Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
It is 1943, and the German army—ravaged and demoralised—is hastily retreating from the Russian front. In the midst of the madness, conflict brews between the aristocratic yet ultimately pusillanimous Captain Stransky and the courageous Corporal Steiner. Stransky is the only man who believes that the Third Reich is still vastly superior to the Russian army. However, within his pompous persona lies a quivering coward who longs for the Iron Cross so that he can return to Berlin a hero. Steiner, on the other hand is cynical, defiantly non-conformist and more concerned with the safety of his own men rather than the horde of military decorations offered to him by his superiors.
Sam Peckinpah's only war film is a striking anti-war statement told from the German perspective — a genuinely rare and bold choice. The Steiner vs. Stransky class conflict gives the film thematic weight beyond typical WWII action. James Coburn and Maximilian Schell deliver commanding, layered performances that anchor the film's moral ambiguity. Peckinpah's visceral, kinetic battle sequences — with slow-motion carnage and expressionistic editing — remain some of the most striking ever put to film. The plot occasionally loses momentum in its middle section, and the ending, while deliberately ironic and bitter, is abrupt enough to feel unresolved rather than provocatively open. Still, as a cynical, nihilistic examination of war's futility told through the eyes of the 'enemy,' it stands as one of cinema's most singular war films.