IMDb RATING
6.7/10
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During World War II a group of British commandos in North Africa disguised as Italian soldiers must travel behind enemy lines and destroy a vital German oil depot.During World War II a group of British commandos in North Africa disguised as Italian soldiers must travel behind enemy lines and destroy a vital German oil depot.During World War II a group of British commandos in North Africa disguised as Italian soldiers must travel behind enemy lines and destroy a vital German oil depot.
Enrique Ávila
- Kalarides
- (as Enrique Avila)
Takis Emmanuel
- Kostos Manov
- (as Takis Emmanouel)
Anthony Stamboulieh
- Barman in Arab Bar
- (as Tony Stamboulieh)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaSole writing credit of Lotte Colin, mother-in-law of producer Harry Saltzman. When she was younger she had wanted to be a screenwriter, so director André De Toth gallantly ceded his writing credit to her. Six weeks later she died from a brain tumor, but enjoyed her brief notoriety.
- GoofsCaptain Douglas is described as on loan from British Petroleum. During World War II the company was known as the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC). The company was re-named British Petroleum in 1954.
- Quotes
Capt. Douglas: ...How did the other English officers die?
Capt. Cyril Leech: Unexpectedly.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Once Upon a Body (1969)
- SoundtracksLili Marlene
German Lyrics by Hans Leip
English Lyrics by The Personnel of the Long Range Desert Group and the Special Air Services
Music by Norbert Schultze
Featured review
Spare, brutal, grinding war movie in the blowing sands....
Play Dirty (1969)
You almost have to see this anarchic, nasty, selfish, brutal WWII movie as a comment on Vietnam, and on war. It's 1969. At first you think Michael Caine, for all his talent, is miscast, but the odd displacement of his character among a lot of very hardened, serious men is part of what works.
This is not like any WWII you've seen. It's an odd mixture of hardship, tedium, humor, and straight up masculine grit. It's set in the Sahara, so dunes and sand and dry nasty weather rules. There is a mission at hand, and these men have to be unorthodox and ruthless to succeed. But there are long stretches of just traveling and conquering the desert, of going day after day through storms and lack of storms. There is also fighting amongst the men, a somewhat horrifying (and unnecessary) attempted rape, some bloody carnage of natives, and of Germans, a long twenty minutes of Fitzcarraldo heroics with some cables, and so on.
But in the end, it really does capture something essential of war, including the nonsense of some of it, and the lack of rules, and the lack of personal safety that comes from chaos, and the difficulty of companionship and trust.
You almost have to see this anarchic, nasty, selfish, brutal WWII movie as a comment on Vietnam, and on war. It's 1969. At first you think Michael Caine, for all his talent, is miscast, but the odd displacement of his character among a lot of very hardened, serious men is part of what works.
This is not like any WWII you've seen. It's an odd mixture of hardship, tedium, humor, and straight up masculine grit. It's set in the Sahara, so dunes and sand and dry nasty weather rules. There is a mission at hand, and these men have to be unorthodox and ruthless to succeed. But there are long stretches of just traveling and conquering the desert, of going day after day through storms and lack of storms. There is also fighting amongst the men, a somewhat horrifying (and unnecessary) attempted rape, some bloody carnage of natives, and of Germans, a long twenty minutes of Fitzcarraldo heroics with some cables, and so on.
But in the end, it really does capture something essential of war, including the nonsense of some of it, and the lack of rules, and the lack of personal safety that comes from chaos, and the difficulty of companionship and trust.
helpful•201
- secondtake
- Oct 30, 2010
- How long is Play Dirty?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Runtime1 hour 58 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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