Ulrich Tukur

Benjamin Sadler

Aglaia Szyszkowitz

Thomas Thieme

Hanns Zischler

Tim Bergmann

Vicky Krieps

Johannes Silberschneider

Robert Schupp

Maximilian von Pufendorf

Oliver Nägele

Hubertus Hartmann

Klaus J. Behrendt

Hary Prinz

Harry Blank

Michael Kranz

Patrick Mölleken

Rolf Kanies

Peter Kremer

Ralf Dittrich

Thomas Limpinsel

Karl Knaup

Joe Bausch

Herbert Forthuber

Vlasto Peyitch

Niki Stein

Arthur W. Ahrweiler

Jacki Engelken

Ulrik Spies

Nico Hofmann

Ariane Krampe

Jürgen Schuster

Sascha Schwingel

Corina Dietz

Action

History

Drama

Rommel

teamWorx

Austria

France

Germany

_**Dialogue-driven account of Rommel’s last seven months in northern France**_

After being promoted to field marshal and being nicknamed the “Desert Fox” in North Africa, Erwin Rommel (Ulrich Tukur) is put in command of the German forces in northern France to defend against the imminent Allied invasion. Meanwhile there’s a plot to assassinate Hitler and negotiate with the Allies since the writing was on the wall. What did Rommel know and not know about this intrigue? Benjamin Sadler (Gen. Speidel), Tim Bergmann (Hofacker) and Johannes Silberschneider (Hitler) are on hand. 

A German/French/Austrian production, "Rommel" (2012) focuses on the behind-the-scenes events of the German high command mixed with occasional real-life B&W footage. It’s a war drama rather than action flick and is a nice counterbalance to “Saving Private Ryan” (1997), which shows the Allied invasion, and “Valkyrie” (2008), which details Colonel von Stauffenberg’s modified Operation Valkyrie to seize control of Germany from the Nazis. The events shown in “Fury” (2014) occur several months later.   

While made-for-TV, this is a top-notch production in the same league as “The Longest Day” (1962) and “The Young Lions” (1958), albeit in living color and without the action. It boggles the mind to consider how the filmmakers were able to keep all the details in order to produce such an engaging war drama. I should add that the bulk of the dialogue is in German (or French), so you’ll have to use the subtitles if you don’t know those languages. 

The film runs 1 hour, 58 minutes, and was shot in France (La Roche Guyon & Audinghen, Pas-de-Calais) and Germany.

GRADE: B+

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