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Play Dirty (1969)

Rate: 5
Viewed: 1/25

PlayDir
1/25: Shot on location in Spain as a stand-in for North Africa, Play Dirty may have been a bit ahead of its time by showing the brutality of war.

Going back and forth between '5' and '6', I ultimately decided on the former because of the slow pace and unlikeable characters save for Michael Caine's. I was hoping he would shoot some of them dead early just to make a point, but to my dismay, he never did.

Instead, I'm forced to put up with Nigel Davenport's arrogance from start to finish. Sure, his character has superior knowledge, but has he ever heard of "teamwork"? Apparently not. To his credit, he did know better in all situations except for the final time when he deferred to Caine's that cost both of their lives. I was like, "Take off the uniform first and just wait a lot longer until the fighting has died down."

The photography of the desert is quite nice. Another admirable aspect is the nitty-gritty of what the men have to go through to reach their objective. That being said, I feel some of the tough parts can be avoidable, especially when it comes to saving the tires from more wear and tear. However, the rape scene with one of the rapists being shot in the buttocks for his comeuppance isn't realistic; the filmmakers should've allowed it to happen as it's always been an ugly part of war.

After the whole mission turns out to be a dud, the guys reach a new location and figures out what to do next. But the Germans get a word from the British that there's a group of misfit commandos in the area. If they were already aware of this and knew their names, why did they let the guys still linger around with the potential of blowing up the fuel dump? That's what I don't get. Ditto for the pointless scene of sweating heavily in the middle of a bombed-out area when the only way the explosive charge will detonate if the jack is picked up.

All in all, Play Dirty is better than either The Guns of Navarone or The Heroes of Telemark by being real, but it doesn't work if I don't like the characters.