Well directed and atmospherically photographed, this is no mere action film but more a study of the human condition, viewed through a particular prism, distilled in the crucible of conflict.

Slightly odd casting choices here but the quality of the performances is high and the overall result is pretty good. This isn't a film to watch if you just want to see another war flick, this is more a film to watch if you want to see how a character study is made.

I think it adds that this film is in black and white; it is after all the only thing about the film that is, er, black and white. However there is a whole generation of would-be film-goers who simply won't watch films like this one because 'they are old-fashioned' and being in monochrome is seen as part of that. It is their loss, of course, but one wonders how the film would have stacked up had it been made in colour instead.

On paper, one of the chief protagonists ought to have been delighted at the final outcome, but of course this isn't necessarily the case. There are no real heroes here, only the living and the dead, both flawed, and the dead don't get to tell their story.

This isn't a truly great film but it is a pretty good one; definitely worth a watch. Seven out of ten from me.

Only External Logic Can Make Sense of This Movie

[disinterested_spectator · 5/10 · 26 July 2015]

Ideally, a movie should make sense on its own terms. It is a bad movie when scenes can only be explained by external logic, by what was going on in the mind of the director or screenwriter. John Ford was once asked, regarding the movie "Stagecoach" (1939), why the Indians chasing the stagecoach didn't just shoot the horses, and his answer was, "Then there wouldn't have been any movie," which was an example of external logic. Actually, he was just being a smart aleck, because he could have said that the Indians wanted to capture the horses alive, which would have made sense, and more importantly, would have made the scene explicable in terms of internal logic alone.

A big problem with "Bitter Victory" is that too much of what happens in the movie is explicable only in terms of external logic. Nicholas Ray, the director, had some idea in his head about how things should turn out, which leads to one forced scene after another. The first one occurs when Captain Leith sees Jane sitting at a table in a military night club. No sooner does he recognize her than Major Brand walks up beside him and asks Leith if he would like to meet his wife. What follows is a scene reminiscent of "Casablanca," in which it becomes clear that Leith and Jane were once lovers, and cryptic remarks pass back and forth between them while Brand takes it all in, not understanding the particulars of the remarks but gleaning their general significance nevertheless. Because we have seen this sort of thing before, we question it more than we might have when seeing it for the first time.

In other words, the most natural thing for Leith to do when Brand asks him if he wants to meet his wife would be to say, "You mean Jane? I knew Jane before the war. I was just going over to say 'Hi.'" Now, of course they would not admit they had been lovers, but there is no reason for Leith and Jane to deny they even knew each other, especially since their innuendoes make their previous relationship so obvious. By concealing that they knew each other and then making the concealment obvious, they only made things worse. So, why did they do this? Internal logic fails us here, and we are forced to reach for external logic. Ray wanted Brand to find out that Leith and Jane were once secretly lovers so that he would become jealous, and so Ray concocted this hurried, unrealistic scene to that end.

After the mission is complete, two men are too injured to walk. Brand tells Leith he will have to stay behind with the wounded men until they die and then catch up with the rest of the men. That makes no sense. If they are going to die anyway, just leave them behind. Furthermore, in a much later scene, Brand reveals his orders, written down on a piece of paper, that their mission is so important that if men are wounded, they are to be left behind. Now it really makes no sense.

It gets worse. When Brand tells Leith to stay behind with the wounded, a soldier suggests making stretchers to carry them. Leith dismisses the idea, saying that the men would bleed to death in an hour. Sounds good to me. Carry the men in stretchers for an hour, and then when they die, leave them in the desert. Instead, Leith stays behind with the wounded, and then, after everyone is gone, kills them. Actually, he only kills one of them, because he runs out of bullets. So then he decides to carry the other wounded man all by himself. You see, carrying a wounded man on a stretcher is a bad idea, but tossing him over your shoulder and staggering through the desert is a good idea. Conveniently, the man dies, and Leith is able to catch up with the rest of the men.

External logic to the rescue. The purpose of all this absurdity is to establish that Brand wanted Leith to kill the wounded for him, and then hold him responsible for doing so. That would be fine, if that could have been established coherently. But since internal logic fails us here, we have to reach for the director's motivations instead.

Then there is the scene at the well. Before anyone takes a drink, someone suggests that the Germans may have poisoned it. To find out whether it is poisoned, Brand takes a swig. It tastes all right, but Leith says it is too soon to tell. So, they leave the well without drinking any of the water. But if they were not going to drink the water regardless of what happened when Brand swallowed some, what was the point of Brand's risking his life by drinking some of it in the first place? This contrivance can only be explained by Ray's desire to show how Brand can be intimidated by his fear that others may think him a coward.

When Brand sees a scorpion crawling near Leith's leg during a rest period, he does not warn Leith, hoping that Leith will be bitten. Mokrane sees the scorpion too, but does nothing. After Leith is bitten, Mokrane tries to kill Brand for letting the scorpion bite Leith. But if Mokrane cares so much about Leith, why didn't he just walk over to the scorpion and step on it?

Finally, before Leith dies, he asks Brand to tell Jane that she was right and he was wrong. Instead, Brand tells Jane he did not hear what Leith said, but he probably said that he loved her. We know Brand is the sort who would lie about such a thing, but why this particular lie? As with the scorpion scene, I don't think even external logic can make sense of this one.

The nature of cowardice

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 3 November 2012]

This Second World War drama follows a British commando raid into the German occupied city of Benghazi in Libya. Their task is to break into the German headquarters, take the documents out of the safe before returning overland to rejoin British forces in Egypt. Getting their hands on the documents and escaping from the Germans is going to be the least of their worries though; the Sahara Desert is not a forgiving place to walk through and to make matters there is bad feeling between commanding officer Major Brand and his second in command Capt. Leith... the woman Leigh had been involved with before the war went on to marry Brand but deep down Brand knows she still loves Leigh. He believes that this mission should be an opportunity to prove his bravery because although he is a professional soldier he hasn't seen action. When the time comes for him to kill a sentry he hesitates and Leigh does it. As they head back east it becomes clear that it would suit Brand very much if Leigh didn't make it back and the desert will provide more than one chance for the captain to have an 'accident'.

I found this to be a good taut wartime thriller; this is largely down to Richard Burton and Curd Jürgens who did fine jobs as Leigh and Brand... to very different characters; Leigh the brave volunteer with combat experience and Brand a professional who doesn't have what it takes but is determined to keep that fact hidden. The action scenes are competently handled although they will seem tame to a modern audience... not a drop of blood is spilt when people get machine-gunned! The conclusion is likely to come as a shock; it certainly surprised me although it does fit with the downbeat feel of the film which is really about the nature of cowardice more than anything else. Filmed on location in Libya the film nicely captures the inhospitableness of the desert as the soldiers struggle to get back to British lines. If you are looking for a gung-ho action packed war film then this probably isn't for you but if you want something a little different give it a go.

Antonioni remakes Flying Leathernecks...

[antcol8 · 7/10 · 21 June 2006]

As it were...The 2 films (this one and Flying Leathernecks) have more in common than one would like to believe, given the fact that F.L. is often thought of as not a "real" Ray film. But the rivalry between 2 military men who dance around the same rank (one being generally subservient - not by choice - to the other) is in both cases treated as as much a psychological issue as an issue of military discipline. The difference is that in F.L. the psychological aspect is soft-pedaled (except for a couple of key scenes). I have to admit that there are a couple of ways that I prefer F.L. Obviously, Bitter Victory is a much finer and more fully realized film. But it feels failed to me in some important ways: it seems to aspire to the status of independent artwork (the score, the long scenes of trudging through the desert), and as such it is not totally successful. It doesn't break free of its genre moorings the way Fuller or Sirk or Ophuls (etc.) can and often do. F.L. doesn't pretend to be more than it is: it stays solidly within genre conventions, easy resolution and all. Its lack of aspiration makes it easier to watch, to some degree. There are unforgettable moments in Bitter Victory: the scorpion, the camel bladder, the raid, the dance, the fight in the street (pure Ray). But the whole doesn't convince me, the issues don't move me. Ray often seems poised between Kazanian script and actor - driven film-making on one hand and more personal crazy auteurist cinema on the other. I haven't had that revelation that caused Godard to say "the cinema is Nicholas Ray". I'll keep trying.

Deconstructing Machismo.

[hitchcockthelegend · 4/10 · 14 December 2013]

Bitter Victory is directed by Nicholas Ray and adapted to screenplay from the novel of the same name written by Rene Hardy. It stars Richard Burton, Curd Jurgens, Ruth Roman, Raymond Pellegrin, Christopher Lee and Nigel Green. Music is by Maurice Leroux and cinematography by Michel Kelber.

It's a film that has proved most divisive over the years, where some have seen fit to devote in depth studies to it, others have bitingly dismissed it as a stretch to far in pretentious posturing. Personally I found it rather dull, a dreary trudge through the World War II deserts as Burton and Jurgens butt heads because Burton's character had an affair with Jurgens' wife (Roman).

The pace is purposely sedate, except for the battle sequence that is, so we are left to rely on the skills of the writers and actors to carry us through to film's end. Burton is good value, he almost always was when he got to brood and pontificate, while Green is his usual irrepressible self. Jurgens, however, is miscast and very uncomfortable with the moody machinations of his character. While the editing is at times awful and a couple of scenes don't really make sense.

Undeniably there is some potency bubbling away in the writing, the deconstruction of machismo and military cynicism angles carry thematic weight, but the film is structured in such a cocksure way it just comes off as being preachy instead of taking full advantage of the emotional core of the characters as written by Hardy. Just because I don't like the film doesn't mean it's bad, as previously stated, many find it fascinating and powerful, but it's not for me and I feel it's one of the great Nicholas Ray's lesser works. 4/10

SO SO WWII ACTIONER...!

[masonfisk · 7/10 · 23 July 2019]

A mission carried out by the Brits in the desert from 1957. Starring Richard Burton, Curt Jurgens (he played the villain in The Spy Who Loved Me) & Ruth Roman (I remember her from Strangers on a Train) & directed by Nicholas Ray. An elite commando unit is commissioned to steal some German papers & rendezvous w/their base after crossing a treacherous Libyan expanse. Complicating matters is Jurgens & Burton have to deal w/Roman (she's now married to Jurgens but once lovers w/Burton). The heist goes off w/o a hitch but the German army is close behind resulting in occasional gunfights where the wounded must be carried off or left behind which plays into unit's loyalties when Burton gets bit by a scorpion (!) & Jurgens must make a decision to accomplish his goal while convincing others (but mostly himself) he made his choice free of Roman's past w/him. Serviceable enough, this film works in fits & spurts but ultimately we have a strong beginning & end but a weak middle. Look for Christopher Lee as one of the soldiers.

They ain't singing no desert song.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 8 June 2017]

The events surrounding a troop in North Africa dealing with a mission against Rommel are dramatized here with a return to what audiences had seen several years before with "The Desert Rats" and "The Desert Foxes". Richard Burton had been in one of those films and returned to familiar territory in this one, a World War II drama that unlike those two films is now pretty much forgotten. It's a story of a difficult mission, of human compassion and moral struggle, and a reminder that war in the silence of the unknown can be worse than a slow death.

Burton leads this troop through various struggles, finding his own as he deals with the issue of life and death for suffering German prisoners. One man faces death by trying one attempt to bind the ties by showing Burton the picture of his German family, as if to say, "I'm human too." Burton, with that gorgeously eloquent voice, shows tenderness even as he kills, making the scene touching on many different levels.

Burton has his back story explained as the one time lover of his commanding officer's wife, played by the sultry Ruth Roman. This creates a quiet animosity between Burton and c.o. Curd Jurhgens that heads to their mission overseas. Roman makes the most out of a small role, and Jergens adds layers of fear, desperation and turmoil of an often unsympathetic character. As directed by Nicholas Ray, this is so much more than a war mission film, with some surprising appearances in nice supporting roles by well known actors such as Christopher Lee and Nigel Green, showing the horrors and madness in war. A scene with a deadly scorpion (one of the tiny ones) will give you a start, so be warned.

Very good

[funkyfry · 8/10 · 19 July 2008]

I liked this one quite a bit. First of all Richard Burton was a great actor, and this is the best performance I've seen from him. You can feel his world weariness just dripping off him. Curd Jurgens is also really good in a very demanding role. Basically the whole movie is about their relationship, and they hate each other. There's no big resolution where they suddenly respect each other like you would get in a formula movie. A lot of the point is that Jurgens' character isn't respectable, and the main revelation is that he comes to feel the same way. But he's not villainous, it's easy to empathize with him even though he is sort of a cretin.

The cinematography is really extraordinary, especially the scenes in the desert. It reminds me of Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" from a few years later. I wouldn't be surprised if there was an influence. The relationship is also slightly similar to the one between O'Toole and Shariff's characters in that film.

The movie is deceptively course and 2 dimensional, like the combat dummies who are the first and last images we see in the film. Stick figures, pretending to be men, setting themselves up as targets. It doesn't ask us to feel sorry for the characters or to admire them, they aren't "larger than life" the way most characters are in war movies. I felt like the movie was saying that war is a natural state of mankind, not some kind of romantic adventure.

Cowardice and envy and personal anguish in occupied Libya

[shakercoola · 6/10 · 27 June 2019]

A Franco-American war drama; A story about a South African commander, played by Curd Jurgens, who receives an undeserved citation for a commando assault on Field Marshall Rommel's desert headquarters during WWII. Unbeknownst to him, his wife is having an affair with one of his officers, and during the course of the raid both men are broken. The film deals with a theme about truth, and the braggadocio and fear among officer classes. It has a pessimistic and subversive tone, aided by a desolate setting, which exerts a fierce grip on the narrative. While the military detail observed falls short and the dialogue is ponderous, the film is otherwise well directed and there are top-rank performances from Jurgens, and Richard Burton as the languid and conceited and nihilistic Captain. As an aside, the film in its 101 mins version includes a final passage sequence, and other scenes, which lend greater power to the themes explored, which contribute to a better story than the original theatrical release.

Mirrors on sands by night

[carvalheiro · 9 November 2007]

"Bitter victory" (1957) directed by Nicholas Ray it seems like a forgotten movie after all these years going by loss of memory from the viewers, but is of course a thought concerning illusions of battle before and after like mirrors on sands. All that gave us another view from the war, with a much more human vulnerability and even the weakness of a true character in a shadowy intimacy, as only apparently unvanquished as confused minds in a moral addict to win something more than a medal after death, because if staying alive as another of one of the two characters in different grades of officer's hierarchy perhaps he also may have lost his wife.

This movie concerns masculinity as fake target for a brainstorm about love and decay of feelings, with some alcoholic dreams to complete and complicating things and hierarchy, among officers during the Rommel debacle as fox of the desert on North Africa, during the trail across Libya. Director Nicholas Ray was underestimated somewhat in his cynical view and conception concerning value and results of the war or any war in the minds of human beings placed in a hierarchy of warrior's society. Maybe by his own conviction of peace means for reaching civil targets as contributing for the fight against hungry and thirst, imperfect feelings about love and reproduction of family, a new habitat out of eternal diaspora, love for the children and descendants. His sentimentality and deaf violence out of the shots were famous in meantime as misery of the humankind.

This movie too inspired the fatigue of war expelled not exactly with a scale extremed by reverting heroism and cowardice only, but claiming right to the spirit of melancholic character, from a few officers with such a corporative intriguing mind in conditioned atmosphere, as the sickness of barracks as foolish underground off the reestablished hierarchy and the promotion waiting for being upper considered. Forgotten all the tricks of the battle was like a rear defection of moral, attending now the nostalgic landscape from their professional remembrances, which move them for the more competitive standing by : if one pick up the merit belonging to the other in exchange of a woman lost for the battle, it is a twist between sex and glory, because is also an affair for the little contravention in a conventional adultery case of such a cruelty, inspired on the random without antidote in short term from animal reign fatality in this part of the world. Apparently there is no rescue against the bite of a poisonous desert's scorpion, it seems from that last hand-tale written on the screenplay(by Vladimir Pozner ?), with an artificial compensation for the sentimentality of the city background, encircled by windy sands of think tanks prisoners of selfish intimacy and waiting for promotion in the career at any cost - the taste of Ray in 1957, the geophysical international year and also when the struggle approaches for independence nearby, seemingly was pretext for losing somewhat the élan of another fight - and foreseen nowhere friendship between people and camels.

"I Kill the Living, & I'm saving the Dead !"

[Grégory · 10/10 · 3 May 1999]

Nicholas Ray, at his best. His usual purpose - a man who's acting like a boy - at an unusual degree of intensity : Richard Burton is here, giving a high feeling that he's lost in his own contemporary world. I get shocked each time I see it.

lots of sand

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 8 March 2017]

It's dark days in North Africa during WWII. Captain Jim Leith (Richard Burton) and Major David Brand (Curt Jürgens) arrive in Egypt to interview for a special mission. Leith is a former archaeologist with experience in Libya and fluent in Arabic. Brand is a stuffy untested officer with 13 years in the army but little experience in the foreign land. Brand's wife Jane turns out to be Leith's former lover. Both men are assigned the mission with Brand as the commander. The small expendable thirty men group goes behind the lines to steal plans from German headquarters in Benghazi.

It's highly convenient about Jane. If a story does that, it needs an iconic line like "of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world". The movie needs better writing. The action is not that big. There is a lot of desert. It's a lot of sand. The mission is questionable and their escape is badly planned. Despite any shortcomings, the movie does have Burton and it's a functional war adventure/character struggle.

Gone For A Burton

[screenman · 4/10 · 5 January 2009]

This is one of those 'before I was a megastar' turkeys that are best forgotten.

Starring Richard Burton and Kurt Jurgens as British army officers serving in the middle-east during WW2; they are also the male corners of a predictably tedious love-triangle.

Despite themselves and a decent sprinkling of familiar faces from the time, they all collectively fail to salvage anything but their pay-cheques from this formulaic hokum.

Quite frankly; it's inept. In fact it's boring. The mission seems badly-planned and implausible from the outset. The conflicts are contrived, the tension scarcely noticeable. More effort seems to have gone into the model of the town that everyone is poring-over at the outset than has been applied to the 'real' stage sets. Filmed in black and white, that and the lighting are at least competent, but sound, effects, editing and script scarcely manage B-movie standards. The jealous exchanges between Burton and Jurgens are particularly banal and stagy.

Unless you happen to be a rabid fan of either star, this is definitely one to miss. Which is a shame really; its 1950's vintage and black-&-white photography seem to promise so much more. The similarly styled and vintaged 'Ice Cold In Alex' could knock it into a cocked hat.

One of the best war movies I've seen

[HotToastyRag · 10/10 · 21 July 2017]

For 1957, Bitter Victory is a pretty graphic war movie. It's filmed in black and white, but bloodstains and bullet holes are shown, deaths are prolonged, and the suspense of war is captured well.

Curd Jurgens plays an officer in charge of a mission to German-controlled Benghazi during WWII. His second-in-command is Richard Burton, and since Burton is in love with Jurgens's wife, they don't have a very good working relationship. As interesting as this dynamic is, on and off the battlefield, the war scenes are where this movie really shines.

This is not your typical WWII movie where one randomly fired gun makes the bad guy fall over, and the good guy comes home with a tiny scratch on his forehead as a battle scar. These men are out in the desert, delirious from heat and dying from dehydration, unfamiliar with the terrain, fighting men, scorpions, and the sun, and forced to face worse situations than they thought possible. I won't spoil anything, but there's a very intense scene in which one soldier is dying and another soldier has to decide whether to shoot him and put him out of his misery or let him die a slow, painful death. Those scenes weren't generally filmed in 1957! If you're used to lots of blood and torture in your war movies, you won't find this movie very exciting. But for a tasteful, classic war movie, it's very good. It's one of the best war movies I've seen. Plus, Richard Burton looks so incredibly handsome in his uniform. Ladies, you'll definitely want to check this one out.

Intelligent and sobering.

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 27 September 2018]

"Bitter Victory" is a grim, stark, atmospheric WWII drama about two men at odds with each other. Major Brand (Curd Jurgens, VERY oddly cast) is in charge, but as we will see, he's not cut out to be a leader, even if he is a military veteran of 13 years. He often hesitates, and fails to act properly. Captain Leith (Richard Burton) is his nemesis, a weary and hardened man who had once had an affair with Brands' wife (Ruth Roman, rather under utilized). He knows all too well that Brand is a coward, and is aware of the fact that Brand might just try to get Leith out of the way so that Brands' cowardice is not common knowledge.

"Bitter Victory" is effective in what it does. It's not about action set pieces, and is in fact a lot more subtle (too subtle, in fact, for American audiences of the time). It's more of a character study, and a statement on the whole nature of war, and of the act of killing. Commendably, it doesn't paint Brand and Leith as one-dimensional villain and hero, but rather flawed men who are really not so different when all is said and done.

It's all set against the forbidding backdrop of the African desert, as Brand, Leith, and their men make a long, long trek after managing to infiltrate Field Marshal Rommels' stronghold and make off with some crucial documents.

The acting is solid from all concerned. The thickly accented German actor Jurgens is a strange choice to play a British officer, but he's compelling nevertheless. Burton has one of his best roles and makes the most of it. Roman may not get much to do, but she does bring out some of the humanity in Leith. The strong supporting cast includes Raymond Pellegrin, Anthony Bushell, Sean Kelly, Sir Christopher Lee, and Nigel Green, supplier of some comedy relief as the barmy Private Wilkins.

Based on a French novel by Rene Hardy (who also contributed to the screenplay), this is given respectable treatment by director Nicholas Ray (another one of the screenwriters). It's well shot (by Michel Kelber) in widescreen, and does live up to its title. It promises its viewers that whatever achievements that take place will come at a price.

Seven out of 10.

Recipe for disaster

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 29 October 2012]

The fine playing of Curt Jurgens and Richard Burton raises Bitter Victory quite a few notches. Actors less capable than them and a director less capable than Nicholas Ray would have made a muck of this film which borders on incoherency at times in terms of the point it was trying to make.

I'm just finished watching it and I still don't know what it was all about. Jurgens who is a South African the better to explain his German accent while leading British troops in the desert war in Italy has been a staff officer for years and has no combat experience. But his knowledge of the German language is considered valuable on this mission. He's married to Ruth Roman who has joined the British WAAFs to help in the cause. And she's on duty at headquarters.

Which doesn't help matters as the other officer in consideration for commanding a commando raid on Rommel's headquarters is Richard Burton. He's an archaeologist, speaks Arabic and, oh yes, he's Roman's former boyfriend. And he's got the requisite combat experience.

But Jurgens is a major and Burton is a captain so Jurgens is in command. Burton is sure he's a coward when he hesitates shooting. And since he'd like to get back with Roman he'll do anything to discredit Jurgens.

What a recipe for a disaster and the mission nearly turns into one. One of them doesn't make it out of the Libyan desert.

Sad, but Ray, Burton, and Jurgens were all capable of better work and did it. I'd view this only if I were a fan of any combination or all of the above cinema icons.