Let's be realistic.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The reviewers here so far like this film very much but seem to have various kinds of sentimental attachments to it. I don't have any--no memories of seeing it when I was young, no family, friends or acquaintances involved in the mission, no external notions from reading about it. I just watched it as a general moviegoer from the early 21st century. In my opinion The Cockleshell heroes has worn badly over the years.The first part, covering the selection of the participants and their training, has very little information in it--a tiny bit about limpet mines, a scene of soldiers climbing rock cliffs (no such landscape shows up later in the mission), perhaps one potentially interesting challenge forcing the men to use their wits to move around the countryside, but more close-order drilling than anything. Apart from the two officers and one soldier who goes AWOL to beat up a man who's been having an affair with his wife while he's away, there is almost nothing to distinguish one character from another. And there is no acting. The little tension between two officers leads only to a few moments of the two exchanging their points of view. Jose Ferrer delivers pretty much all his lines in the same tone of voice: it's a nice voice, it would be great narrating a documentary on some serious subject, but it has no emotional inflection in this movie.But what really spoils this long first section of the movie is the abundance of "cute" vignettes. A parachutist lands in cow manure, a hitchhiker gets a ride with a ridiculous fast-talking matron, the near-naked men run past a group of nuns. Tired, old tropes even for 1955, and far, far too many of them.Once the mission begins there is almost no dialogue, mostly scenes of men padding in their kayaks (called "canoes" in the movie). It's pretty dull stuff, and the director obviously thought music would be needed to keep audiences interested. But what awful music! On and on it goes, a symphony orchestra playing meaningless, vaguely military-sounding riffs non-stop, not in the least adapted to what's happening at the moment on the screen, just mindless orchestral noise that never stops. After a while I actually turned off the sound on my television to escape from the never-ending assault on my ears. And-- this is incredible-- during one supposed scene of deep thoughtfulness, when after a night of drinking an older officer is alone in a board room telling the sad story of his life to another officer, the same nonsensical orchestral tooting and shrilling continues ridiculously from beginning to end. It really should go down as one of the worst uses of music ever in the history of film making.As for action scenes, there's not much and not presented with any suspense. The climax, with explosions, is depicted with a few models in a studio.It's really terrible writing, terrible directing and an absence of acting.

Nice and entertaining war movie made or influenced by the Hollywood war film school of the 50s. Soft made army life and war fighting and dying adapted to the eye of the watcher of that time. Beautiful and everlasting colors of the Technicolor war film typical for war epic movie which this film definitely isn't. Good and saturated film composition, typical gags for the time of filming are pretty much watchable today. Imaginative dose of sarcasm that tends to launch Hollywood humor of that era in this UK film suits the whole idea pretty nice. Very realistic depiction of the action itself without exaggeration which is almost impossible to see in the US movies on the same topic even today. All in all, cute WWII film, especially recommended to the WWII buffs. 6 out of 10.

Hitler's "Kommando Behfel" was issued in retaliation for some jolly unsporting raids by hand - picked British soldiers into German - occupied Europe.Under its terms any combatants captured away from conflict zones and deemed by their captors to be "gangsters" would be summarily executed. Some of the elite Royal Marine Unit tasked with destroying ships in Bordeaux harbour were to be victims of this Order - a blatant contravention of the Rules of Warfare.By shooting enemy prisoners in uniform the Germans put themselves beyond the pale - not for the first or last time in the second world war. Of the ten who set out on the sixty - odd mile journey up - river,only two of the "Cockleshell Heroes" survived. The raid was aimed to strike a blow at the German supply ships loaded with priceless war materiel like rubber which they had been bringing in from Malaya.It was considered too dangerous to bomb the harbour both for the aircrews and the civilian population,so a plan was conceived involving 18 ft long 2 man canoes which were to attach limpet mines to the hulls of ships in the harbour and then slip away under cover of darkness. By a process of attrition only two crews actually completed the mission. The movie Mr J.Ferrer made of this heroic story is typical of its era. Chirpy working - class O.R.s and iron - jawed officers being forged into efficient fighting units with the odd pause to reflect,patronisingly,on the fighting and fornicating of the former and the philosophising of the latter. Mr T.Howard is fine as the officer who dies with the wry quip on his lips in fine defiance of his Nazi murderers.Chirpy cockney Mr A.Newley irritates as a chirpy cockney.Mr Ferrer himself - often overlooked when fine actors of the 1950s are considered - is excellent as the O.I.C. A lady called Yana who was much - seen on English TV at the time spends a lot of screen time singing a not terribly relevant song. One officer and one Marine actually survived the raid and spent 18 months on the run before finding their way back to Blighty. After the war,a number of German Officers who had executed Hitler's Commando Order were hanged at Nuremberg.Justice or vengeance?By the standards of the day you have to say justice.

An excellent film,however the continuity is slightly wrong in the scene where the Germans are searching for the commandos,they are using,Lee Enfield rifles and Sten Guns instead of Mauser rifles & either Mp 38's or Mp 40 sub machine guns. The name of the expedition leader,who in real life was called Major Hasler,known to one and all as Blondie was changed in the film to Major Stringer! And Marine Sparks was called Marine Clarke.Otherwise an enjoyable film. The French take the raid very seriously,having dedicated a footpath of 100 Kilometers from Blaye on the Gironde to Ruffec,where the two survivors met with the resistance.