Customer Reviews

Play Dirty [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Play Dirty is an excellent WWII movie set in Africa that is in the mold of Tobruk and The Rat Patrol. British Colonel Masters is head of a less than elite group of commandos who has come under the wrath of his superiors. With one last chance to save his skin, Masters organizes a raid deep behind German lines to blow up a crucial German fuel depot. But part of the agreement of the mission is that a British officer or engineer with some knowledge on the subject lead Masters' commandos. Cue Captain Douglas, who immediately clashes with his second in command, Capt. Cyril Leech. Along with six convict-commandos (think Dirty Dozen), Douglas and Leech set across the African desert to blow up the fuel depot. They go up against murdering gypsies, horrific conditions, patrolling Germans, each other, and even their commanders back at headquarters. The movie builds slowly, but still entertaining, to a climax that has to be one of the biggest surprise/shocks ever made. You won't be disappointed. As well, plenty of tense, exciting action scenes, beautiful cinematography, and that fantastic ending make for a great WWII adventure.

In a subdued but still very strong performance, Michael Caine plays Capt. Douglas, the unwilling leader of the group of convict commandos trying to blow up the crucial German fuel depot. He clashes with Capt. Cyril Leech(a great part for Nigel Davenport) the possible double agent who may be working for the Germans as well. The tension over command and strategy between Caine and Davenport drives the movie's plot and is what makes the movie all hold together. Nigel Green, Harry Andrews and Patrick Jordan are good in small parts as the different level of commanders who have control over the mission. Green is especially good as Col. Masters. The rest of the convict-commandos, who don't have much to do in the way of lines, include Aly Ben Ayed as Sadok, Enrique Avila as Kafkarides, Mohsen Ben Abdallah and Mohammed Kouka as Hassan and Assine, the two homosexual desert guides, Takis Emmanuel as Kostos Manou, and Scott Miller as Boudesh. The special features, if there are any, for the upcoming dvd release, April 27th, haven't been released, but I'd be happy to just get widescreen presentation and a trailer. Of course, I'd love to see some interviews with Caine, but that's probably wishful thinking. So for a relatively little known WWII action movie with great performances from Caine and Davenport along with one of the best shocker endings ever, check out Play Dirty!

This film was released in 1968. Michael Caine is an oil company executive in civvy street who has been commisioned only to handle fuel deliveries at ports in N. Africa in WWII. If you liked the Dirty Dozen you will love this film. This film is real. The "officers" are great character actors you have seen in many British films. The uniforms, weapons and equipment are correct. Scenes of the desert are so real you feel the heat. The mission is real. The ending is a stunner. This film was made in Panavision, see it in that mode.

This was always one of my favorites when I was a boy in the 1960s. PLAY DIRTY had the anti-hero grittiness that is so much more realistic--as I found out during my own military service--than the highly stylized war films that came out just after (and glorifying) WWII. There are notable exceptions, of course, that show combat pressure and human faults for what they are: Halls of Montezuma, featuring the late, great Richard Widmark as a stress-crippled Marine officer; Decision Before Dawn, with Oscar Werner and Richard Basehart...and various excellent so-called "B" movies that are really "A"s in in my book such as Hell Is For Heroes and Pork Chop Hill. PLAY DIRTY is a real man show, with cold and hard heroes who aren't really all that likeable, but are essentially human. It's much like Tobruk with Rock Hudson, and the [...] Raid On Rommel with Richard Burton (going thru the motions skillfully for the money), but with a much more sophisticated subtext of antagonism and tension between the main characters. Michael Caine and Nigel Davenport are superb. This is guy-oriented war storytelling at its dark, tough-guy best. The shocking and very sudden ending is right in line with the nihilistic--and all too realistic--Vietnam-era ethos of which this film is a part.

I first came to love this movie as a child, watching it late at night, cropped and in black and white, on an old Zenith. I was curious to see it after 30 years, and finally resorted to getting an import copy from Japan a few months before this re-release. I'm happy to say the movie holds up wonderfully, and seeing it in the proper aspect ratio is real pleasure.

This has to be one of the most cynical war movies ever made, and those who devalue this movie as a knock-off of The Dirty Dozen overlook the way that movie still romanticizes heroism while Play Dirty will have none of it. From the opening scene of Play Dirty, where an officer's corpse is returned likely shot by the man returning it, there's no sentimentality here, no acts of stunning bravery, just a bunch of schmoes who don't even much like one another trying to stay alive. This movie presents war as a sort of lazy grand incompetence that occasionally awakens to explosion, warfare, murder, and rape. While the supporting cast of outlaws seem very B-movie (like those guys who talk in dub in a Sergio Leone western), Caine and Davenport more than make up for it. The desert photography and scenery is outstanding -- not Lawrence of Arabia pretty but rather the third enemy that threatens to sandblast them right off the screen throughout the film. Some find desert scenes slow; I find them the mesmerizing. And Play Dirty remains my favorite war film of all time. It's the only war movie I know that never lies even once.

This movie by the way, was filmed in Panavision, incorrectly described on Amazon as having a full screen 1:33:1 ratio, when in reality has been released in it's original widescreen 1:85:1 ratio. It's a classic WWII British Long Range Patrol action movie set in the North African Lybian dessert, where the Italian and German Afrika Corp troops are the bad guys. Excellent color with crisp clean restored print. RECOMMEND HIGHLY for serious WWII movie fans!!!!!!!

with all the accouterments of a Film Noir flick, "Play Dirty", rolls along to its "Noir style" ending. Players make good decisions, bad decisons, testosterone based decisions, prejudiced decisions, and gain some nobility and affability as they survive the challenges of a botched suicide mission. Rival intelligence officers set competing missions loose to destroy a german fuel dump in the North African desert during WWII. One group, "Dirtier than the Dirty Dozen", nominally led by Michael Caine, sets off behind german lines with bare minimum equipment, while the other fully manned and well equipped follows close behind. With treachery, openly hostile groups and intra group conflict threatening the mission and michael caine every step of the way, they hit a "noir" spot in the mission, take a "noir" turn then a short jog to the "noir" ending. if you like film noir and war movies you'll like this one.

A previous reviewer has done an excellent job describing the movie's plot and characters. I would like to emphasize that Play Dirty, in my opinion, is one of the more accurate portrayals of the North African theater of operations in World War 2. I have been hooked on this movie for almost 30 years! I watch it probably 6-8 times a year and never tire of it! Michael Caine is fabulous as Captain Douglas. It is rewarding to watch as Captain Douglas learns the ropes, gains confidence and ultimately, some respect from his group. I like the ironic plot twist that has Captain Douglas group succeed when the High Command suddenly does not want them to! I rank this movie as one of my all time favorites right up there with the Desert Rats (Richard Burton)The Desert Rats and The Desert Fox (James Mason)The Desert Fox which I also very highly recommend! There is also a real good Italian film titled El Alamein that you may equally enjoy!El Alamein Two other titles came to mind after I wrote this review: Humphrey Bogart's classic Sahara Sahara and another oldie but goodie Five Graves to Cairo Five Graves to Cairo.

Quite in the same line as the Dirty Dozen and Kelly's Heroes I was surprised never to have heard about this film and seeing that it had great reviews I bought a copy.

The movie is entertaining but no masterpiece. The plot is very 1968'ish, with total disregard of actual facts, well except for the Germans vs. Britain bit. In many ways it is a remake of Sea of Sand (which remains the superior movie). We have a long range desert group sent to blow up Rommel's fuel dump. Michael Caine and Nigel Davenport more or less dominate the film and both are good in their roles although you sometimes get the feel of a Spagetti Western in the set up, the dialoge and how everyone is trying to screw everyone else up (hench the title). All in all it is entertaining and gritty at times but I don't find myself compelled to watch it again.

As to history the LRDG (Long Range Desert Group) was composed of very spirited volunteers, the original being mostly New Zealanders and certainly not convicts or disposables. In this field the movie shows total disregard and takes an open and wide artistic license. The Dirty Dozen (made in 1967) was closer to its mark but both movies were made when War movies were mostly fictional stories set in World War 2 and not as today when real life stories are prefered and in my opinion real life beats fiction hands down in every way.

So in the end I am not surprised that I only first heard of this movie a few months ago, while being a decent movie and entertaining to watch it fades in comparison with many of its counterparts and for a good reason.

I've always been a fan of Mr Cains as far as I can remember, this movie is very good. Well worth owning to your WW2 collection, I like this movie very much and I'd say go and buy this too. You will enjoy it, no bull here.

Here's another underated Caine winner. He's a nice-guy engineer leading a band of criminals through the desert to blow up Rommel's fuel supplies. These guys aren't the leering whackos or lovable losers of The Dirty Dozen, they're clear-eyed, ice cold [...]. The whole picture is informed with a brutal, anti-heroic take on "The Good War" that goes beyond mere hip 60s cynicism.

There are a couple of great set pieces, one's a tense minefield in an oasis and earlier there's a drawn out sequence of hauling trucks up a rocky clift that's like Wages of Fear in the desert and it's sensational. (There's also the inclusion of the gay Middle Eastern members of the team that is shown without a trace of comedy or sterotyping.)

Also, note the image of the scorpion being taunted in the ring of fire that would essentially be swiped by Peckinpah for the next year's Wild Bunch.