Raid on Rommel Blu-ray - Richard Burton

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

Directed by Henry Hathaway
USA 1971

From Henry Hathaway, the outstanding director of The Shepherd of the Hills, The House on 92nd Street, Kiss of Death, Rawhide, 23 Paces to Baker Street and True Grit, comes this explosive WWII action-adventure starring screen legend Richard Burton (Where Eagles Dare) as a British intelligence officer who leads a daring attack on the German shore defenses at Tobruk. Infiltrating a German POW convoy, Captain Foster (Burton) learns that the commandos he hoped to link up with have been almost completely wiped out and the prisoners belong to a British medical unit. Aided by MacKenzie (John Colicos, Phobia), one of the surviving commandos, Foster whips the ragtag band of POWs into a fighting force—only to stumble into an unexpected meeting with the infamous Desert Fox, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (Wolfgang Preiss, The Train). Co-starring Karl-Otto Alberty (Kelly's Heroes, The Great Escape).

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Captain Foster plans on raiding German-occupied Tobruk with hand- picked commandos, but a mixup leaves him with a medical unit led by a Quaker conscientious objector. Despite all odds they succeed with their mission. On the way they pick up and drug the mistress of an Italian general, blow up the entire fuel supply for the Afrika Korps, and swap philatelic gossip with Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.

Excerpt from B+N located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: February 12th, 1971

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Review: Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:38:13.888
Video	2.35:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 35,871,310,780 bytes Feature: 30,775,191,552 bytes Video Bitrate: 37.92 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	DTS-HD Master Audio English 1554 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1554 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 16-bit) Commentary: Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Subtitles	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Kino 2.35:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 35,871,310,780 bytes Feature: 30,775,191,552 bytes Video Bitrate: 37.92 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • NEW Audio commentary by Filmmaker/Historian Steve Mitchell and Combat Films: American Realism Author Steven Jay Rubin • Interview with Actor Clinton Greyn (10:06) • Theatrical Trailer (2:44) Blu-ray Release Date: August 18th, 2020 Standard Blu-ray Case Chapters 10

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (August 2020): Kino have transferred Henry Hathaway's Raid on Rommel to Blu-ray. It is on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate. The 1080P image quality is relatively weak but seems to improve in the second half of the film. It is inordinately soft in the first half, settling to be better, if unremarkable, for the rest of the film. I expect this is the source rather than digitization. It is a bit clunky in-motion and not premium BD image material.

On their Blu-ray, Kino use a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel track (16-bit) in the original English language (with some un-translated German). It has typical war effects - a nice plane strafing sequences and extensive battle in the finale - and a score by Hal Mooney (who focused more of his career on TV like Spielberg's Duel, and series like Columbo and The Six Million Dollar Man). It doesn't sounds overly dynamic. Kino offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Kino Blu-ray offers a new audio commentary by filmmaker / historian Steve Mitchell (King Cohen) and Steven Jay Rubin (author of Combat Films: American Realism). They discuss how Raid on Rommel was a Universal version of the better funded Tobruk (Rock Hudson, George Peppard) from 1967 directed by Arthur Hiller, how Raid on Rommel was initially set as a TV film with Robert Stack but Burton received a million dollars for about 3 weeks work, they talk about the matte paintings of Albert Whitlock, the arrival of Liz Taylor on the set, Burton's health and much more. Kino also include a 10-minute interview with actor Clinton Greyn (Major Tarkington in the film) reminiscing about his part in the production of Raid on Rommel. There is also a trailer and trailers for similar genre films.

Henry Hathaway's Raid on Rommel was not a success for Universal garnering poor reviews and being pulled from the theaters shortly after release. I liked it for more for Burton than as a classic war film. It's not 'poor' but can come across as a formulaic slap-dash effort. The Kino Blu-ray has the commentary giving in value. To each his own.