i bought this movie on a DVD with two sides with this as the main movie and "five for hell" as the flipside for less than a dollar! for some reason i only played the five for hell side and never got around to watching commandos until today. the movie starts out of nowhere, kinda like they cut out the beginning, like other instances of scene clipping threwout this movie, and like I've seen on many of these older movies i get for less than a dollar. for this jarring start to the movie one would suspect the film to be "el cheap-o", but one look at the mean ass sgt. sullivan and you can tell this film has some pretty good potential to be good. then the opening credits roll and that old school, Italian movie masterpiece symphony music comes on and grips any real hard core war flick fan by the nads! setting pace for a grim, gritty, and surprisingly realistic look into covert operations from a time in warfare one doesn't see too much about in film. there are also several instances of revelation of emotional toll and distress threwout this film. flashbacks and dissent abound, the film at times takes on a hallucinogenic, psychedelic frame of mind stance, and can leave one deep in thought about the effects of war on a mans soul. though the mission the "commandos" are on may seem to be absolutely impossible, for some reason this film makes it all seam possible and looks rather realistic, especially for its 1968 release. and anybody who is a fan of tanks and tank crews in film, such as "the beast", will love the presence of the Germans in their panzer units, riding and fighting threw the desserts of Africa. in my opinion commandos is very much a classic, too bad i cant say the same for "five for hell!"
Review of Commandos
