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CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

MartinHafer This film made a very odd casting decision. For some reason, the German actor Curt Jurgens was hired to play one of the leads...a British major serving in WWII! He doesn't sound the least bit British and this took me out of the film a bit. The other lead was Richard Burton....a man who grows to hate and have contempt for the major during the course of their suicide mission. This is because although the Major was in control of the mission, he is a coward and hesitates when they need to act. And, it appears that the Major might just be trying to get the Captain (Burton) killed off so that no one will know about his failings as a leader.An interesting portrait of humans in war, it's worth seeing but isn't a great war film. By the way, there was one scene that annoyed me. The Captain is bitten by a scorpion and INSTANTLY everyone thinks he will die. Death from scorpion stings is VERY rare and only about 2% of all scorpion species MIGHT be able to kill you...and mostly if your system is already compromised. And, just like snakebites, you DO NOT cut the wound to suck out the poison!!! Kids...don't try this at home!!!

Tweekums This Second World War drama follows a British commando raid into the German occupied city of Benghazi in Libya. Their task is to break into the German headquarters, take the documents out of the safe before returning overland to rejoin British forces in Egypt. Getting their hands on the documents and escaping from the Germans is going to be the least of their worries though; the Sahara Desert is not a forgiving place to walk through and to make matters there is bad feeling between commanding officer Major Brand and his second in command Capt. Leith... the woman Leigh had been involved with before the war went on to marry Brand but deep down Brand knows she still loves Leigh. He believes that this mission should be an opportunity to prove his bravery because although he is a professional soldier he hasn't seen action. When the time comes for him to kill a sentry he hesitates and Leigh does it. As they head back east it becomes clear that it would suit Brand very much if Leigh didn't make it back and the desert will provide more than one chance for the captain to have an 'accident'.I found this to be a good taut wartime thriller; this is largely down to Richard Burton and Curd Jürgens who did fine jobs as Leigh and Brand... to very different characters; Leigh the brave volunteer with combat experience and Brand a professional who doesn't have what it takes but is determined to keep that fact hidden. The action scenes are competently handled although they will seem tame to a modern audience... not a drop of blood is spilt when people get machine-gunned! The conclusion is likely to come as a shock; it certainly surprised me although it does fit with the downbeat feel of the film which is really about the nature of cowardice more than anything else. Filmed on location in Libya the film nicely captures the inhospitableness of the desert as the soldiers struggle to get back to British lines. If you are looking for a gung-ho action packed war film then this probably isn't for you but if you want something a little different give it a go.

bkoganbing The fine playing of Curt Jurgens and Richard Burton raises Bitter Victory quite a few notches. Actors less capable than them and a director less capable than Nicholas Ray would have made a muck of this film which borders on incoherency at times in terms of the point it was trying to make.I'm just finished watching it and I still don't know what it was all about. Jurgens who is a South African the better to explain his German accent while leading British troops in the desert war in Italy has been a staff officer for years and has no combat experience. But his knowledge of the German language is considered valuable on this mission. He's married to Ruth Roman who has joined the British WAAFs to help in the cause. And she's on duty at headquarters.Which doesn't help matters as the other officer in consideration for commanding a commando raid on Rommel's headquarters is Richard Burton. He's an archaeologist, speaks Arabic and, oh yes, he's Roman's former boyfriend. And he's got the requisite combat experience.But Jurgens is a major and Burton is a captain so Jurgens is in command. Burton is sure he's a coward when he hesitates shooting. And since he'd like to get back with Roman he'll do anything to discredit Jurgens.What a recipe for a disaster and the mission nearly turns into one. One of them doesn't make it out of the Libyan desert.Sad, but Ray, Burton, and Jurgens were all capable of better work and did it. I'd view this only if I were a fan of any combination or all of the above cinema icons.

Goodbye_Ruby_Tuesday A heavy-handed thing to say, but that's what Jean-Luc Godard proclaimed upon seeing this film at the Cannes Film Festival. The French knew it long before we did: Nicholas Ray was one of the most original and wisest directors to ever make films. He took a French anti-war book and he made it into a film that was so much more than that. Unlike his previous routine assignment to confirm his allegiance to Howard Hughes during the Red Scare FLYING LEATHERNECKS, there are more layers that stretch far beyond the sea of sand that cast Richard Burton and Curt Jurgens away from society. Unlike most war films of its time and like almost every film Ray ever made, the conflict lies not in the battles between the nations, but inside the hearts of the film's protagonists. The brooding Richard Burton is given a great role as disillusioned soldier Captain James Leith, forced to carry out an assignment with Major Brand, a man he dislikes (the feeling is mutual--Leith had an affair with Brand's wife Jane a few years back, and the desire still lingers on, showing Leith's last trace of humanity). Their assignment is to travel behind enemy lines and take some German documents. The long journey through the desert becomes even more heated as Leith reminds Brand of his cowardice (Brand hesitated to kill a German soldier during an attack) and Brand tries in subtle ways to kill Leith to cover up his cowardice. But this isn't a black and white good-guy/bad-guy caricature; there are so many shades of gray in both characters. As Leith later says, the two are almost mirror images (although he is much wiser than Brand and accepts his futility, Leith is not as strong as some might make him to be; he admits to leaving Jane because he was scared to get close to someone else--like all of Ray's anti-heroes, the ones who reject love are the ones who need it the most), possibly explaining why Brand feels compelled to kill Leith. BITTER VICTORY wasn't the first anti-war film, but it was one of the few to make its statement so eloquently (and it had the most profound title). Too subtle to connect with American audiences (the film flopped badly at the box-office and when the studio re-cut it several times, each time farther and farther away from Nicholas Ray's original vision, it didn't work) but revered by French audiences, BITTER VICTORY has grown more potent in the decades since its release. The futility of war isn't proclaimed by the horrible violence of battle like countless films, but through the impossible absurdity of a man's role in the war. After all, if Leith "kills the living and saves the dead," what difference does it make, other than that little matter of when and what for? By the end, how is Brand any different from the training dummies with hearts painted over them? The enlightenment that Brand finds by the film's end comes too late; he's already lost what's precious to him and all he has to show for it is a DSO. It truly is a bitter victory.