Overdone... But Still A Tasty Morsel

Rating: 7/10 (11 August 2009)

Here, I won't write about the starry cast or the plot, elements that can be found aplenty in other posts and summaries.
This is a magnificent war movie, noticeably for its impeccable camera work and no-gimmick, genuine war vehicles and tech. All in splendid colours in the original part of the world it took place in.
This is also a film with surprisingly little bias; Germans, Brits, Yankee and Polish soldiers' POV is shown, as well as these of the Dutch citizen, resistance or not. The film begins with an over-dramatized recap told by one of the last character seen in the film, a civilian woman caught in the war. Civilians, usually scarce in these kind of movies, are taking their rightful place here.
However, where the movie is not as successful IMO, is in its painful, elaborate way of hammering on the point; Typically, somebody says something and the very next thing you see on the screen is exactly what that characters said happening, accompanied by an obvious musical score.
The music, while I'm at it, would have been quite alright if piped with a little more subtlety, but it is all over the place, loud and proud, and on this point is in the style of the film itself; over-produced. No need to be WWII expert to predict the outcome of the movie 10 minutes after it began, for the not-too-subtle hints that are given with liberality here and there.
Because that's the real problem of the movie; It is big, ambitious and ponderous, the beat being much too slow and heavy for the sake of inserting all of these starry cameos and to prove how serious it has been researched. Hackman's accent is also terrible, BTW.
However, it is an unusual little gem of the genre, the last real large-scale war movie before the CGI era, and one about an allied defeat to boot. The film sure would have benefited from a sharper, more focused POV, but the makers wanted it universal, and universality itself isn't without some good aspects, sometimes.
All in all, a movie that is head and shoulders above the average for this genre. Well worth the lengthy time it takes, IMO.