Highly talkative and somewhat inaccurate movie about the life and times of German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, James Mason, the commander of the legendary WWII Afrika Corps.
Completely passing over General Rommels achievements in France and North Africa we first get to see Field Marshal Rommel during the battle of El Alamein in October 1942. Where the British launched their great offensive against the German/Italian troop that within seven months, in May 1943, cleared the continent of Africa of a Nazi military presence with the surrender of some 300,000 axis soldiers.
We never get to see in "The Desert Fox" Rommels brilliant victories in the battle of France in the spring of 1940 and his successful hit and run attacks on the much larger British Army as well as his breakthrough, in the late spring of 1942, of the British lines: Rommels brilliant encirclement and capture of Tobruk, a town that held out for 242 days against the Afrika Corps the year before, taking 35,000 British troops captive at the cost of under 500 German and Italian casualties. The movie instead concentrates on Rommels involvement, or non-involvement,in the plot to kill the German Fhurer Adolf Hitler, Luther Adler.
Recovering from wounds that he suffered when his command car was strafed by the RAF Rommel is later contacted at his home by German generals Burgorf & Maisel,Everett Sloane & Do Dee Leo,and given an ultimatum to either commit suicide and die a hero or stand trial for treason.
Even though the movie tries very hard to paint Rommel as a reluctant but major player in the Generals plot to assassinate Hitler history proves otherwise showing Field Marshall Rommel as a loyal German soldier who followed the orders from his Fhurer almost without question. Rommel did have doubts about Hitler's military strategy but he let him know about it to Hitler's great displeasure. Rommells' low opinion of Hitler's ability to wage war was in no way comparable to actively trying to have him killed like what happened on July 20, 1944 in Hitler's military bunker, the Wolf's liar, in the East Prussian woods.
Very effective portrayal by James Mason as Field Marshall Erwin Rommel who was as chivalrous to his enemies in defeat as he was courageous against them in battle which may be why the film makers tried to make him out as one of the major conspirators against Hitler's leadership to the point of having him killed. The true facts about Field Marshal Erwin Rommel that's come out and surfaced since the end of WWII doesn't back up their conclusions at all, in fact Rommel considered the killing of the German leader an act of high treason.
The main reason for Rommel's death, by his own hand,had to do more with him not reporting those who wanted to recruit him into the plot to kill Hitler, which it seemed that he quite didn't fully grasp, then anything else. The fact that he didn't want to turn them over, those who approached him with the assassination plot, to the Nazi authorities and thus the dreaded Gestapo was his knowing that it would mean instant death for them and he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he did.
Completely passing over General Rommels achievements in France and North Africa we first get to see Field Marshal Rommel during the battle of El Alamein in October 1942. Where the British launched their great offensive against the German/Italian troop that within seven months, in May 1943, cleared the continent of Africa of a Nazi military presence with the surrender of some 300,000 axis soldiers.
We never get to see in "The Desert Fox" Rommels brilliant victories in the battle of France in the spring of 1940 and his successful hit and run attacks on the much larger British Army as well as his breakthrough, in the late spring of 1942, of the British lines: Rommels brilliant encirclement and capture of Tobruk, a town that held out for 242 days against the Afrika Corps the year before, taking 35,000 British troops captive at the cost of under 500 German and Italian casualties. The movie instead concentrates on Rommels involvement, or non-involvement,in the plot to kill the German Fhurer Adolf Hitler, Luther Adler.
Recovering from wounds that he suffered when his command car was strafed by the RAF Rommel is later contacted at his home by German generals Burgorf & Maisel,Everett Sloane & Do Dee Leo,and given an ultimatum to either commit suicide and die a hero or stand trial for treason.
Even though the movie tries very hard to paint Rommel as a reluctant but major player in the Generals plot to assassinate Hitler history proves otherwise showing Field Marshall Rommel as a loyal German soldier who followed the orders from his Fhurer almost without question. Rommel did have doubts about Hitler's military strategy but he let him know about it to Hitler's great displeasure. Rommells' low opinion of Hitler's ability to wage war was in no way comparable to actively trying to have him killed like what happened on July 20, 1944 in Hitler's military bunker, the Wolf's liar, in the East Prussian woods.
Very effective portrayal by James Mason as Field Marshall Erwin Rommel who was as chivalrous to his enemies in defeat as he was courageous against them in battle which may be why the film makers tried to make him out as one of the major conspirators against Hitler's leadership to the point of having him killed. The true facts about Field Marshal Erwin Rommel that's come out and surfaced since the end of WWII doesn't back up their conclusions at all, in fact Rommel considered the killing of the German leader an act of high treason.
The main reason for Rommel's death, by his own hand,had to do more with him not reporting those who wanted to recruit him into the plot to kill Hitler, which it seemed that he quite didn't fully grasp, then anything else. The fact that he didn't want to turn them over, those who approached him with the assassination plot, to the Nazi authorities and thus the dreaded Gestapo was his knowing that it would mean instant death for them and he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he did.