Peckinpah's crushing anti-war epic

Rating: 7/10 (20 May 2016)

Sam Peckinpah's sole war film is an anti-war epic set on the German/Russian front during WW2. Its hero is Sergeant Steiner, the one man who sees the corrupt evident in the German army and the one man powerless to prevent it. Steiner is played by James Coburn, a very good actor usually associated with westerns, and I really can't imagine anyone else in the role. Coburn is magnificent. He ably portrays a complex man, willing to do his duty for his country on the front line, but frequently ashamed, surprised, depressed and, in the end, driven half-crazy by the brutality and futility of battle. In fact, Coburn's presence alone makes this a very good film – but there are lots of other reasons it's fine, too.
Even today there aren't many films detailing the war from the point of view of the Germans, and this depiction of the front line from the soldiers themselves is very well realised. Peckinpah, unsurprisingly, goes for the hellish, where children are gunned down, the innocent are slaughtered and the trenches are a mass of explosive attacks. The director's use of slow motion and freeze-frame editing is spot on, fitting the battle scenes very well indeed. The film takes a little while to find its course, but by the time it does you'll be hooked, and it finishes off with a massive, sprawling battle that really hits home the message that war is bad. The use of a simple children's song at the opening and closing credits, along with photographs of a young woman being hanged by a Nazi soldier, is utterly effective and completely moving.
It's worth making note of the calibre of the supporting cast, too. Maximilian Schell makes for a compelling, humanised villain, yearning for a hero's status but unwilling to actually do anything heroic; David Warner is extremely realistic as the officer who's reached the extent of his powers, physically and emotionally, and is now nothing more than the broken shell of a man. James Mason adds the quiet dignity I've seen him bring to many a film. All in all, a very good film, filled with many unforgettable images of the results of man's violence against man.