Excellent stuff!!!

Rating: Null/10 (28 December 2000)

Forgotten by many, this picture needs to be rediscovered because it's excellent! I hardly hear this film being mentioned with the great WAR pictures.
The film is about a failed mission, enough said. The main point of the picture is about the loss of lives, the men behind the desks making dumb decisions, blatant lies and risking everything.
Dickie Attenborough's direction might have lacked some focus, but the picture was so huge that it was an incredible task to make it authentic. The film is extremely well detailed, using authentic vehicles, superb destruction sequences and stunning locations. I reckon Dick did a great job with the direction.
The stars of the film do their job well, the acting was good. I thought Gene Hackman had very little to do.
The photography is stunning, the soft focus and smokey screen is a trademark of Unsworth, he used this to great effect in Superman The Movie.

The ending is quite piognant, it really says a lot about war.
Superb picture, thanks Richard Attenborough! See it only in wide-screen.