Lots of great moments do not add up to a classic film.

Rating: 7/10 (25 May 2020)

The 1960's and 70's were filled with all-star epics that dealt with particular incidents or battles or victories or losses during World War II, and only a handful of them have stood the test of time. There just isn't enough time even in 2 hours and 40 minutes to give each of these international stars a chance to create a memorable character let alone give a great performance. Every time you turn around, there's another Oscar winner, another romantic heartthrob, another action hero on screen, and in a few incidents, their appearances are met with laughter. Gene Hackman, for example, is supposed to be a Polish general, but why did he choose to speak with an Irish brogue?
Ryan O'Neal and Robert Redford may have had all of the ladies hearts aflutter through "Love Story" and "The Way We Were", but they are completely wasted here. Sean Connery, Dirk Bogarde and Edward Fox are commanding in their larger roles as officers, and actually get some meatier material. Michael Caine is amusing, but basically playing Alfie in an officer's uniform. But this is a film about moments, not everything neatly wrapped up together, and this makes it a complete disappointment from the start. The presence of Elliot Gould gave wags another excuse to comment on his being in pretty much every film that came out in the 1970's. Liv Ullman is the only female among the cast of international stars.
The film starts with a sweet narration of where the war was going in 1944, indicating that it was only a matter of time before the Germans were smashed, but it isn't quite over yet. There are more big battles, more challenges, and definately a lot more casualties. The small moments will stick in your mind more than the big battle scenes which we've seen over and over. One particular moment involves an innocent pre-teen Dutch boy, seen earlier with his parents in a joyful moment where they realize that, even as losers in the war, it will be over soon. He later rides his bike along a country road where he is stopped by a Nazi soldier, explains himself (in German), and is allowed to pass. There is obviously some big wig at the estate guarded by rifle pointing soldiers, and tanks line the highway where he passes as well. Without saying a word, he says much, and that makes the film briefly profound. Big memorable moments include a scene where hundreds of soldiers parachute out of British planes onto dutch soil which to a German soldier in 1944 probably looked like a plague of locusts storming in.
The huge titles that keep telling the viewer where the setting has changed to becomes majorly distracting over a while, covering the upper part of the screen rather than more sensible small lettering on the bottom. The film surrounds efforts of the British to surround and maintain control over bridges in Germany near the Dutch border, a simple plot, but more complicated in accomplishing. The arriving British troops get a rousing, loving welcome by a bunch of inmates who have escaped from a mental institution, and later by the grateful residents of a border town near one of the bridges.
It is obvious that every one of these films seemed to want to out-do the previous ones in the number of planes being shot down, tanks climbing over the rough terraine turned into a battlefield, and any type of noisy explosion. On a big screen, it looks fantastic, and also includes a profound musical score, but this is nothing really all that new. Director Richard Attenborough fortunately learned by the time of "Ghandi" that epics work much better when focus is on character, not on action, and didn't overdo the number of star cameos that were not necessary. Once again, the German officers are allowed to speak in their native tongue with no subtitles needed, and their phony charm and aggression is obvious even then,