Sea of Sand

SEA OF SAND is, unsurprisingly, another North African WW2 movie. Although they made literally dozens of such productions over the years, I never get tired of them as they have such great backdrops against which to present war-time action. This one's a very typical piece from the period, filled with a kind of brisk efficiency which goes hand-in-hand with the no-nonsense British cast.

The story follows the misadventures of a team of British soldiers sent behind enemy lines to blow up a fuel depot. They end discovering a massive depot of tanks ready to strike against Allied forces and, with their radio out, they must return to their own side to spread word of their discovery. The only problem is that the Nazi forces are well aware of this, sending soldiers out in pursuit.

SEA OF SAND is an admirably tough movie. There's little room for sentiment here, just necessity of getting the job done. The ensemble cast is fine with Michael Craig and John Gregson particularly standing out and more minor parts for the likes of Richard Attenborough (surprisingly underutilised in a comic part), Barry Foster, Ray McAnally, and Percy Herbert. I was delighted to spot an uncredited Dermot Walsh playing the guy who sends the team on their mission. It's solid stuff, at times exciting, heroic, tragic, and harrowing.

A nine-man unit of the Long Range Desert Group is told off to drive deep behind German lines and make trouble. They discover the Germans are planning a major offensive and must get the information back to British command. The problem is that the Germans don't want them to.

The LRDG was a British unit founded by Major Ralph Bagnold in Cairo in 1940. It was intended to carry out patrols, reconnaiscence and raids behind Italian lines. It never numbered than about 350 men. Mostly drawn from New Zealanders, with a few Southern Rhodesian and British soldiers, it was disbanded in 1945. Many of its techniques have been used by elite military groups ever since.

With a capable cast, including Richard Attenborough, John Gregson, and Michael Craig, this turns into one of those films in which men heroically sacrifice themselves for the unit, interspersed with them talking about their civilian live to give them some individuality.

This movie seemed to be played a lot on late night CBC film when I was growing up. I watched it about 3 times as a lad and then found it in Japanese video store (Japanese have some of the best selections of old Western movies). It did not disappoint after all those years. It still carried a very hard thrill and had suspense in spades.

The story revolves around one of the first Long Range Desert Reconnaissance (LRDG) groups to attempt a trip to travel hundreds of miles behind German lines in North Africa and blow up a crucial petrol dump. In reality most LRDG groups were really sent out to gather intel, but that does not stop the believability of this story of daring Brits putting up the grit and getting whittled down, one lorry after another by relentless Germans pursuit.

They loose their lorries one by one... to the desert and to enemy action. Petrol and water run down as the suspense ramps up. Towards the end they are on foot in the desert as the last lorry runs out of water -- holed by a Jerry bullet in a previous firefight. With time running out and the Germans closing, they cannot carry their wounded... the wounded soldier insists on being left behind and the scene is powerful: after their good-byes the lone wounded soldier is set up under a camouflage tarp with a heavy machine gun and the rest of the water (left as a parting token of appreciation for his expected sacrifice). He dies hard, but gains the group time whilst they make their way across the desert in a last attempt to make British Lines.

Attenborough is young, and cocky. This is before he got into directing. There is fine mid-50s British talent here and the smattering of the regional accents, West Country, inners London, Lancashire, Upper-class, and one lone Australian, is very refreshing and very reminiscent of the British army that went to war in WWII.

I love this movie. Maybe it is because of the effect it had on me as a kid... I do not know. But you shall not be disappointed. You may also learn more about British Special Operations since they were the people who invented it in its modern sense.

Enjoy.

Recently saw this on TV. I tuned in on a whim and was delighted I did. It features a really good line up of mid 50's talent and some lustrous black and white photography. It seemed to me a forerunner of the later "mission" movies which became the norm for WW2 films in the following decade.

There were a couple of hard hitting -for the time- action sequences, which were crisply filmed and edited. There was a smattering of officers v men tension, mostly supplied by Attenborough in his cheeky chappy guise. And a fantastic sequence of a lone British soldier waiting by his machine gun for German half-tracks to appear over the crest of the dunes.

My only slight problem with the film is the heroic display by one of the officers towards the end. It felt like a throwback to earlier, more genteel values, not in keeping with the tone of the rest of the piece. Apart from that, well worth a look. Would make an good double bill with De Toth's later Play Dirty.

Sea of Sand ( Desert Patrol ) is seldom mentioned in the context of great British war movies but deserves to be since it is an underrated and well acted example of the genre ( and, incidentally, one of my favourite films ). The movie at one and the same time, conforms to the familiar aspects of the genre but also manages to put a 'spin' on them since the subject matter - the experiences of the volunteer Long-Range Desert Squadron who operated independently far behind enemy lines - allows for characters who are more than familiar war-movie stereotypes.

The cast are uniformally excellent, especially veteran character player Percy Herbert whose death scene is extremely moving. Clashes of class, rank and experience are familiar elements from other films of the genre but are here rendered a little more interesting and unpredictable. Director Guy Green never made his mark but on the evidence of Sea of Sand had plenty of talent and was good at getting the most out of his actors. Simple heroics are eschewed - though heroism is at the core of the film's denouement and anyone who derives pleasure from seeing British acting staples like Michael Craig, John Gregson, Richard Attenborough and Percy Herbert have a treat in store.