The film is a Rommel biography written and directed by Niki Stein . It's based on true events and real roles . In WWII Field Marshal Erwin Rommel won reputation as Germany's most popular General but he played an important part in the invasions of central Europe and France . At the same time he was regarded by many Allied officers as a master of desert warfare and as a fair-minded professional . Erwin Rommel (Ulrich Tukur) really achieved fame as the commander of the German Afrika Korps , operating against the British in North Africa and he captured Tobruk ,the key to the British defenses . Quick to see advantage and profit from it , he ran rings round the British for almost two years before being stopped at Alamein and then driven out of Africa by General Marshal Montgomery . Later on , Rommel was given command of Army in northern Italy to prevent an Italian defection and to counter an Allied invasion of Southern Europe . In 1944 he was transferred to command of an army group in northern France , his task is the defense of the French coast against the long-anticipated Allied invasion . Rommel has to reinforce the incomplete state of the defensive fortifications , the slow pace of constructing the Atlantic Wall, and the lack of preparedness of the defending units mostly comprised of poorly-trained conscripts . On two occasions, Rommel and Von Rundstedt (Hanns Zischler) saw Hitler and attempted to convince him that he should end the war while considerable German forces still existed . The pale and shaken Fuehrer met their frankness with angry diatribes . The picture concerns about the previous and post days to the D-Day invasion , known as ¨Overlord operation¨. As Rommel has disputes with the German High Command as well as urges his troops to hasten the pace of the Atlantic Wall construction , resolves the complications on subordinates and he puts the most veteran battle-hardened divisions under his command . Five beaches -codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold,Juno and Sword- were selected as the landings points for the British and US Corps , the operation will be preceded by a month-long bombing campaign to disrupt communications , preventing reinforcements from moving quickly into the threatened area and destroy vital bridges and gun positions . The German response commanded by Rommel was hampered by the damage done to their communications ,by a rigid structure which required a personal directive from Hitler before any significant move could be made and by belief that the landing the major Allied attack would come in the Pas of Calais,a belief fostered by Allied deception operations . Allied casualties during the day amounted to 2.500 killed and about 8.500 wounded .Allied air forces flew 14.000 sorties in support of the operation and lost 127 aircraft .After the Allied invasion of Normandy (June 6,1944) , Rommel was severely injured when his automobile was strafed by a British plane,and he was sent home to Ulm to recover along with his wife Frau Lucie Marie (Aglaia Szyszkowitz) . By this time , he had become increasingly disillusioned not only by Hitler's unrealistic military leadership but also by the worldwide reaction to Nazi atrocities . He opposed the project assassination attempt on Hitler's life on the ground that this action would only create martyr . Rommel never took an active role in the July Plot executed by Colonel Klaus Von Stauffenberg , although the conspirators wanted him as Chief of state after the elimination of Hitler . However the plot failure ,one of the conspirators , before he died in agony on a meat hook , blurted out Rommel's name to his tormentors and his doom was sealed , offered the choice of a court-martial or reprisals against his his family or suicide .
The picture is well starred by Ulrich Tukur as Erwin Rommel who gives a notable acting . In the film appears famous Nazi characters who are well interpreted by awesome actors , as Benjamin Sadler playing General Speidel , as Gen. Feldmarschall von Kluge acted by Thomas Thieme , as Gen. Feldmarschall von Rundstedt played by Hanns Zischler , Gen. Feldmarschall Keitel performed by Joe Bausch , General Guderian by Klaus Behrendt and Hitler featured by Johannes Silberschneider who provides an excellent performance (but he doesn't reach to Bruno Ganz in ¨The downfall¨) . The motion picture was professionally directed by Niki Stein . Rating : Good , above average and well worth watching .
Others films appearing this mythic figure are the followings : ¨The desert fox¨ (1951) by Robert Wise in which Rommel's James Mason displays a first-rate interpretation and he'll repeat role in ¨The Desert Rats¨ (1953) by Robert Wise ; furthermore : ¨Battle of Alaimen¨ by Giorgio Ferroni played by Robert Hossein and ¨Raid on Rommel¨ by Henry Hathaway played by Wolfgang Preiss .
