History Film / TheDesertFox

''The Desert Fox'' is a 1951 FilmOfTheBook (''The Desert Fox'') starring Creator/JamesMason as Field Marshal UsefulNotes/ErwinRommel. These codified the 'Rommel myth' of the late German officer as an 'honourable martial genius' in the Anglosphere.

The film shows the downfall of his career between fall 1942 and October 1944, from the Second Battle of El Alamein to his involvement in the July 20 Plot, resulting in his suicide. Typically for an English-language film released just six years after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the film is incredibly sympathetic to Rommel and other German officers - portraying them all as non-Nazi or even ''[[RefugeInAudacity anti-Nazi]]'' professionals who are ''only'' [[MyCountryRightOrWrong serving the Nazis because they love and want to defend their country from Communism]]. The truth was a lot more complex than this.

** "The Desert Fox" is portrayed as a martial genius without much nuance given to his actual strengths and weaknesses. This is consistent with wartime Allied propaganda, which talked up Rommel's abilities to explain their repeated defeats against Rommel's smaller forces - these defeats also being the product of poor Allied understanding of tank warfare, as well as outmatched commanders such as Ritchie and Cunningham (Auchinlek generally performed a lot better against Rommel than they did).

** In real life, Manfred (who was 15 when his father killed himself) was eager to join the Waffen-SS, but his father refused to allow him - the turnover of officers in ground-combat units was high, and the Soviets had a bad habit of not taking SS troops alive (as revenge for all that 'anti-partisan' business that the ''Wehrmacht'' and ''SS''had been getting up to in the occupied Soviet Union). Manfred did end up manning an AA gun, and flak was indeed the Luftwaffe's business.

* DatedHistory: This film is one of many that promotes the 'Clean Wehrmacht' and Rommel myths. While this was understandable at the time because of the very limited declassified information available in the 1950s and relying mostly on the biased testimonies of former Wehrmacht personel, it does make the film very dated.

* CreatorProvincialism: Bayerlein says "10 o'clock last night," even though Germany uses 24-hour time, and says that they have not had a single pint of petrol, when he should have said liter.

* BadassGrandpa: Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt. While too old to join in the July 20 plot, he has the audacity to say to Keitel over the phone "Make peace, you idiot!" (Which he probably, but not definitely, said in real life).

** Perhaps even more with Von Rundstedt. He and Rommel had at best a contentious personal relationship, and Rundstedt had no sympathy at all for the 20 July plotters, calling their efforts "base, bare-faced treachery." His disagreements with Hitler were purely tactical.

''The Desert Fox'' is a 1951 FilmOfTheBook (''The Desert Fox'') starring JamesMason as Field Marshal UsefulNotes/ErwinRommel. These codified the 'Rommel myth' of the late German officer as an 'honourable martial genius' in the Anglosphere.

** "The Desert Fox" is portrayed as a MaryTzu-type martial genius without much nuance given to his actual strengths and weaknesses. This is consistent with wartime Allied propaganda, which talked up Rommel's abilities to explain their repeated defeats against Rommel's smaller forces - these defeats also being the product of poor Allied understanding of tank warfare, as well as outmatched commanders such as Ritchie and Cunningham (Auchinlek generally performed a lot better against Rommel than they did).

** "The Desert Fox" is portrayed as a MaryTsu martial genius without much nuance given to his actual strengths and weaknesses. This is consistent with wartime Allied propaganda, which talked up Rommel's abilities to explain their repeated defeats against Rommel's smaller forces - these defeats also being the product of poor Allied understanding of tank warfare, as well as outmatched commanders such as Ritchie and Cunningham (Auchinlek generally performed a lot better against Rommel than they did).

** In general "The Desert Fox" is portrayed as a martial genius without much nuance given to his actual strengths and weaknesses. This is consistent with wartime Allied propaganda, which talked up Rommel's abilities to explain their repeated defeats against Rommel's smaller forces - these defeats also being the product of poor Allied understanding of tank warfare, as well as outmatched commanders such as Ritchie and Cunningham (Auchinlek generally performed a lot better against Rommel than they did).

** Rommel did not understand Operations or logistics, making him a poor commander above the tactical level of warfare - yet "the Desert Fox" is portrayed as a martial genius. This is consistent with wartime Allied propaganda, which talked up Rommel's abilities to explain their repeated defeats against Rommel's smaller forces - these defeats being the product of poor (but improving) Allied understand of Operations and Tactics.
** In this period, a Tactical commander who was a FrontlineGeneral was just doing their job. But an Operational commander who was a FrontlineGeneral ''was not''. If they were away from a command post, they were unable to understand the overall situation or command their men effectively as this required multiple high-power radios and a typing pool.
** The Italians composed at least half the Axis force in North Africa at all times, and fought very bravely to great effect. Italy's status as a Cold War ally of the USA and UK against the USSR meant that this fact had to be downplayed.

* BadassGrandpa: Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt. While too old to join in the July 20 plot, he has the audacity to say to Keitel over the phone "Make peace, you idiot!"

The film shows the downfall of his career between fall 1942 and October 1944, from the Second Battle of El Alamein to his involvement in the July 20 Plot, resulting in his suicide. Typically for an English-language film released just six years after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the film is incredibly sympathetic to Rommel and other German officers - portraying them as non-Nazi or even ''[[RefugeInAudacity anti-Nazi]]'' professionals who are ''only'' [[MyCountryRightOrWrong serving the Nazis because they love and want to defend their country from Communism]]. AsYouKnow, this portrayal could not have been further from the truth.