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Desert Rats, The
Fox // Unrated // May 21, 2002
List Price: $14.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The year is 1941. The place is Tobruk, the lone garrison on the Mediterranean coast that can stand between Field Marshal Rommel and control of the Suez Canal... a situation that the Allies must avoid at all costs. While reinforcements are readied in Egypt to break through the Germans encircling the coastal fortress, the beleaguered defenders must hold off Rommel's attacks again and again, with the entire Africa campaign on the line.
The Desert Rats is a tightly focused World War II film, illustrating the story of Tobruk and its defense. It doesn't have a particularly extensive plot, being more a series of incidents occurring during the defense of Tobruk; what brings it to life is that the film is a vivid and largely accurate representation of this important portion of the war.
The tactics of the defense of Tobruk are central to the film, and fortunately they're quite clearly explained to the viewer, partly through voiceovers and partly through the characters discussing the tactics, using maps and diagrams to illustrate the situation.
It's not all tactics and battles, however. The characters are reasonably well drawn, with Richard Burton starring as the harsh Captain MacRoberts, the British officer assigned to command the Australian battalion at Tobruk. Robert Newton appears as MacRoberts' favorite teacher, now a volunteer infantryman; his characterization, showing the constant battle between fear and self-control under pressure, helps develop the human side both of the character of MacRoberts and of the film as a whole.
If it were to be made in the 2000s, The Desert Rats would probably be a bloated three-hour epic. In 1953, however, director Robert Wise lived up to his name and decided to go the "short and sweet" route, creating an 88-minute film that captures the essence of the situation and characters while moving along quickly enough to always sustain interest. Sometimes less is more, and the judicious use of narrative summary helps keep The Desert Rats on track. We see the troops green and untested; we see the plans for commando raids over the course of months; we cut to the end of that time and see the men as seasoned combat veterans, tired but also tough. For the purpose of the overall story, that's exactly what we need to see: Wise doesn't show us (because he doesn't need to show us) the exact details of what happened between those two points. The end result is a film that's just as long as it needs to be.
Video
The Desert Rats is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (the "Academy" ratio). The black-and-white film has a number of pieces of actual war footage cut in, including the advance of Rommel's tanks and the defenders manning the Tobruk guns. It's cleverly done (and makes me think that the film might have been done in black and white specifically to make it possible to include the real footage) and adds depth to the battle scenes.
Overall video quality leaves something to be desired. The print is generally clean, with minimal noise; scratches appear occasionally but not consistently. The main problem is with the contrast, which ranges from adequate (in well-lit scenes) to terrible (in dark scenes or ones with a shadowed foreground and brightly lit background). There's also edge enhancement visible.
Audio
The soundtrack of The Desert Rats is offered in English Dolby stereo or mono, with dubbed mono Spanish or French, and English subtitles, as options. The stereo track offers a respectable sound quality, with dialogue that's generally clear, and battle effects that are fairly impressive. It's a clean soundtrack, with no hissing or background noises.
Extras
The DVD of The Desert Rats has a trailer for the film along with trailers for quite a few of the other DVDs in the Fox War Classics line.
Final thoughts
The Desert Rats can possibly best be summed up as a "film illustration": just as a photograph in a history book illustrates the text of the lesson, The Desert Rats offers a three-dimensional illustration of an important point in the history of World War II. For those who are specifically interested in World War II history, The Desert Rats is a must-see. Taken out of context, just as a movie, the overall good craftsmanship holds it together as an entertaining look at courage under pressure, and in that sense it's worth seeing for any viewer.
The Desert Rats is a tightly focused World War II film, illustrating the story of Tobruk and its defense. It doesn't have a particularly extensive plot, being more a series of incidents occurring during the defense of Tobruk; what brings it to life is that the film is a vivid and largely accurate representation of this important portion of the war.
The tactics of the defense of Tobruk are central to the film, and fortunately they're quite clearly explained to the viewer, partly through voiceovers and partly through the characters discussing the tactics, using maps and diagrams to illustrate the situation.
It's not all tactics and battles, however. The characters are reasonably well drawn, with Richard Burton starring as the harsh Captain MacRoberts, the British officer assigned to command the Australian battalion at Tobruk. Robert Newton appears as MacRoberts' favorite teacher, now a volunteer infantryman; his characterization, showing the constant battle between fear and self-control under pressure, helps develop the human side both of the character of MacRoberts and of the film as a whole.
If it were to be made in the 2000s, The Desert Rats would probably be a bloated three-hour epic. In 1953, however, director Robert Wise lived up to his name and decided to go the "short and sweet" route, creating an 88-minute film that captures the essence of the situation and characters while moving along quickly enough to always sustain interest. Sometimes less is more, and the judicious use of narrative summary helps keep The Desert Rats on track. We see the troops green and untested; we see the plans for commando raids over the course of months; we cut to the end of that time and see the men as seasoned combat veterans, tired but also tough. For the purpose of the overall story, that's exactly what we need to see: Wise doesn't show us (because he doesn't need to show us) the exact details of what happened between those two points. The end result is a film that's just as long as it needs to be.
Video
The Desert Rats is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (the "Academy" ratio). The black-and-white film has a number of pieces of actual war footage cut in, including the advance of Rommel's tanks and the defenders manning the Tobruk guns. It's cleverly done (and makes me think that the film might have been done in black and white specifically to make it possible to include the real footage) and adds depth to the battle scenes.
Overall video quality leaves something to be desired. The print is generally clean, with minimal noise; scratches appear occasionally but not consistently. The main problem is with the contrast, which ranges from adequate (in well-lit scenes) to terrible (in dark scenes or ones with a shadowed foreground and brightly lit background). There's also edge enhancement visible.
Audio
The soundtrack of The Desert Rats is offered in English Dolby stereo or mono, with dubbed mono Spanish or French, and English subtitles, as options. The stereo track offers a respectable sound quality, with dialogue that's generally clear, and battle effects that are fairly impressive. It's a clean soundtrack, with no hissing or background noises.
Extras
The DVD of The Desert Rats has a trailer for the film along with trailers for quite a few of the other DVDs in the Fox War Classics line.
Final thoughts
The Desert Rats can possibly best be summed up as a "film illustration": just as a photograph in a history book illustrates the text of the lesson, The Desert Rats offers a three-dimensional illustration of an important point in the history of World War II. For those who are specifically interested in World War II history, The Desert Rats is a must-see. Taken out of context, just as a movie, the overall good craftsmanship holds it together as an entertaining look at courage under pressure, and in that sense it's worth seeing for any viewer.
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