DIRECTED BY:
Juan Antonio Bardem
CAST:
George Maharis, Maria Perschy, James Philbrook, Gerard Herter, Gustavo Rojo, Gerard Tichy, Tomas Blanco, Ruben Rojo, John Clark, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart and Jorge Rigaud.
REVIEW:
Of all the Italian war films I've seen, I think this one mixes in about everything good war movies are made of -- action, gun play, strong characters and nice scenery. Unfortunately, the production values are so low that the outcome is severely hampered.
It's May 7, 1945, and the war in Europe has just ended. But not for everyone. An Austrian scientist is on the run from a renegade SS Patrol. A squad of American GIs is sent to find him before the SS do -- because he holds key information regarding the development of an atomic bomb.
The film boasts a pretty strong leading cast of American, German, Italian and Spanish actors. George Maharis is the war-weary squad leader. He's a little wooden, but he makes up for it in a few good anti-war monlogues. Gerard Herter (the usual Nazi villain from Hornets' Nest, Battle of the Commandos and many others) is the disillusioned, pro-Hitler SS commander. Herter faces off with war-weary infantry Lt. Mueller (Carlo Hintermann from Desert Commando) whom he commandeers to guide him around Austria. Maharis' squad is made up of plenty of familiar faces as well: Gustavo Rojo (The Battle of the Last PanzerBattle Force ) is the sensible one of the bunch; and Gerard Tichy from Hell's Brigade is the grizzled old veteran. Watch for Carl Rapp from Battle of the Bulge as an Austrian mayor, too.
The film boasts some decent action sequences, mostly shootouts between the Americans and Germans. These are all pretty well edited and the producers to great care to make them physically accurate. These guys don't stand up and charge German foxholes; they take them using actual military maneuvers. And the Germans aren't stupid, either -- a good number of good guys die before the film is finally over. The movie is not about big battles between large numbers of men; it's about conflict between two small forces and the ideals that each man has.
The cinematography is pretty decent. The movie was filmed in Spain, but was dressed up to look like the Austrian countryside. The musical score is not very original; it's a slow, pleasant-sounding theme set to the pace of the men trotting about Austria. Oh, yeah... I forgot to mention that virtually the whole movie is about these two forces driving around Austria, and the pace is annoyingly slow -- it drags on for what seems to be hours. The film was well-directed by Bardem. He intercuts the action so swiftly and occasionally lets to the camera rise to pretty high crane shots, giving the audience a new insight into what's going on in the close-ups. The only thing that hampered the movie was the abrupt ending -- it comes out of nowhere and is totally unexpected. I suppose it has something to do with the pointlessness of war, but I can't really figure it out.
The video was released by USA in the late 1980s. The video quality is okay, with accurate but not very striking colors. The audio is Monaural. The pan scanning during the body of the film is acceptable, but during the credits names and roles have been cut from the sides. The film also cuts off before the end credits have finished rolling.
This is really a decent Italian/Spanish war drama. I'm surprised the critics go so hard on it. For once I got to see a European movie that actually addressed camaraderie and conflicts that actual front-line American troops were part of. Bardem does something most B-Grade Italian film makers like Castellari and Lenzi fail to do: tell a real dramatic story, where the violence is included only to advance the story -- not to entertain the viewer. Granted, Lenzi and Castellari are great directors, and I really enjoy the action packed adventure pieces like Deadly Mission, but I also like to see a real, thoughtful drama once in a while, too, and this one did the trick.
SGT. SLAUGHTER'S RATING:
3.5 Bullets
