Bitter Victory (DVD)

Legendary rebel director, Nicholas Ray, has given us one of the most powerful anti-war films yet made.

Curd Jurgens is on our side for a change in this one, getting around his obvious German accent by playing a South African major, David Brand. He and Captain Jimmy Leith (top-billed Richard Burton) are hand-picked to lead a commando raid behind enemy lines in Benghazi, and ordered to bring back certain vital German war documents. There is obvious animosity between the two men – though unbeknown to Brand, Leith had had an affair with Brand’s wife, Jane (Ruth Roman) prior to the outbreak of World War II.

The story is cleverly told, in that while we (the audience) can understand why the men of the platoon dislike Brand yet almost idolise Leith: we have also get to see the other side of the two men’s characters…and know that things are not always quite what they seem. Sure, the major makes mistakes…but is he reallythe bad guy of the piece?

The final scene is perfect, and fully in keeping with the movie’s title.

To me, this one is a mini-masterpiece!

World War II drama starring Richard Burton and Curt Jurgens as Captain Leith and Major Brand, a pair of British Army officers assigned to execute a daring commando raid on the Libyan stronghold of General Rommel. Even before the mission begins, the tension between the two is evident. This is further exacerbated when Brand learns that Leith and his wife (Ruth Roman) were once romantically involved. Once the operations is underway, Leith must save the day when Brand's cowardice is revealed, thus putting the mission and the lives of the men in jeopardy.

General

Studio:	Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment
Release date:	June 2007
Movie released:	1957
Actors:	Richard Burton • Curd Jürgens • Ruth Roman • Raymond Pellegrin • Anthony Bushell • Alfred Burke • Ramon de Larrocha • Christopher Lee • Ronan O'Casey
Contributors:	Paul Graetz • René Hardy • Gavin Lambert • Nicholas Ray • Maurice Le Roux
Directors:	Nicholas Ray
Dimensions:	192 x 137 x 15mm (L x W x T)
Format:
Running time:	1 hour, 37 minutes
Region encoding:	Region 2. This DVD will play in all South African DVD players.
Audio format:	Dolby Digital Mono
Video format:	Widescreen 2.35:1
Languages:	English
Subtitles:	Arabic • Dutch • English • Greek • Hindi • Portuguese
Age restriction:	PG
Categories:	DVD > Classics DVD > War DVD > Feature Film
LSN:	XM7-2EV-YLE-1
Barcode:	5035822307735

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

• Interactive Menus
• Enhanced WS tv

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!