The Desert Rats
|
List Price: Our Price: $11.97 You Save: $3.01 (20%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $2.25 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of The Desert Rats
Movie Review: they were rats that's for sure
Summary: 4 Stars
Well the British took a beating but the Germans took a pounding, this movie has a great plot to go with the story. Now Richard Burton played in many movies but I'd have to say this is one of he's best on film.
This B/W flick will put you in the desert with the whole unit to fight the desert fox, all in all get this movie it's a good one.
Movie Review: The Desert Rats
Summary: 4 Stars
Outstanding film. Another great one is the Desert Fox. A must see. To bad the film makers didn't use real german tiger tanks. For those of us who know the difference between a tiger, panther or sherman will be disappointed. Besides the tank issue a great film.Movie Review: Good Movie
Summary: 4 Stars
A bit on the hammy side, but still a very enjoyable movie, depicts a true event during WWII and how war can make strange bed fellows. Good action and good effect for the time.Movie Review: Not Quite As Impressed
Summary: 3 Stars
I wasn't quite as impressed with this film as the rest of the reviewers here. The Desert Rats was a rather quickly slapped together sequel to The Desert Fox, which I enjoyed much more. For anyone expecting to see much of James Mason as Rommel, don't hold your breath. At most, Mason's work added up to maybe 6-7 minutes of footage, about 90% of which takes place during a single scene. Parts of his appearances in the film could have just been outtakes from the Desert Fox, as they seemed rather disjointed and seemingly unrelated to the rest of the movie. His sole scene in English was not that impressive, and his German accent seemed to fall apart at the end of every sentence. Mason is one of my favorite actors, but this was definitely not one of his better performances.
Richard Burton puts in his usual, outstanding performance. He is in nearly every scene in the movie, it seemed, so the film would have gone downhill quickly without him propping it up. There were no other major stars in the film, so I'm guessing that it was no accident that he was so heavily relied upon.
As World War II movies go, this one was fairly fast-moving, with little time for character development outside of Burton's role. The Australian Army seems to be characterized as an extremely undisciplined, disorganized and stubborn lot, who couldn't have lasted five minutes in the war without Burton. How true that is to the original story, I have no idea. It certainly wasn't very flattering to the Australians though.
Unlike quite a number of other WWII films, this one seemed to forego any attempt to explain what the war was about, what the men were personally fighting for or who the enemy was. There is only a single scene of interaction with the Germans that involves any (English) dialog, so there really isn't much perspective insofar as the war itself goes.
If you want to see a great tour-de-force performance by Richard Burton, then by all means, go rent or buy the movie. If you are looking for an epic World War II movie, this probably wouldn't be my first choice.
Movie Review: Poor production values
Summary: 3 Stars
Richard Burton turns in a very strong performance, as usual, but the low-budget production values in this picture take it down a couple of notches. There is nothing even approaching original German equipment. In fact, the uniforms and equipment would have been unacceptable poor in a TV episode of the "Rat Patrol" made 15 years later. The whole point of Afrika Korps desert warfare is that the uniforms and equipment have to be cool looking.Frankly, this is not a film you'd ever need to see twice, much less own on DVD.