verbusen I got this as part of Millcreek's 50 Combat Classics for under 20.00 at Amazon. It has some decent movies on it and is worth the purchase. My experience with Italian war movies are that most made in the 60's (well just about all) are comic book with the exception of the one about the Naples uprising and the one about the Battle Of El Alemain, both are good for a couple of viewings before you see some pretty bad flaws with the acting. I had low aspirations for Commandos but the print on this public domain set was so good, and Lee Van Cleef is so warped that I started to get into it and was ready to give this a 8 star review. Then something happened, actually that was incorrect, nothing happened. You can pretty much skip the middle 1/3 and not miss anything, I wish I had. Its a shame too because this film print is really decent and a really wide format wide screen, plus you've got two actors you will recognize, Van Cleef and the German guy who flew the fighter plane over Omaha beach in The Longest Day movie (among other recognizable roles he has played to American audiences). Production values are really decent here, the problem is the script, its pretty bad. The story curiously enough was written by someone with a Jewish sounding name, I find that curious since it's a joint Italian/German production and clearly puts both of their armies in a good light were as the Americans kind of stink. 5 of 10 only for hard core war film buffs. Go in with very low expectations and you will be happy.

legwarmers1980 I don't know what film the people here saw. This is not a Dirty Dozen or even a Play Dirty. This is a cheaply made, horribly acted, horribly scripted, boring piece of junk. It's not even worth a dollar. They should pay someone to sit through this garbage heap.Jack Kelly looks really embarrassed to be in this film. I really can't fault his terrible acting job because the script was written for 5 year olds. And Lee Van Cleaf is just as bad. He is totally wooden, listless, and sweats the whole film. He utters such stupid lines as, "This ain't a Halloween Party". Even the woman in this film is hard to look at and has nothing what so ever to do with the plot. The action scene at the end is at least passable, but aside from that, I'd rather cough up 3 bucks and rent the Dirty Dozen.

graeylin I too picked up Commandos in the budget bin. The movie itself was decent...acting a bit over the top from some of the players, the plot very predictable, and the ending a bit smarmy, intent on teaching us a nice lesson about the horrors of war.The worst part of the film were the technical details. The US Army dropping paratrooper commandos behind enemy lines prior to Operation Torch (factual error... US Airborne troops were no where near ready for a raid prior to Torch). The obvious use of the 1944 M3 Grease Gun as the weapon of choice for the commandos, a weapon which didn't even see North Africa, let alone North Africa in 1942, the year before it made it to Army usage.One can forgive the use of US Chaffee and Walker Bulldog tanks repainted in German Afrika Tan (after all, Patton did too), but too many errors upon errors crept into the movie to make it truly enjoyable. For 99 cents and a Saturday afternoon, it will serve. As a great movie, it falls far short.

Kat Miss Who would of thought that a low budget Italian/U.S. war drama with no big stars would be one of the best films of 1968? Certainly not me. I saw "Commandos" on the budget video shelf in a closeout store. The price was right ($.99) and it said "Letterboxed Edition" on it. So I figured, it's less than the price of a rental, so why not?What surprised me is what an exciting and thoughtful film this was. In an era of glamourized war films (The syrupy "McConnell Story" and ludricous "Sands of Iwo Jima" come to mind), a gritty film like "Commandos" is a real pleasure indeed.It stars Lee Van Cleef, who you may remember from "A Few Dollars More" and "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly." He was sort of the Harvey Keitel of that time, an actor who took risks and made unconventional films for the time. This is one of his very best performances. How many actors other than Lee Marvin would take such a risky role? He is heroic, but not by choice.The plot is not really important. It's your standard search and decease mission film that's been used many times before and after. What makes "Commandos" special is its' focus on two things: mind boggling action sequences and characterizations.I would like to make everyone aware that for a budget video copy, the video transfer is excellent. The colors are vibrant, the sound is exceptional and the full CinemaScope image (2.35:1)is very revealing in its' compositions. Front Row Entertainment has made this one in a series of films that include "Zulu", the two Chinese made Bruce Lee films "Fists of Fury" and "The Chinese Connection" and the Jackie Chan epic "Drunken Master" ("Legend of Drunken Master" is the sequel)that get the full letterbox treatment. Congratulations are in order and I hope I see more in the series."Commandos" is one of those films that either grab you or they don't. It grabbed me. It was not destined to receive any Oscar nods, but since when does Hollywood ever honor a truly deserving film. Look at this year's winner, "Gladiator". I rest my case.**** out of 4 stars