Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Crappy film

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Andre De Toth directs this lumbering war drama. Michael Caine plays Captain Douglas, a British army officer in North Africa, that is ordered to lead a mission in the desert. Brigadier Blore(Harry Andrews)wants a German fuel reserve knocked out but he doesn't trust Colonel Masters(Nigel Green)with the task after failing several times doing so. Douglas is chosen to lead mercenaries in this latest mission; but Cyril Leech(Nigel Davenport), a war experienced mercenary, is hired to guide Captain Douglas and his motley band into the desert. Needless to say Douglas and Leech don't really have any use of the other since their methods are so polarized. Nazis are on their trail and Brigadier Blore has sold them out. But Douglas and Leech managed to put up a heroic fight after arriving at the German fuel dump. Some decent war action with a few strange characters to watch. The finale is unexpected. Also featured in the cast: Bernard Archard, Mike Stevens, Enrique Avila, Aly Ben Ayed, Mohsen Ben Abdullah, Scott Miller and Vivian Pickles.

top action film with no frills direction by screen veteran Andre DE Thoth.the scene in the sandstorm with the attack on the dummy fuel dump is a beauty.interesting to note Richard Harris was replaced by Nigel davenport.anyone know why? also interesting is the cynical nature of the storyline.nobody seems to win at anything and betrayal is always around the corner.the characters played by harry Andrews and Nigel green seem to sum up the nature of the storyline and i found the script quiet good in letting the story unfold around the events as they happen.the supporting cast is completely unknown but i guess this adds to the cynical nature of the piece and helped with their budget i guess.

Not the best of war movies, and the type of story line that's been done before...However, I was fascinated to note that the screenplay was written by Melvyn Bragg who, in the 1990s, went on to produce a great documentary about the English language. How the world turns...Anyway – this effort does have some great and witty lines delivered by Caine and Davenport as the two rival captains on a mission to blow up a German petrol dump in the Libyan desert during the second world war's African campaign. On that basis, it's somewhat pedestrian – many scenes of travelling through desert areas, naturally; getting bogged down in the sand, naturally; meeting and killing Arabs at an oasis, naturally; and generally verbally fighting with each other, as each tries to assert their individuality.Where the narrative is different, however, is first, the twists in the story that produce some worthwhile surprises; second, the grittiness of the situations that serve to highlight the totally amoral attitudes of all concerned; third, the irony of the true nature of the German dump; and finally, the tongue-in-cheek chutzpah of the ending which, for me, almost turned the whole movie into a very long shaggy-dog story. I could imagine Bragg having a real giggle about it as he wrote it – and that's not maligning him at all.All of the main characters provide suitably professional performances, Caine once again with that disdainful and bored attitude reminiscent of his role in Zulu (1964) as Lt. Gonville Bromhead; Nigel Davenport gives a terrific performance (he outshines Caine, in my opinion) as Caine's rival; while the likes of Harry Andrews and Nigel Green exemplify the vacuous and glory-seeking nature of all military top brass. The standout performance, however, goes to Vivian Pickles as the German nurse who shows all the British soldiers what it means to stand up for your rights – not to be missed.As war movies go – perhaps anti-war – it's well done, but not without its faults, particularly some of the gaps in the narrative, sloppy editing and inexplicable jump cuts. Maybe, on TV, I saw a badly edited version to allow for too many commercial breaks? I'll assume so.Recommended for those who like war action.

Tough, macho Nigel Davenport matches wits with firm English captain Michael Caine as they team up to kick axis butt in this two-fisted war movie that will keep you glued to the screen.The harshness of the unforgiving desert and the danger of combat is expertly presented by director Andre de Toth. The storyline is intelligent and the characters believable whereas the battle scenes are excellent as well as a scene in a desert windstorm that is my favorite. Nigel Davenport is an underrated actor and the tension between him and Michael Caine is nicely understated, which gives it more power. One of the top war movies from its era.