Book Review: Broadsword Calling Danny Boy, Geoff Dyer

Geoff Dyer uses the same (admittedly very obvious) choice of title for his book as I used for my Amazon UK book review of the classic 1969 WWII epic, Where Eagles Dare. This fun little Penguin paperback, published ahead of the films 50th anniversary, essentially embeds a pretty thorough plot synopsis into a more wide-ranging socio-cultural ramble. 

This little book is totally up my boulevard: a relaxed multifaceted review-cum-synopsis of a 'classic' WWII blockbuster. I suppose I'm almost bound to like this, as I write similar-ish if much shorter reviews here. I originally gave the film itself just four stars, because, whilst I do actually love it, there's a lot to be critical of as well. If you're interested, my review of the movie is here.

Festung Hohenwerfen became Schloss Adler for the film. 

Eastwood on his Triumph, during filming.

If I was being harsh I'd give this semicentennial, or golden jubilee 'celebration' of the film just three balkenkreuz. It's very flippant, and slightly self-consciously pleased with itself, in terms of wittiness and cross-cultural cleverness. But, as Dyer makes clear when he quotes Clive James on the subject of film itself, it really is, like the film, damn good fun. Especially if you already know and love the subject. Which I suspect the target market for this will do.

References to childhood viewings, Action Man dolls and their outfits, Airfix kits, and other books and movies, often of similar vintage or subjects, but sometimes casting the net wider (as an art and art history bod, finding a book such as this referencing Anselm Kiefer's art, and mentioning auteur Tarkovsky with great reverence, was refreshingly unexpected) is very soothing and gratifying. So much contemporary cultural production alienates me. It's nice to find something that does the reverse, and resonates or chimes with my own interests.

Der frauleins mit der goodies...

... unt ze baddies.

The only reason I'm giving my copy of this book four and a half balkenkreuz, and not five, is that my free Amazon Vine review copy is a proof edition. Perhaps the real thing will, as well correcting some editorial mistakes and having a nicer cover, also have some pictures? In a book about a film, that'd be a bonus! As already mentioned at the top of this review, the book basically tells the story of what occurs onscreen. And does so pretty comprehensively, and with plenty of wit, and many a cross cultural reference. If you like this sort of punditry - sometimes I do, sometimes I don't - you should like this. 

One Amazon UK reviewer claims this book adds nothing to the enjoyment of the film (but they don't like the film to start with!). I disagree. The book explores, albeit briefly and lightheartedly, a much broader set of ideas that the film triggers, from the ahistorical anomalies - such as Eastwood's post-Elvis hairdo, or the postwar American helicopter [1] - to the sexual under/over-tones, and the mythology and romance that the massive post-WWII film industry (and other mythmakers, such as former SOE agents turned historians) have propagated.

An old poster for the movie.

And this one's a stunner; vertiginous and explosive, like the film.

A short easy read. I read my copy in two relaxed Sunday sittings, the day it arrived. And, dammit, in the time it's taken to finish this review, I've decided that both book and film are going to get five stars, because, frankly - and for all that's wrong with either - I love 'em!

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NOTES: 

[1] The Germans did actually have a few helicopters by the end of the war. Just not any postwar American ones.

The twin peaks of Ingrid Pitt. [2]

Book me a chalet, right away...

[2] Pitt survived three years in a Polish concentration camp, during WWII.

Film Review: The Desert Rats, 1953

An older poster for the movie.

My DVD has this father more sober cover.

Released just two years after The Desert Fox, The Desert Rats, despite seeing James Mason reprising his role as Rommel, and despite also featuring stock newsreel footage of actual combat, is an entirely different kettle of fish. 

This movie actually stays in the sandy wastes of North Africa. Well, sort of. Tobruk and environs mainly, actually! And it's a lot more of your typical action-based war film as well, whereas Rommel was more a character study.

A sandstorm arrives, reducing visibility. Just before the Germans attack.

Burton's MacRoberts in dashing action-hero mode.

Richard Burton stars as a British Captain named MacRoberts, given charge of a bunch of 'green' Aussies, freshly arrived in the theatre of operations. Which means, essentially, Tobruk, and the defence thereof. MacRoberts is a tough nut, twice decorated; a no nonsense, down to business kind of fellow.

At his first meeting with his new charges he discovers among them an old schoolteacher of his, Tom Bartlett (Robert Newton), now a drunkard. Their troubled but nonetheless close relationship is one of the key ones in the film. Eager for action, he sees that the men are soon blooded, along the way commending actions he approves of, and punishing those he doesn't. 

Some of his troops like him, some don't. His decision to court-martial a soldier who attempts to save their own Captain isn't popular. His old schoolmaster remonstrates with him, revealing a hitherto secret instance of his own leniency towards MacRoberts, back at school. How will MacRoberts react?

Bartlett, most likely confessing his cowardliness to 'Tammy' MacRoberts.

The film has an excellent cast, and a good energetic action-filled pace. It's filmed in a suitably sandy and dusty location, and - apart from obsessive military history nuts like us, who notice and disapprove of Allied materiél being passed off as German [1] - it all feels just about right. Even the sock footage is better integrated (though still easily discernible) than it is in The Desert Fox, largely because a lot less is used.

After initial success in repelling Rommel's first major attack, the remainder of the action centres mostly around two particular events, as well as following a more general plot trajectory that includes other minor actions. The first of these more major actions is a Commando style raid behind enemy lines. The second is the defence of a strategically important forward outpost east of Tobruk. Both of these main scenarios, the first being the big central set-piece of the film, the second a kind of conclusion, are excellently handled, such that you really feel involved in the men's plight.

Disembarking for the commando action. The funky looking italian trucks are actually American!

I do like Burton's jacket, especially those great big woolly collars!

Mason's reprise as Rommel is quite a scanty affair, amounting really to a few cameos. But he has such presence and charisma when he is onscreen, just as, if we are to believe the popular tales, Rommel also possessed, that this doesn't matter. [2] And so too does Burton. Their paths inevitably cross, the scenario in which this happens being a rather excellent and intriguing one that I won't spoil for those who haven't seen it.

I haven't looked into whether this is in any way based in real events as yet. But, regardless of whether it is or it isn't, it's certainly a cracking good war film. In terms of sheer balls out fun, it's, er... the nuts!

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NOTES:

[1] Donning my anorak: if I'm not mistaken the Desert Rats were a British fighting force, whereas these guys are the Australian 9th Division.

[2] There are two, no, make that three, notable differences in Rommel's appearances in this film: first, he's hardly in it; second, in most his scenes (and German scenes generally) the characters, including Rommel, speak German (and my disc appears to have no subtitles); thirdly, in the main he's not portrayed so sympathetically as he is in Desert Fox.