A LESSER PECKINPAH

Rating: Null/10 (24 August 2003)

Frightening!, horrendous! - and that's just the cast! I'm a big Sam Peckinpah fan but this movie (though interesting) is well below par. I can tolerate James Coburn (though he seems to be using the same accent he affected in "Fistfull of Dynamite" - as an ex-IRA man), but James Mason & David Warner as German officers?!! Steady on old chap! Their scenes together are so stiff upper lip they appear to be acting in Zulu Dawn - maybe they thought they were? A few reviewers have suggested this is a good companion to "Das Boot", but one of the great things about that movie is the German cast, who (wow!) even communicate with each other in German. So refreshing after years of seeing British &/or American actors pretending to be French/German/Oriental(!) by affecting "just zee right accent". Today, in the age of "world movies", James Mason as a German is about as convincing as Brad Pitt playing Malcolm X. That's the way movies were made back then I guess so you can't blame Peckinpah too much, but it does put a strain on the credibility. Maybe because I have high expectations of any Peckinpah film this one let me down, but aside from the miscasting I think it lacked substance & was nowhere as good as the director's other work. It seemed fairly shallow (considering the subject matter), and consequently lacking impact. The sets looked a bit fake too. Oh well, still plenty of other Peckinpah to enjoy. And how about Maximillian Schell? (the token European)- the only actor to appear in both a Peckinpah movie and "The Thorn Birds"? (sure hope so!!)