Product Details

• Actors: Rock Hudson, George Peppard, Nigel Green, Guy Stockwell, Jack Watson
• Directors: Arthur Hiller
• Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: Arabic, English, German, Italian
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: April 23, 1992
• Run Time: 110 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300181162
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #8,173 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Better-than-Average WW2 Flick, April 24, 2000

By	J. Collins (Las Vegas, NV USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Tobruk is a story of a fictional but historically possible raid to destroy "Rommel's" POL facilities in that city's harbor. In actuality the POL was British, captured when Tobruk fell to the Germans in June 1942. Rock Hudson plays the reluctant hero, and George Peppard is the commander of a group of expatriate anti-nazi German/Austrians. The British forces are apparently an amalgam of the Long Range Desert Group and the Special Air Service; both of whom performed missions of this type and are portrayed as martinets-someting the LRDG and SAS were definitely not. Peppard speaks excellent German throughout (though with a slight American accent) and steals some of Hudson's scenes. The anti-nazi German unit did in fact exist; it was composed of German Jews living in Palestine and Foreign Legion veterans (though they had considerably more military value in the roles of communications interception and prisoner interrogation). The mutual animosity between the British forces and the Jewish forces is also historically accurate. The most interesting aspect of the movie is their initial encounter with Italian forces. Many Americans are unaware that until 1943 Italy was an Axis power-in fact many Italian units continued fighting on the Axis side until the end of the war. Uniforms and equipment are fairly authentic, though those are American halftracks posing as German and the Axis tanks are post-war American M47's. Naturally, there are Hollywoodism's: the most apparent is the liberal distribution of submachine guns to the "Germans". Directors love to see protaganists firing rounds from the hip at all and sundry, but it just ain't true. At this time of the War, 1942, only NCO's and some other specialists were issued machine-pistols, every one else made do with a rifle. Later on, especially on the Eastern Front, entire squads were equipped with them. Oh yeah, you NEVER fire without the stock and without aiming-won't hit a thing... This is a good beer-and-pretzels movie for a Sunday afternoon. Some interesting use of desert war details grafted onto a standard Hollywood storyline.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly Combines Suspense and Action, June 5, 2001

By	gobirds2 (New England) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Tobruk [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Director Arthur Hiller, Screenwriter Leo Gordon (who also plays the brawny deep-voiced Sergeant Krug) and an excellent cast raises this film a few notches above average. German-Jewish commandos go undercover to infiltrate Nazi held North Africa and these guys know how to fight. This film works on many levels and poses many questions. That is what makes it so good. Howard A. Anderson, Jr. and Albert Whitlock were nominated for an Oscar for Special Visual Effects. The cast includes Rock Hudson, George Peppard, Nigel Green (a brilliant character actor), Jack Watson, Percy Herbert and Guy Stockwell.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Exciting WWII Adventure With A Blazing Finale, June 2, 2000

By	Michael Daly "Monkeesfan" (Wakefield, MA USA) - See all my reviews

Tobruk was produced by Roger Corman's brother Gene and features Rock Hudson, George Peppard, and Nigel Green as commandos assigned to destroy the fuel base used by Adolf Hitler's Afrika Korps under Erwin Rommel, who appears briefly at the end played by Curt Lowens.

Hudson is Major Donald Craig, a prisoner of Vichy French forces in Algiers. Craig is grabbed by German commandos, and is surprised to find that these commandos are part of a British unit, the Special Identification Group - "German Jews, serving with the British. However, as Germans, we still have our uses," as their leader, Captain Bergman (Peppard) puts it.

Somehow, George Peppard pulls off this role, even though he never showed much acting talent in his films - only in the TV role that saved his career, The A-Team, did he ever shine as an actor.

Nigel Green is the commando leader, Colonel Harker, a by-the-book officer who harbors an intense dislike of the Jews under his command - "Six years is Palestine taught me that," he says to Craig.

Posing as a German column transporting British prisoners, the commando force dodges a pair of Axis columns - and in the process tricks them into opening fire on each other - blows up an old Nazi minefield, and goes through bitter windstorms. During a night stop, Craig and Bergman talk, and Bergman's bitterness shows through - "200 Jew power, Major," he says as he tunes a half-track's engine.

Next day the column is strafed by a British P-40, and the commandos have to shoot it down. They are then set upon by local tribesmen, who hand over two prisoners of their own - a British father and daughter, who are working for the Germans to get the Muslim world into the war against Stalin. Both are tricked into trying to flee, and are killed by a passing Italian patrol - which exposes that a turncoat is working amid Bergman's men.

The column finally reaches Tobruk, but is horrified to learn that two Panzer divisions undetected by Allied intelligence are preparing to move out. The commandos go to work on short defense batteries and a fierce firefight erupts, ending with a spectacular finale amid the explosion of Rommel's fuel base.