Never having seen this before, I recorded it on a recent Film4 broadcast, eliminating the adverts before watching. A good widescreen presentation, and not a bad movie. I had always thought that this was a low budget movie as it was filmed in cheap and cheerful Techniscope (not usually used by the major studios, but with which Universal flirted in the late sixties). On a big cinema screen Techniscope could look pretty awful, but even on a big TV the image quality is not bad. Although not in the same league as the "big" war films, Tobruk is not at all bad, with decent performances from most and good location shooting by Russell Harlan. Easily the worst aspect is Norman Rossington's overplayed comic relief, which seems to have wandered in from a different movie.

Having never even heard of this film at the age of 44 and an avid war film buff, I really thought it would suck. Throw in Rock Hudson and well, that didn't raise my expectations. I was scared to read the other reviews here as well thinking it would reflect the low 6 average rating on IMDb. Well, I just finished watching this 60's war actioner and here is my praise, I was very pleasantly surprised! The beginning was nothing too hot but I started to take notice when Brit traitors are picked up, this was Ice Station Zebra stuff, which I though was just great. Not that having Brit's against Germans, and German Jews being used by the Brit's and throw in the Italians as well, well now we have Brit spies and German double agents! I mean thats what can make a straight actioner like this pretty interesting (Where Eagles Dare?). What really sells it for me, if you want to watch a fiction war movie and really enjoy it, it needs LOTS of destruction, preferably by Commando's! Well in the end this one really delivers. I love the flame thrower scenes, the audio to that flamethrower was a great touch! I don't think I ever remember hearing it like that before. BTW if a war flick uses flame throwers I tend to remember them above ones that just use guns, so kudo's to the director for realizing that fact! Other flame thrower war movies I vividly remember, Hell Is For Hero's (James Coburn gets fried wearing one, very shocking the first time you watch it), When Trumpets Fade (that flame thrower scene was very shocking), and Men In War (Robert Ryan charging a hill with Aldo Ray wearing a flame thrower? C'Mon that is war movie heaven), oh yeah who could forget The Deer Hunter (DeNero in Nam blazing away, c'mon), I even think Rambo had one in part 2 (my favorite fictional war action movie ever). Here we have George Peppard blazing away a whole lot of Germans and it's done up close and personal, very nice scenes, I was impressed. Of course it has the post WW2 era American tanks and all, but like another reviewer said, it also had a P-40 so they tried a little bit. I think hardly any of the 50's to 70's war films were very accurate when it came to military hardware like tanks, budget was probably the reason, or maybe no one thought anyone would notice?, lol. If that's your biggest complaint against this film you are not going to enjoy a lot of war films from these years (thats actually why I enjoyed the Battle Of El Alemein, they tried to show authentic crappy Italian tanks in battle, even though the Brits were using personnel carriers as tanks and the German tanks were models, lol at least they tried a little!). The military hardware thing is just something you eventually (after 20 + years of watching these films) tend to overlook so you can enjoy the film. Hudson doesn't let me down and the Brits involved are all established war film character actors adding to a great realism that this is an above average war flick. I give it a solid 8 as far as fiction war films go. If You Liked The Rat Patrol and Ice Station Zebra.......with a touch of Guns Of Navarone, give it a view. Bravo!

When the well-armed Allied heroes aren't shooting, stabbing, and blowing up their Axis adversaries in Arthur Hiller's "Tobruk," they are at each other's throats in this exciting World War II action-adventure opus set behind enemy lines in the Sahara desert during 1942. "Tobruk" doesn't rank as the greatest W.W.II military thriller, but this widescreen Universal Studios production is definitely a splendid way to blow off 110 minutes. You can tell that this Rock Hudson & George Peppard war epic was filmed after World War II ended because the story features an elite German-Jewish commando squad sanctioned by the British. No World War II movie made during the actual war would have dared present such an undercover outfit because most studios shunned anything that concerned Jewish characters. For example, government propagandists in the Office of War Information/Bureau of Motion Pictures severely criticized Warner Brothers for their 1944 movie "Mr. Skeffington" because the agency felt it played into the hands of Axis propagandists and their anti-Jewish sentiments. Another reason is that the heroes wield a flame thrower, a devastating weapon that barbecues the opposition, as unsavory a way to kill as it was to die, and the OWI/BMP as well as Hollywood's Production Code Administration would have condemned it because of its graphic nature. Neither agency felt that the public was prepared to watch this kind of horrendous combat. Furthermore, the government propagandists and the PCA would never have countenanced the strife among the Allies; this would have shown the Allies in a negative light and all war movies were designed to boost morale. Casting aspersions against our Allies would never have flown in any movie. Finally, Rock Hudson's heroic protagonist Major Craig is anything but a hero of the World War II era variety. Craig warns his commanding officer Colonel Harker before the raid: "My mother didn't raise any heroes." "Tobruk" opens with this narration: "North Africa . . . September 1942. The darkest hours. The world watches as Adolf Hitler's high stepping Afrika Korps sweep onward to Egypt and the Suez Canal while the British—their strength dissipated by defeat—make a desperate attempt to regroup at El Alamein." History in a nutshell! The British want to deprive German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel of fuel for his Afrika Korps tank units. Before the British can accomplish this mission, they have to rescue a Canadian, Major Daniel Craig (Rock Hudson of "Hornet's Nest") from a Vicky French P.O.W. camp. Earlier, Craig had proposed his plan for the destruction of Rommel's fuel supplies, but the narrow-minded English High Command led by Colonel Harker (Nigel Green of "The Ipcress File") rejected it out of hand. An elite squad of German Jews sympathetic to the Allied cause masquerade as Nazis and snatch Craig from the French and then fly him back to North Africa for a rendezvous in the desert with Colonel Harker. Craig isn't sure about which side Captain Bergman (George Peppard of "The Blue Max") is on until he lands at an Allied base. Harker briefs Craig and Bergman about a proposed raid on the underground German fuel bunkers in Tobruk. Although the Royal Air Force has been hammering Rommel, Harker explains that too much fuel is still getting through to the Desert Fox. Harker uses Berman's pseudo German troops to escort a party of raiders disguised as P.O.W.s and Craig will guide them across 800 miles of the worst desert that the Sahara can offer. Craig criticizes the plan, "It's suicide!" Harker proclaims as a rebuttal: "It's orders!" Our heroes have several minor encounters with the enemy. First, they trick nearby encampments of Italian and German troops to fire on each other while they slip past them. Second, they plunge into a German mind field at considerable peril to themselves to dissuade Axis pursuit. Third, they encounter a native tribe that sells them two British subjects, a father and daughter working for the Nazi, for ten rifles. The father, Henry Portman (Liam Redmond of "Barry Lyndon"), has a special message called the Kesselring document about a group of dissent generals in the Egyptian Army who are plotting to attack the British. Eventually, Portman and his daughter die through misadventure and we learn that a traitor walks among Captain Bergman's men. Not long afterward, our heroes cruise into Tobruk with a German police escort. They discover to their shock that two reserve divisions of the Afrika Korps are relaxing in Tobruk. Our heroes scramble to warn Her Majesty's Royal Naval assault troops to cease and desist. Craig and Bergman silence the big guns at Mesa Cove and Craig appropriates a German tank and destroys the underground fuel bunkers. Bergman dies in a burst a flame on the background. The German spy emerges at the finale and Colonel Harker shoots him before he is shot by the Germans. Major Craig and three survivors escape and make it to a Royal Navy pick-up farther up the coast.Arthur Hiller makes certain that we are never in the dark about what is going to happen. Leo V. Gordon's tightly written script provides a wealth of exposition. Hiller takes the starch out of some typical war movie scenes. Instead of staging the briefing in full uniform in a tent, Hiller has the commanding officer brief Hudson and Peppard while he is taking a shower. He conducts the remainder of the briefing without a shirt. "Tobruk" is undoubtedly the first World War II movie where Jews are action heroes and their British commanding officer above Peppard questions their trustworthiness. Hudson is adamantly an anti-hero, but he handles the flame thrower well and he knows out to steal a German tank with a dud hand grenade. There's lots of crisp interesting dialogue in this explosive, action-packed tale about heroes. Hudson makes a good level-headed hero, while Peppard wins our hearts with his bravado, especially in his death scene.

That subgenre being the war movie about a small group of specialist soldiers - "commandos" - who pull off a daring raid, with lots of drama and personality conflicts - these days they're called "special operators." And it's the sort of war picture they sure don't make any more. Pity, in a way. In this screenplay it's the Long Range Desert Group, based on a legendary North Africa force, plus a bunch of German Jews out to confound the Nazis and use their contribution as leverage to achieve nationhood in Palestine -no, Israel!, as George Peppard brusquely corrects Rock Hudson. Which is what gives this movie a very interesting historical dimensions, bringing in as it does, along with Rommel and the Desert War, or course, the meddling of the Grand Mufti, Arab affinities for Nazism, and the struggle for Israel as the Holocaust goes on in Europe. Note the movie was made in '67 - Six-Day War anyone? The premise of the commandos masquerading as Afrika Korps I found a bit much, though. Also much mirth garnered by the use of all-American trucks and tanks (a lot of them post- WWII) for German, Italian, British - I noticed the California National Guard got a big credit at the end. The Grumman Goose was a cute touch, too. At least they got most of the guns right - but the P-40 was good, the right type for the time and place. Also a nice touch to have Rock Hudson play as a Canadian, not an American. And get a load of Dean Stockwell. And there was some pretty good camera work and some clever crane and dolly shots, too. For all its flaws and preposterous elements, and for being a bit of a period piece, it is a most entertaining picture, and lots of stuff blows up.