There be spoilers ahead...
I tend to love movies like this -- high adventure and a ripping good yarn, especially when fact and fiction is blended (unfortunately, that's also a feature of most Hollywood films that purport to be factual) -- and the book upon which it was based was one of my favorites when I was in my early teens. This excellent and entertaining movie still holds up well and is a classic of its genre.
Actors like Michael Caine and others -- some known and some lesser-known to most -- anchor a simple but strong storyline that's nicely paced. The acting's good from all involved, and Donald Sutherland plays his role as the sardonic Irishman to the hilt, perfectly, but if there's one stand-out performance in this film my vote would go to Robert Duvall, whose Colonel Radl is the most complex and conflicted of all of the characters (most of the principals being similarly conflicted, one way or another) and his acting is paradoxically stunning yet subtle. A recent graduate of "The Godfather," Duvall would go on to ever-greater heights with his work in the magnificent "Apocalypse Now" and beyond. This movie's not quite the caliber of either of those two hallowed ventures, but it's well worth catching if you're a fan of Duvall, too.
The plot is entirely plausible in both its big picture and in its details. One of the most refreshing aspects of the film is that the German characters are not portrayed as Nazi fanatics. Indeed, all of the film's German characters are portrayed as being decent people, contemptuous of the Fuehrer and his Nazi hierarchy, except for Himmler and his SS men.
Steiner, Michael Caine's character, is a paratrooper decorated with a Knights Cross (and subsequent honors), and his men are a collection of combat veterans. The contrast between these 'good' Germans and the 'bad' Germans is established from the start, with the showdown between Steiner's group and SS who were 'liquidating' a Polish ghetto and shipping Jews off to the death camps. Steiner's stand results in he and his team being assigned to a penal unit for which life expectancies were very low. The planned kidnapping of Churchill, at first dismissed by Duvall's Radl and his superior, Admiral Canaris (a historical figure, chief of German intelligence, played well by Anthony Quayle, who even looks like the Abwehr head), begins to seem possible in light of a random intelligence note regarding the British Prime Minister's impending visit to a remote, seaside town. A special team would be needed, and herein lay the road to salvation for British-educated Steiner and his crew. The actors who play Steiner's men are believable as elite forces who have seen it all yet still have retained their humanity. Included among Steiner's men is a face, briefly shown clearly, familiar to viewers of 1978's "Grease" -- Jeff Conaway.
The ubiquitous Donald Pleasance (whose lack of discrimination in film projects is rivaled perhaps only by that of Michael Caine) wallows in the role of Himmler, perfectly capturing the former failed chicken-farmer's look and unnerving normality, a normality that barely concealed a seriously-disturbed megalomaniac. He's perfect as Himmler, turning the small role that the Reichsfuhrer-SS has in this film into a freaky and haunting performance. A gray little man with no personal charisma or physical ability, Pleasance's Himmler is ruthless and emboldened by the power that he wields and it shows. Scary.
Larry Hagman is great (if greatly annoying, albeit intentionally) as the aptly-named Colonel Pitts, a gung-ho but combat-green US Ranger officer who injects a bit of comic relief amidst the serious action of combat. I think that Pitts has seen too many John Wayne movies. He also plays to certain stereotypes about the Ugly American that have become firmly entrenched in the UK and elsewhere -- our sympathies lie more with the Germans of Steiner's unit than with him. His foil -- antidote, really -- is the All-American Treat Williams, playing a junior Ranger officer who does actually appear to know what he's doing. Still, the firefight between the relatively raw Rangers and their seasoned opposition -- Steiner's men are veterans of the Eastern Front, Crete, Norway, and may other nasty war zones -- is something of a study in contrasts.
Michael Caine, who gets to wear the cool leather jacket, is really the main character in the movie but the piece is such an ensemble effort that he is far from the movie's focus in terms of time. I wouldn't be surprised to find that Donald Sutherland's sly character actually gets more screen time. Donald Sutherland's always excellent and this film's no exception. He's also got some of the film's best lines and his character progresses the most as the film goes on.
Michael Caine's always a pleasure to watch, even in his most dire films (and several have been pretty dire). He's well cast as Steiner and embodies his war-weariness, style, knowing humor, and gentlemanly conduct very well. Colonel Steiner is the calm in the center of the storm in this film and is the kind of leader that most soldiers would probably love to serve with.
If you want to see a movie that's not too heavy and not too cerebral but still not lacking intelligence in combination with a good, rollicking storyline that includes a few satisfying twists, this one's a good one to sit back and enjoy. It's a tribute to the film-makers' breaking away from the stereotyped Nazi that the viewing audience and the German characters' American and British adversaries feel sadness at the film's end, with the decimation of what remained of Steiner's men. Ultimately, the film's further testimony to the futility of war, even more directly in this case because of the ersatz Churchill -- a nice, sad twist to the tale.
They don't make movies like this any more, and that's a pity.
I tend to love movies like this -- high adventure and a ripping good yarn, especially when fact and fiction is blended (unfortunately, that's also a feature of most Hollywood films that purport to be factual) -- and the book upon which it was based was one of my favorites when I was in my early teens. This excellent and entertaining movie still holds up well and is a classic of its genre.
Actors like Michael Caine and others -- some known and some lesser-known to most -- anchor a simple but strong storyline that's nicely paced. The acting's good from all involved, and Donald Sutherland plays his role as the sardonic Irishman to the hilt, perfectly, but if there's one stand-out performance in this film my vote would go to Robert Duvall, whose Colonel Radl is the most complex and conflicted of all of the characters (most of the principals being similarly conflicted, one way or another) and his acting is paradoxically stunning yet subtle. A recent graduate of "The Godfather," Duvall would go on to ever-greater heights with his work in the magnificent "Apocalypse Now" and beyond. This movie's not quite the caliber of either of those two hallowed ventures, but it's well worth catching if you're a fan of Duvall, too.
The plot is entirely plausible in both its big picture and in its details. One of the most refreshing aspects of the film is that the German characters are not portrayed as Nazi fanatics. Indeed, all of the film's German characters are portrayed as being decent people, contemptuous of the Fuehrer and his Nazi hierarchy, except for Himmler and his SS men.
Steiner, Michael Caine's character, is a paratrooper decorated with a Knights Cross (and subsequent honors), and his men are a collection of combat veterans. The contrast between these 'good' Germans and the 'bad' Germans is established from the start, with the showdown between Steiner's group and SS who were 'liquidating' a Polish ghetto and shipping Jews off to the death camps. Steiner's stand results in he and his team being assigned to a penal unit for which life expectancies were very low. The planned kidnapping of Churchill, at first dismissed by Duvall's Radl and his superior, Admiral Canaris (a historical figure, chief of German intelligence, played well by Anthony Quayle, who even looks like the Abwehr head), begins to seem possible in light of a random intelligence note regarding the British Prime Minister's impending visit to a remote, seaside town. A special team would be needed, and herein lay the road to salvation for British-educated Steiner and his crew. The actors who play Steiner's men are believable as elite forces who have seen it all yet still have retained their humanity. Included among Steiner's men is a face, briefly shown clearly, familiar to viewers of 1978's "Grease" -- Jeff Conaway.
The ubiquitous Donald Pleasance (whose lack of discrimination in film projects is rivaled perhaps only by that of Michael Caine) wallows in the role of Himmler, perfectly capturing the former failed chicken-farmer's look and unnerving normality, a normality that barely concealed a seriously-disturbed megalomaniac. He's perfect as Himmler, turning the small role that the Reichsfuhrer-SS has in this film into a freaky and haunting performance. A gray little man with no personal charisma or physical ability, Pleasance's Himmler is ruthless and emboldened by the power that he wields and it shows. Scary.
Larry Hagman is great (if greatly annoying, albeit intentionally) as the aptly-named Colonel Pitts, a gung-ho but combat-green US Ranger officer who injects a bit of comic relief amidst the serious action of combat. I think that Pitts has seen too many John Wayne movies. He also plays to certain stereotypes about the Ugly American that have become firmly entrenched in the UK and elsewhere -- our sympathies lie more with the Germans of Steiner's unit than with him. His foil -- antidote, really -- is the All-American Treat Williams, playing a junior Ranger officer who does actually appear to know what he's doing. Still, the firefight between the relatively raw Rangers and their seasoned opposition -- Steiner's men are veterans of the Eastern Front, Crete, Norway, and may other nasty war zones -- is something of a study in contrasts.
Michael Caine, who gets to wear the cool leather jacket, is really the main character in the movie but the piece is such an ensemble effort that he is far from the movie's focus in terms of time. I wouldn't be surprised to find that Donald Sutherland's sly character actually gets more screen time. Donald Sutherland's always excellent and this film's no exception. He's also got some of the film's best lines and his character progresses the most as the film goes on.
Michael Caine's always a pleasure to watch, even in his most dire films (and several have been pretty dire). He's well cast as Steiner and embodies his war-weariness, style, knowing humor, and gentlemanly conduct very well. Colonel Steiner is the calm in the center of the storm in this film and is the kind of leader that most soldiers would probably love to serve with.
If you want to see a movie that's not too heavy and not too cerebral but still not lacking intelligence in combination with a good, rollicking storyline that includes a few satisfying twists, this one's a good one to sit back and enjoy. It's a tribute to the film-makers' breaking away from the stereotyped Nazi that the viewing audience and the German characters' American and British adversaries feel sadness at the film's end, with the decimation of what remained of Steiner's men. Ultimately, the film's further testimony to the futility of war, even more directly in this case because of the ersatz Churchill -- a nice, sad twist to the tale.
They don't make movies like this any more, and that's a pity.