Customer Reviews
Michael Caine does another bang up job on this movie 
2008-07-22
I've always been a fan of Mr Cains as far as I can remember, this movie is very good. Well worth owning to your WW2 collection, I like this movie very much and I'd say go and buy this too. You will enjoy it, no bull here.
"Play Dirty" 
2008-06-16
Not Michael's best, I found it a little confusing. The mission seemed to be a waste of time. May be it was supposed to be, but I couldn't see why. Good desert scenes, more real than many. Good interpretation of desert warfare generally.
Dirtier Than The Dozen 
2008-04-20
Here's another underated Caine winner. He's a nice-guy engineer leading a band of criminals through the desert to blow up Rommel's fuel supplies. These guys aren't the leering whackos or lovable losers of The Dirty Dozen, they're clear-eyed, ice cold [...]. The whole picture is informed with a brutal, anti-heroic take on "The Good War" that goes beyond mere hip 60s cynicism.
There are a couple of great set pieces, one's a tense minefield in an oasis and earlier there's a drawn out sequence of hauling trucks up a rocky clift that's like Wages of Fear in the desert and it's sensational. (There's also the inclusion of the gay Middle Eastern members of the team that is shown without a trace of comedy or sterotyping.)
Also, note the image of the scorpion being taunted in the ring of fire that would essentially be swiped by Peckinpah for the next year's Wild Bunch.
WWII film made in the anti-war Sixties has disappointing ending 
2008-04-20
The best thing about this film is Michael Caine's performance, but if you know Caine's film history, he's been in some clunkers. As the other reviews allude to, this is a pseudo "Dirty Dozen" clone. The plot's pretty unimaginative, with the greatest disappointment being the ending, but considering it the anti-war era when the film was made, not unexpected. You'll wince when you see a character attempting to return to Allied lines wearing a German officer's uniform, which is incredibly stupid, considering that, with the simple expedient of removing the jacket, the German army desert uniform of this period looks substantially like the Allied uniform. No eye-candy in the way of period aircraft or vehicles, so I can't even recommend it for that reason. Skip this one, or don't say you weren't warned.
Great Late-60's WWII Film... 2008-04-12
This was always one of my favorites when I was a boy in the 1960s. PLAY DIRTY had the anti-hero grittiness that is so much more realistic--as I found out during my own military service--than the highly stylized war films that came out just after (and glorifying) WWII. There are notable exceptions, of course, that show combat pressure and human faults for what they are: Halls of Montezuma, featuring the late, great Richard Widmark as a stress-crippled Marine officer; Decision Before Dawn, with Oscar Werner and Richard Basehart...and various excellent so-called "B" movies that are really "A"s in in my book such as Hell Is For Heroes and Pork Chop Hill. PLAY DIRTY is a real man show, with cold and hard heroes who aren't really all that likeable, but are essentially human. It's much like Tobruk with Rock Hudson, and the [...] Raid On Rommel with Richard Burton (going thru the motions skillfully for the money), but with a much more sophisticated subtext of antagonism and tension between the main characters. Michael Caine and Nigel Davenport are superb. This is guy-oriented war storytelling at its dark, tough-guy best. The shocking and very sudden ending is right in line with the nihilistic--and all too realistic--Vietnam-era ethos of which this film is a part.
Stunningly Nihilistic 2008-04-09
The Dirty Dozen meet the Stiff Upper Lip. A British Petroleum executive (Michael Caine) is assigned to work with the British Army in North Africa handling port duties for incoming fuels. This gives him the official rank of Captain in the British Army. The Colonel (Nigel Green) in charge of the Dirty Dozen is told he must have a British officer accompany his men on a dangerous mission 400 miles behind the German lines and is saddled with the Petroleum executive who tries to argue his way out by saying that his contract states he is to only work port duties. That argument is lost on the Brigade Commander (Harry Andrews) who simply points out that the executive is wearing a British uniform. The real leader of the Dirty Dozen (Nigel Davenport) a released prisoner himself doesn't need or want the British officer who's supposed to be in charge but he's promised an extra 2000 British Pounds if he gets him back alive. Disguised as Italians their trek across Rommel's Africa includes meeting and battling many kinds of enemies and the plot twists at the end will keep your interest.System Requirements:Run Time: 117 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: PG UPC: 027616073914 Manufacturer No: M107391
An Excellent War Movie!! 2008-04-05
A previous reviewer has done an excellent job describing the movie's plot and characters. I would like to emphasize that Play Dirty, in my opinion, is one of the more accurate portrayals of the North African theater of operations in World War 2. I have been hooked on this movie for almost 30 years! I watch it probably 6-8 times a year and never tire of it! Michael Caine is fabulous as Captain Douglas. It is rewarding to watch as Captain Douglas learns the ropes, gains confidence and ultimately, some respect from his group. I like the ironic plot twist that has Captain Douglas group succeed when the High Command suddenly does not want them to! I rank this movie as one of my all time favorites right up there with the Desert Rats (Richard Burton)The Desert Rats and The Desert Fox (James Mason)The Desert Fox which I also very highly recommend! There is also a real good Italian film titled El Alamein that you may equally enjoy!El Alamein Two other titles came to mind after I wrote this review: Humphrey Bogart's classic Sahara Sahara and another oldie but goodie Five Graves to Cairo Five Graves to Cairo.
UK Dirty Dozen 2008-01-21
One big star, a few lesser knowns and a bunch of who are they. Compared to the Dirty Dozen, it doesn't have the star power. However, it is a pretty good yarn seen from the Brit side of WWII.
My favorite war movie 2007-12-21
I first came to love this movie as a child, watching it late at night, cropped and in black and white, on an old Zenith. I was curious to see it after 30 years, and finally resorted to getting an import copy from Japan a few months before this re-release. I'm happy to say the movie holds up wonderfully, and seeing it in the proper aspect ratio is real pleasure.
This has to be one of the most cynical war movies ever made, and those who devalue this movie as a knock-off of The Dirty Dozen overlook the way that movie still romanticizes heroism while Play Dirty will have none of it. From the opening scene of Play Dirty, where an officer's corpse is returned likely shot by the man returning it, there's no sentimentality here, no acts of stunning bravery, just a bunch of schmoes who don't even much like one another trying to stay alive. This movie presents war as a sort of lazy grand incompetence that occasionally awakens to explosion, warfare, murder, and rape. While the supporting cast of outlaws seem very B-movie (like those guys who talk in dub in a Sergio Leone western), Caine and Davenport more than make up for it. The desert photography and scenery is outstanding -- not Lawrence of Arabia pretty but rather the third enemy that threatens to sandblast them right off the screen throughout the film. Some find desert scenes slow; I find them the mesmerizing. And Play Dirty remains my favorite war film of all time. It's the only war movie I know that never lies even once.
wartime 2007-09-26
Michael Caine and all the other British character actors at their wartime best in this ironic ending thriller.
