Sam Peckinpah (1925–1984)

I loved this movie as a teenager. On watching it now, 40 years later, I realize I was dragging too much information into it from the book. Without the book to fill in the blanks (since it''s been too long since I read it), the movie has vast plot holes. Acting and cinematography are good or great, but the lack of sense in the storyline makes this silly and unenjoyable.

This film is set on the Russian front in WWII; however, there's no snow and ice as in this case the front is in the Crimea in summer, perhaps to make filming easier. The basic story is that of a German platoon being forced out by Soviet soldiers, and what transpires. James Coburn plays the hard but fair platoon sergeant well; and Maximilian Schell does well as the cowardly captain. There are plenty of Peckinpah trademarks, in particular thousands of bullets and no shying away from nastier show more things, except maybe in the few scenes involving women. There's a bit of a tension, perhaps intentional, between the theme of war as a senseless game, emphasised particularly in the opening and closing credits and in scenes where Coburn is concussed and hallucinating, and on the other hand the very sentimental themes of brotherhood and honour which run through the main story. show less

Intense stuff, saw it uncut for the first time when I got this disc; lots of breaking glass and bad intentions. Not a big Pickinpah fan but this is really well done, with the usual generous helping of Criterion extras.

2024 movie #160. 1962. 2 aging gun slingers are hired by a bank to take cash to isolated miners for their gold. They also escort a young woman (Hartley) who's planning to marry one of the miners. This doesn't turn out well and they have to rescue her. Pretty decent Western.