Commandos

I too picked up Commandos in the budget bin. The movie itself was decent...acting a bit over the top from some of the players, the plot very predictable, and the ending a bit smarmy, intent on teaching us a nice lesson about the horrors of war.

The worst part of the film were the technical details. The US Army dropping paratrooper commandos behind enemy lines prior to Operation Torch (factual error... US Airborne troops were no where near ready for a raid prior to Torch). The obvious use of the 1944 M3 Grease Gun as the weapon of choice for the commandos, a weapon which didn't even see North Africa, let alone North Africa in 1942, the year before it made it to Army usage.

One can forgive the use of US Chaffee and Walker Bulldog tanks repainted in German Afrika Tan (after all, Patton did too), but too many errors upon errors crept into the movie to make it truly enjoyable. For 99 cents and a Saturday afternoon, it will serve. As a great movie, it falls far short.

See This Movie!!! As for all the nay sayers on this site, it doesn't sound like they actually saw the movie or watched it all the way through.

If you love WWII films or action films, make this a must see. The action is so intense it's difficult to believe this was made way back in 1968. The production quality is very high.

How intense is the action? Well, I've seen this movie twice and I've yet to find a rifle on screen! (no kidding) Every character is armed with a submachine gun. Just as 'Die Hard' tought us, SMGs make for the best action scenes no matter how unrealistic it would be to actually hit a target at 100 feet. (or 50 feet) The plot: October 1942, North Africa. Lee Van Cleef leads a band of New York Italian American paratroopers whom must raid and hold an Axis water supply depot. Most importantly they must be about to pass for Italian solders in order to fool their German comrades.

The oasis depot proves to be a very elaborate but well fortified Axis hotel. There's even a bar and grill and a prostitute.

The GIs do their best to fool the Germans but inevitably the situation cannot hold. Their Italian prisoners escape, more and more German squads keep visiting and worse yet Van Cleef himself is a deranged and unstable veteran of Bataan who hates all superior officers as glory hounds carelessly putting his men at risk.

The final scene is a really great one. I've never seen anything like it in any war movie! It's the perfect conclusion.

For those of you not familiar with the "Spaghetti WWII" film 'Commandos' is a great place to start.

No, "Spaghetti WWII" is not part of the "Nazisploitation" films made in Italy during the 70s and 80s. (remember 'Salon Kitty' 'Last Orgy of the Third Reich' or the Elsa films?) "Spaghetti WWII" films are an overlooked genre that embodied much of what we love about American WWII films. The brotherhood of solders, the hell of war, and the glory of combat. These films were told from either the Axis or Allied side and just like traditional WWII films the Nazis always lose. Even if they are the main characters.

Unlike neutered German WWII films like 'Stalingrad.' The Italians got it right. No drama or romance, just guts and glory.

'Desert Commandos' is a perfect companion piece to this film.

Another fantastic slice of war drama from the Italians, who were at their best filming on a tight budget in the middle of the African desert and blowing up shedloads of jeeps and tanks along the way. Following in the footsteps of dozens of similar offerings post-DIRTY DOZEN, the simplistic plot line tells of a small group of American soldiers who capture an Italian base in the middle of the desert (what for is never quite explained) and then who have to pretend to be Italians when the Germans show up looking for a good time. An excellent script with full-on characterisation, a few moral messages about the nature of war and comradeship, and heapings of suspense (realised through a monotonous but effective chordal note on the soundtrack) make for one heck of a film.

The film is based on a short story by notorious exploitation producer Menahem Golan, with the script co-written (with three others) by none other than Dario Argento, who later found fame as the "Italian Hitchcock". Argento brings his trademark touch of strong characters and violent situations into the story with the direction left in the more than capable hands of genre director Armando Crispino.

The cast is outstanding, with notable performances from all the major players. Lee Van Cleef handles the part of his tough sergeant as well as you would expect, and as a bonus gets extra psychological torment via some Filipino flashbacks. Jack Kelly is equally good as the determined captain who leads the group into disaster. Everyone else is perfect, especially the German actors, and there's a good turn from Giampiero Albertini (ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY WEAPON) as a loyal fighter. The action sequences are mostly saved for the finale, but what a finale it is: packed with gunfire, explosions, destruction, mayhem and death, this easily rivals much more lavish productions and is the best battle I've seen in a long time. COMMANDOS is a hard film to fault which is why I award it full marks for effort and execution.

(1968) Commandos DUBBED SPAGHETTI WAR

Co-written and directed by Armando Crispino During WWII when Mussolini was in power and still had an army, a group of Italian Americans are selected to partake a dangerous mission whereas they were to take over a fort guarded by Italian soldiers working alongside with the Nazis, and then wait for more US armed soldiers to show up! Lee Van Cleef also stars as the troubled captain.

One of the major problems with Spaghetti Westerns and Spaghetti War films has a lot to do with it's budget, and this one is no exception, whereas Sergio Leone makes scenes look very theatrically credible with it's close- ups and camera angles- this film lacks common sense with a lack of charisma leading to predictable results.

Commandos is one of those movies I remember watching on the late-late-late show back in the late 70s and early 80s. It aired frequently.

I was quite surprised to find it included in a WWII movie multipack I bought at WM. An entirely different description of Commandos was listed, so imagine my surprise when I saw it was the old Lee Van Cleef movie! This movie isn't going to win any awards. There's no historic accuracy to it at all, other than the Germans and Italians were fighting in North Africa (or the Western Desert, for our British friends). But it's still fun to watch.