PLAY DIRTY

UK, 1968, 117 minutes, Colour.
Michael Caine, Nigel Davenport, Nigel Green, Harry Andrews.
Directed by Andre De Toth.

Play Dirty will not appeal to all audiences. On the surface it looks like another Dirty Dozen or Devil's Brigade, a group of criminals on a daring war exploit, although the incidents are played in a much lower key than in the other films. It is a war adventure and has its normal quota of excitement. (Some might find the soldiers' brutality towards a German nurse revolting). But the film is far more. It is an unglamorous and severe statement on the brutality and dehumanising effects of war. War is cruel, disillusioning and hardening.

Some are able to play dirty right from the start. There are the authorities who growl commands, use subordinates and grab the glory as soon as it offers. The idealists, the theorists, command, use and seek credit just the same as the authorities. And those who are hardened anyway kill and play dirty in order to survive. The film portrays them all, sometimes to the point of caricature. Even the hero, a normal officer, played by Michael Caine, after being revolted by slaughter cannot help becoming dirty.

If war, no matter how noble the cause and how real the suffering, can force men to lose their humanity and play dirty, is any war worthwhile? The ending of the film, after the group becomes the victim of dirty play by the British instead of the enemy, is an obvious but effective comment on the absolute futility of war and the stupidity of the accidents involved in it. Play Dirty is clearly a partial statement but, for mature audience, a strikingly effective one.

1. The implications of the title? Playing? The overtones of 'dirty' and 'dirty play? How was this verified in the film? Convincingly?

2. The tone set by the songs and the use of the radio daring the credits? The continued use of the songs during the film? German, English, Italian?

3. How well did the film treat the war theme? How strongly anti-war was it? Why? Which sequence best illustrated this anti-war tone?

4. The film was made in 1968. Is this going back to World War II exaggerated? Does it make an anti-war point convincingly? Is it too late now for points made against war by using World War II?

5. Masters: What kind of person was he? His unorthodox, slapdash way of doing things? His ambitions for the war? His private unit? His study of Hannibal and ancient warfare? (What satiric comment on war was being made here?) His ruthlessness about his own plans? His use of soldiers, and killing them? His use of criminals? His disregard of human life and the realities of war? The satiric contrast between his noble theorising and his callous facts?

6. Blore: As a typical English officer? His laying down the law and threatening Masters? His seeing a plan for his success? The way that he took the credit for the plan? His later changing of the plan and disregard of human life? What attitudes of soldiers and attitude towards war were being criticized here? How successfully?

7. Leech: What kind of person was he? How repellent? How callous, given his background and his behaviour during the film? A criminal, callous, keeping Douglas alive only for money? How good a judge of desert warfare was he? Was this a redeeming factor? How did he get the loyalty of the other criminals? Why was he finally loyal to Douglas? The irony of his death and bid for freedom? What comment on human nature and behaviour was nude through the character of Leech?

8. Why was the plan to blow-up the petrol dump conceived? For whose benefit was it? The irony of Captain Douglas being included, for order and to save face? Is this typical of warfare? Does the film imply this?

9. What kind of person was Douglas? Was he a hero? His work for B.P.? His army background and his loyalty to the army style? His surprise at Leech's brigade? The continual clash between the army mentality and the independence? Why was he so disgusted at what Leech did ? in killing people, in ordering people about, in unscrupulous leadership? Did the audience identify with him and see from his point of view? Why was he disgusted at the dirty play? What changed him and why did he play dirty? What kind of heroism motivated him at the end? The impact of his death?

10. The dirtiness of the operation - the fact that it was in the desert and dust, the shooting of the old Arabs, the anguish of the Germans when the truck was discovered etc.? How necessary was this dirty warfare? Could it have been avoided?

11. The other criminals - were they clearly enough presented in the film? Was it made clear why criminals were used? Are soldiers similar to criminals in some way? Did the film imply this? Were the members of the group repellent? Why? Why were they loyal to Leech?

12. The episode with the nurse? How necessary was the ambush of the Red Cross truck? How did this show that Douglas had learnt to play dirty? Was their treatment of the nurse too brutal? Why? The death of the nurse? Was it necessary?

13. Why did Douglas and Leech change their plans even though they guessed what the headquarters had done? What motivated them? Why were they so disillusioned by the cover petrol dump? What did they hope to achieve by blowing up the petrol?

14. Was the blowing up of the petrol dump too spectacular? Did it fit in with the tone of the film? Why?

15. Did you find the irony and the suddenness of the deaths of Douglas and Leech satisfactory for the film? What point was being made? Convincingly? The offhand remark of the British soldiers?

16. What were your final impressions of the film and how did the film leave you in your attitudes towards war?