Sam Peckinpah directs James Coburn, Maximilian Schell and James Mason in the WWII movie where a German soldier on the Russian front tries to protect himself from a cowardly superior intent on sacrificing his men for glory.

An absolute pummelling of a war movie. Nothing particularly ground breaking happens but Peckinpah’s addiction to impactful mayhem and Coburn’s gruff weary performance make it very watchable. It is so hypnotically despondent you can even forgive them for running out of money before they filmed an ending. Who even needs punctuation when every scene is a massacre?

8

Perfect Double Bill: The Big Red One (1980)

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