Rent 1941: The Battle of Tobruk (2008)

Overlong + flabby, this TV movie is a curio piece with Czechs/Poles fighting in north Africa in WWII - 1941: The Battle of Tobruk review by PV

This is a curio piece - made for Czech TV and, to be honest, too padded out and flabby to stretch even to 90 minutes. Would have been better as a one hour (if that) TV drama,.

I have to admit I did not know Czechs and Poles were in north Africa fighting with the Allies in WWII; I did know many Italians were there (the Brits too 300,000 prisoner, and half could not write their names and many did not even have guns) and Italians also fought with the Nazis on the Eastern Front against Russia and a handful even flew planes in the 1940 Battle of Britain - for the Nazis. As many Czechs and Poles flew planes in that battle for the Brits!

Oddly this film is based on Stephen Crane;s late 19th C novel the Red Badge of Courage all about the US Civil War - the theme of courage and redemption come from there.

I liked the non-pc barrack humours etc - no Brit/US film made these days would do that or have an all white all male cats either (one woman is in this, that is it, and she to provide, ahem, 'services'.

An interesting curiosity piece. 2 stars for the film really but 3 stars for highlighting a little known event in WWII history. Maybe watch it with classic 1940s/50s films about Tobruk or the north Africa campaign - the filme Rommel The Desert Fox with James Mason is a classic. As is Ice Cold in Alex.