KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

mark.waltz If it wasn't for Lloyd Bridges being in this, I doubt that I would have had any interest in seeing this, just another rushed out action film made on the cheap in the 60's, documenting one of hundreds of thousands of missions during World War II. Bridges is the only familiar name in this, seen in the opening vowing to make up for a mission he just failed on. He is at conflict with several other allied officers, especially Andrew Keir who blames him for the death of his son, conflicting with him over every decision made aboard ship. Bridges is seemingly acting defensive over the failed mission, and seems all too eager to clear his name by becoming commander of a very important upcoming mission. Drilling scenes are interpolated with his home life, which leads to his grade school aged son asking the above question.Every veteran working actor in the 1960's seemed to be asked to star in these assembly line war dramas, and while some became classics, a good majority of them are instantly forgotten. This one is amongst the later, overly scored in domestic scenes and focused on personal conflicts in the preparation of the mission (attacking German troops on the French coast) rather than coming together to defeat the enemy. It slows down horribly with these scenes, and it makes it hard to root for characters who are fighting on the same side but are carrying on their own private war. This seems to have been rushed out as part of a quota agenda without regards to anything that might make it stand out like "The Dirty Dozen". I will give credit to where it is due, however, and say that the ending is incredibly action packed and filled with tension, making it worth the ride to get all the way through.

deschreiber There's not much to say in favour of this movie, except maybe that it makes a brave effort with a weak script and a small budget. The plot is too simple and straightforward, there's absolutely no action until the final 15 minutes or so, naval and air force scenes are low-quality models, most the entire film is taken up with some rather hokey conflicts between characters, the music is often too overblown for the action. The Germans are completely inept; for a port that can service one of the largest warships in the German navy, it seems undermanned and disorganized. When the action does come, there seems no objective to any of it; soldiers from both sides are constantly popping up left and right from behind cover and mowing down a few enemies before being mowed down themselves. What was the plan of this operation, anyway? To drive a ship rigged with explosives into the port and blow up the facilities. Sure, that's clear enough. But what are all those soldiers doing running this way and that way, shooting in every possible direction with no discernible purpose to it? They seemed to be aiming at some objective or other - they did keep running, after all - but what were they trying to do besides kill whatever Germans they ran across? I had some hope for the movie, but it was worse than I anticipated. And by the way, was there any point in having Lloyd Bridges play a Canadian? His wife and son spoke with British accents. Was he made Canadian just so that dear old Lloyd wouldn't have to fake a British accent?

boutetr Just wanted to add further to the comment about this movie being based on Operation Chariot. The purpose of the raid was to disable the only dry dock on the French coast that was large enough for the German battleship Tirpitz, sister ship to the Bismark. During this stage of the war, this was a very important consideration as the Tirpitz could of created a great deal of havoc if it where to get into the North Atlantic and attack the vital convoys that where keeping England in the war. The actual raid was a success. The dry dock and associated equipment was damaged so thoroughly that it no longer was a viable option for the Germans to risk their last battleship in the North Atlantic. It was also a very costly mission. A bombing raid that was supposed to provide a diversion actually had the opposite effect and alerted the Germans. The losses incurred where described as appalling, with most of the commandos killed, wounded or captured. To reflect the importance of this raid, 5 Victoria crosses and 68 additional awards where handed out to the some of the 600 particpants. Only the battle of Rorkes drift saw more Victoria crosses awarded for a single action.

Sycotron The scenes where Lloyd Bridges is putting some commandos through their paces reminded of ffolkes. Roger Moore had his commandos running an obstacle course and clambering over large scaffolding as well. Perhaps one of the ffolks film makers was inspired by this?The trivia about Ron Goodwin's score being reused might explain the occasional times where the music seems to be out of sync with the action or overly dramatic for a particular scene.All in all a mildly entertaining 1960's WWII movie.