I had some high hopes for this one, I thought it might reach the heights of war movies that I loved from this time period like Kelly’s Heroes and Where Eagles Dare but sadly, even though it did capture the magic of those in a few ways, it fell short in a lot of others and ended up as a duller viewing experience than I’d hoped for but still not one without its merits. One of those merits is clearly this ensemble with Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, and Robert Duvall leading the pack and they’re all great, I especially liked Sutherland in some of the romance scenes (even if I felt that whole plot-line was unnecessary) and Caine was also very good per usual, Duvall wasn’t hitting for me on all fronts but he also had some enjoyable moments that improved the movie. I also thought the music was well done, it has the same sound as the other 70’s hollywood war movies I’ve seen which I’m a big fan of, as I said it did capture bits of the magic of my favorites from this era and the score is possibly the biggest contributor to that. It’s also shot quite nicely with the action scenes in the second half all looking great and I liked the way it was edited for the most part, as far as it goes technically I really don’t have many complaints aside from some scenes ending abruptly which isn’t the end of the world. It’s the story that hurts me a bit, even though the concept is quite cool and seeing so many famous actors from the industry playing Nazis makes for a fun time but sadly, as I do know 1970’s America and what would’ve been acceptable to the people back then, I was able to predict the outcome from a mile away and because of that I struggled to feel any of the thriller part of this war/adventure/thriller. And with a script that doesn’t do too much I find myself pretty lukewarm on the movie despite there being some definite highlights, John Sturges has given a solid movie in The Magnificent Seven and an amazing one in The Great Escape so this mediocre war/thriller from the late stages of his career certainly won’t dissuade me from continuing to check out what his filmography has to offer.
I had some high hopes for this one, I thought it might reach the heights of war movies that I loved from this time period like Kelly’s Heroes and Where Eagles Dare but sadly, even though it did capture the magic of those in a few ways, it fell short in a lot of others and ended up as a duller viewing experience than I’d hoped for but still not one without its merits. One of those merits is clearly this ensemble with Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, and Robert Duvall leading the pack and they’re all great, I especially liked Sutherland in some of the romance scenes (even if I felt that whole plot-line was unnecessary) and Caine was also very good per usual, Duvall wasn’t hitting for me on all fronts but he also had some enjoyable moments that improved the movie. I also thought the music was well done, it has the same sound as the other 70’s hollywood war movies I’ve seen which I’m a big fan of, as I said it did capture bits of the magic of my favorites from this era and the score is possibly the biggest contributor to that. It’s also shot quite nicely with the action scenes in the second half all looking great and I liked the way it was edited for the most part, as far as it goes technically I really don’t have many complaints aside from some scenes ending abruptly which isn’t the end of the world. It’s the story that hurts me a bit, even though the concept is quite cool and seeing so many famous actors from the industry playing Nazis makes for a fun time but sadly, as I do know 1970’s America and what would’ve been acceptable to the people back then, I was able to predict the outcome from a mile away and because of that I struggled to feel any of the thriller part of this war/adventure/thriller. And with a script that doesn’t do too much I find myself pretty lukewarm on the movie despite there being some definite highlights, John Sturges has given a solid movie in The Magnificent Seven and an amazing one in The Great Escape so this mediocre war/thriller from the late stages of his career certainly won’t dissuade me from continuing to check out what his filmography has to offer.
