Too Much Violence, Too Many Goofs

Rating: 6/10 (11 May 2014)

Sam Peckinpah was real master - his Major Dundee is a classic. Here, he tried the very nerve of many Russians - so-called Great Patriotic War in Soviet Union, here we see Taman region of 1943 and all is shown through several German army officers and soldiers. James Coburn and Maximillian Schell are mani stars, and well, they do good job. But then, all the right message of the movie - War Is All Hell - is somewhat blurred and lost. One thing which stands on the way and does not allow to delve deeper into the plot is any goofs - Russian uniforms are a laughing stock and not correct, many weapons are wrong, even Soviet T34 tanks when firing make a wrong sound. We hear Russian speech in the movie - several times, it is good and clear. several times, it is very heavily accented and all wrong in a choice of words (believe me, I am Russian). Sam Peckinpah dwells too long in brutally violent battle scenes - yes, was that brutal, violent, bloody, dirty, merciless and wild. That is true. But here we expected more of a personal tragedy displayed. Instead, all the deep tragic moments are smashed away with prolonged (too much prolonged battle sequences). It gets to a real drag sometimes. Russians never wore those helmets in attacks like those and rarely fixed bayonet to their Mosin rifles - too heavy and not effective. Russians never attacked like that, too. Russian tanks are also a bit sluggish in the movie, while in reality they were incredibly fast, quick, precise in firing and good for breaking walls. Goofs aside, violence aside, that was a good movie. Another weaker point - too long.