The Desert Fox (1951)
James Mason stars as Rommel in Henry Hathaway's biopic about Rommel's fall from grace. Starting with the battle of El Alamein we are shown how Rommel goes from being Hitler's favourite general to being given the option of suicide or execution for treason in 1944.
As a film this is not the greatest entertainment you will get from a war biopic, most of the story might as well have been staged as a play as there is little action and mostly revolves around conversations between Rommel and various other people. What action sequences that are included are largely recycled news footage from WW2.
When it comes to the historical content of the film I have a few major issues. To start with you have to be aware of the propaganda machine surrounding Rommel, his adversaries talked him up to promote their victories against him or mitigate for defeats against him and with the coming cold war and eventual rearmament of West Germany it was necessary to find decent role models for the new army. While Rommel was not a war criminal like many of his peers the film does not focus on the fact that he was happy to ride on the coat tails of the Nazis when things were going well and only in the face of impending defeat dallied over taking any meaningful stance against them.
2/5 weak in history and entertainment.
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