I felt compelled to review this because of the obscenely high rating for this uneven mess of a film. Perhaps it's just the novelty factor of a Nazi versus Soviet WWII film in a sea of American focused stories that attracts people to this, but having read a fair bit about that conflict, this film doesn't really do that side of the conflict justice, and doesn't stand up on it's own as a good film.
The war scenes are an incoherent jump-cut fest. Constant explosions. Zero tension. There's very little narrative or even explanation of what is going on. It's mostly difficult to even tell what we are supposed to be looking at or if it's the German or Russian side. Just random explosions. It's simply not well directed, and I don't think Sam Peckinpah was A-list material if you look at his film resume.
Then the rest is mostly melodramatic potboiler dialogue scenes attempting make some worn-out comments about the aristocratic officers versus the commoner grunts. The only highlight of film is James Coburn, who puts in a charismatic performance as the insubordinate Sgt. Steiner (despite seeming slightly geriatric for the role). Seeing what became of his character was the only thing that kept me going as the film gets progressively worse as it goes on, with a truly terrible and incoherent ending.
Sadly, I don't think there ever has been a Hollywood take on the Eastern Front of WWII that has ever got it right. The story of how the Soviet Union threw millions of soldiers at the Nazi army and slowly ground it to dust is compelling one. But this film certainly is not.
The war scenes are an incoherent jump-cut fest. Constant explosions. Zero tension. There's very little narrative or even explanation of what is going on. It's mostly difficult to even tell what we are supposed to be looking at or if it's the German or Russian side. Just random explosions. It's simply not well directed, and I don't think Sam Peckinpah was A-list material if you look at his film resume.
Then the rest is mostly melodramatic potboiler dialogue scenes attempting make some worn-out comments about the aristocratic officers versus the commoner grunts. The only highlight of film is James Coburn, who puts in a charismatic performance as the insubordinate Sgt. Steiner (despite seeming slightly geriatric for the role). Seeing what became of his character was the only thing that kept me going as the film gets progressively worse as it goes on, with a truly terrible and incoherent ending.
Sadly, I don't think there ever has been a Hollywood take on the Eastern Front of WWII that has ever got it right. The story of how the Soviet Union threw millions of soldiers at the Nazi army and slowly ground it to dust is compelling one. But this film certainly is not.