Mercenaries Play Dirty

Mercenaries Play Dirty is a 1968 film directed by André De Toth. The original title is Play Dirty; it is an English drama, adventure, and war film set in World War II. It was filmed in Spain and England, and it successfully recreated the North African desert. It was the final film of this Hungarian-born American director. It begins with a well-known German song called "Lili Marleen." The use of songs is recurrent, given that every time they tune into a radio (usually Italian or German), a song is heard. The plot revolves around a commando group that infiltrates German-controlled territory to blow up some fuel tanks. Everything is set in North Africa. Now, the catch is that the commando group is formally commanded by an English engineer, Captain Douglas (Michael Caine), while the actual command is in the hands of a criminal working for the British, Captain Leech (Nigel Davenport). The rest of the group is made up of other criminals—all mercenaries fighting for the British army in exchange for money. The English captain is more rational and measured, while the mercenary captain is more savage and rough. This tension prevails throughout the film. From what I read, the idea for the group is inspired by a real British ground unit that actually existed called the Long Range Desert Group, whose emblem was a scorpion. The film features a representation of the scorpion surrounded by fire, trying to escape while everyone present watches. Although in reality, this unit's task was to infiltrate enemy territory, its purpose was reconnaissance. The film features visual passages without dialogue; in general, the dialogue is very poor, rather classic and even rudimentary. The long periods without any communication are meant to emphasize the visuals, the landscape, or the action taking place, generating a sense of the hardship being experienced. Simple facts that must be lived through, and while in other movies they are overlooked, in this one, the emphasis is placed on them. At times, it becomes somewhat slow-paced. The general idea revolves around the notion that everything is criminal in war (and I don't think that is wrong at all), and in this way, it shows the criminal actions of the mercenary group and how the character who would be the most rational of the entire group progressively becomes corrupted and/or brutalized. At the same time, it portrays the corruption in the upper echelons of command, who give orders but do not participate in the events, participating instead in lies. Betrayal is also present. Broadly speaking, if one wants to find something good, some good or laudable attitude, you won't find it in this movie. It is a film with a critical view against commanders and hierarchies. The movie leaves behind a chain of disillusionments and doesn't stop until the very end. If you will, it can be viewed as a provocative film, and that is due to various situations presented within it. The ending can be read as presenting an anti-war idea.

Something that caught my attention and that I am unfamiliar with is the matter of the jeeps and trucks—in this case, all Italian (and/or German)—which had metal sheets full of holes on their sides forming a kind of metal mesh. What was their use? Were they really like that? Did they use them to cross bumps or ruts in the terrain? At one point, when they drive the jeep up, it seems that was their function at the end of the ravine, but I'm not sure if that's the case. They were not classic armor plating plates, since these were full of holes.