An Under Rated War Film

Rating: 9/10 (14 April 2013)

Roger Ebert trashed this film when it came out for being too violent and containing too many stereotypes. He obviously was asleep during the film as he completely missed what Director Attenborough achieved in this excellent item of WW II history. Attenborough didn't simply tell the story of why this Allied operation failed, he explained the reasons as well. This was difficult to do on film because the root explanation concerned a state of mind that existed in the high command a that point in the war. It was state of 'insouciance'; a smug, self confidence in their own infallibility. This lead to a serious under-estimating of the enemy and an unwarranted over confidence in the plan. Attenborough portrayed this partly through the brilliant acting of Dirk Bogarde who played General Browning, one of the instruments of the failure. People, even legends like Ebert need to pay attention when they plan to review a film.