Much, much better than I remembered

Rating: Null/10 (28 August 2001)

I first saw this film when it was released and hadn't seen again in almost 25 years until it was shown on TV.
In 1977 I was fifteen years old and expected my war films to be exhilirating shoot 'em up adventures. Here the film was spectacular but ended in an apparent anticlimax.
Now I'm approaching 40 maybe I've learned a thing or two about war. There is spectacle here and the action scenes are wonderfully staged and photographed (thanks to Geoffrey Unsworth, one of this country's greatest cinematographers). The overall impression, however, is one of waste: waste of life, waste of effort. [Poss. spoiler]Even courage is wasted, attempts to rescue trapped comrades or retrieve lost supplies end in death.[End spoiler]. I found myself wondering: "If this is what these men are capable of in war, what could they do in peace? We need this courage to be alive among us, not slaughtered in battle."
So don't watch this film to see the Allies vanquish the Hun. The Germans win the battle but will lose the war; the Allies fight like hell and fall short. Human vanity, frailty, and good old Murphy's Law ("Whatever can go wrong will go wrong") have appalling consequences. This is a *great* war film.