Tobruk

Well, well, who would have guessed? Until today, I wouldn’t have expected that we Czechs, without help from other nations, could make a war film that fears nothing and tries to depict war as faithfully as possible, where it's not just about the fighting. Václav Marhoul spent several years working on this film, and the result was worth it. With a budget of $4 million, you can’t expect a massive spectacle, but the effects surprised me because this is not some cheap farce, but the real work of professionals (the scene with the mortar shell explosion was impressive, but also chillingly realistic). I thoroughly enjoyed the perfect cinematography, where several-minute shots, whether of the landscape or the trenches with soldiers, had an almost artistic quality. Most of the actors I know from Czech TV series, but you can tell that when it comes to a serious film, they somehow manage to switch gears, and the result is worth it. I mustn’t forget the atmospheric music, where it was immediately clear that no Czech could have composed it like that. The ending was quite emotional. A realistic spectacle that grabs you and doesn’t let go. I devoured every minute. It suffers from a few cosmetic flaws, but within the Czech Republic, this is the best product. I give it 82%. (11/08/2017)

Movies age and some genres age faster. This is also the case with war movies, where older classics and films that were once groundbreaking now unintentionally seem funny with their naivety, pathos, and outdated techniques that do not correspond to the historical reality. Tobruk leaves these starry films far behind because Marhoul is a long-time fan of war history and the whole world of the military, and he made great efforts to make his film look credible from this perspective. Unfortunately, the film has two levels. The first one shows exceptional care and effort to make an extraordinary film and pay tribute to Czechoslovak soldiers in North Africa. However, this level clashes with the second one represented by limited directorial experience and abilities, together with a limited budget. Grand war blockbusters are the domain of Hollywood cinema, and if a European producer wants to make one, they must resort to multiple co-productions. You can try to disguise this, but the low budget will inevitably show. Unless you want to make an intimate film about a local war episode with a group of soldiers. However, the main drawback of the film lies in the screenplay, which lacks a strong story because it is episodically fragmented. Additionally, the characters are not fully developed, only hinted at or at best outlined, so the viewer cannot fully identify with them or, adversely, fully hate them. Marhoul simply does not know how to work with the audience's emotions. Compare Tobruk with Death is Called Engelchen (note the difference in the prisoner's execution in this film and Tobruk) or with Riders in the Sky. However, Tobruk is obviously an ambitious film that was supposed to make a mark at a festival, and in the end, it even won a few Czech Lion awards. It is in such films that you can see the provinciality of contemporary Czech cinema. The bottom looks the same everywhere, but you can recognize the quality of each national cinema by the films that strive to be at the top. With all due respect to Tobruk, this is just an average film, although a better average. Overall impression: 60%. (22/04/2012)

It’s as if a war correspondent visited these regular Czechoslovak guys in Tobruk and reported a couple of really interesting fragments of their day-to-day “boredom in the desert" on the evening news, setting off again on his dusty way afterward. It certainly isn’t a war story with cliché upon cliché, where they read out love letters like at a poetry club meeting, where they also make July 4th style stirring speeches. In this movie, we get a lot of silence and gazing into the distance over the stony desert. But this logically results in the problem of fragmentation and total lack of story. On the other hand, it works excellently on a completely other level. On an intimate, internal level - call it what you want. But the main thing is that it works. And it could have ended up looking much cheaper, despite the passable visuals and fantastic sound. But that wouldn’t have changed anything on the quality of Tobruk. P.S.: It’s funny that one of the sponsors of this movie was the Czech forestry corporation, when this movie takes place in sand dune surroundings. (12/09/2008)

A Czech war film. It’s not something completely unbelievable, but there haven’t been many Czech war films in recent years. We’re more of a nation that focuses on the lives of ordinary people during war rather than on the lives of soldiers. Our filmography isn’t characterized by an abundance of action films. Tobruk is another film that, after Dark Blue World, directly addresses the war at the front. We are taken to North Africa, specifically Libya, near the city of Tobruk. We follow a Czech unit trying to live and ultimately fight in less than favorable conditions. Although it’s a war film, the action aspect—like often in our case—doesn’t take center stage. The relationships between the soldiers are what’s important, and how these relationships change throughout the battles and waiting. At times, it resembles a less harsh Full Metal Jacket, and at other times, Saving Private Ryan in the desert. The characters are fairly well-developed, and in the end, it’s the relationships between the soldiers that make the film at least somewhat unique. Some relationships are interesting, some less so, but there isn’t much else that keeps the film afloat. The environment affects the characters, but it doesn’t have that much of an impact on the film itself. As a war film, it simply feels a bit small, almost intimate. I don’t want to say it’s a bad film, but given how much it has been discussed, I would expect the film to be a bit… bigger. (04/03/2013)

I understand why Tobruk was filmed and who it is mainly for. What I don't understand anymore is how. I don't mean the formal aspect, which fits the "European film" label like a glove, unlike films such as Bathory, which cost 3 times more and still looks like a TV movie. Why the hell didn't Marhoul have someone more skilled write the script. Why isn't the film twenty minutes longer and why can’t we learn more about the characters? Where do the two rookies find the breakthrough in their behavior? Why isn't the swearing English medic looking for the two people missing from the transport? And I have so many more questions. When the Czechs finally make something that looks worldly, it’s also filled with a pile of amateur mistakes just to tell the story as fast as possible. It deserves a slap to the face. (27/05/2009)