Peckinpah's WW2 masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (9 May 2016)

Peckinpah's WW2 masterpiece.
1943. Stalingrad has fallen and The German Army is being pushed back on the Eastern Front. Nowhere is the situation more dire for the Germans than at the Kuban Bridgehead / Taman Peninsula. Here we see the war through the eyes of a platoon of German reconnaissance troops. Their senior NCO is a grizzled, resourceful veteran, Corporal Steiner (played by James Coburn). He is unconventional, insubordinate and irreverent, but the regiment's commander, Colonel Brandt (James Mason), tolerates this as he gets results. However, his company has a new commanding officer, the inexperienced Captain Stransky (Maximilian Schell). Stransky is a by-the-book, authoritarian aristocrat and him and Steiner are bound to clash. Moreover, Stransky is obsessed with winning the Iron Cross.
Directed by Sam Peckingpah (Straw Dogs, The Wild Bunch, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid), this is Peckinpah's Magnum Opus. Very gritty and realistic portrayal of war. Shows perfectly the chaos, terror and desperation of battle - the perfect maelstrom of war.
Through the characters we see the different soldiers you meet in a war - the tough, resourceful ones, the political operators, the fanatics, the scared recruits, the paranoid ones, the realists. This gives a great insight into how different people, even on the same side and in the same unit, can view the same war.
These characters also provide a commentary on war - it's pointlessness, hopelessness and wastefulness. Peckinpah rams this home with some very tense and graphic battle scenes. His camera work and editing are particularly impressive, conveying well the life-or-death struggle that is being carried out, as well as the randomness of injury and death.
Like most Peckinpah movies its a bit rough around the edges. There are some continuity gaps, military inaccuracies and a few plot points aren't entirely sound. However, none of these are major and, if anything, the looseness of the production contributes positively to the movie. The lack of polish adds to the grittiness.
Good work by the entire cast. James Coburn is solid as Steiner, as is James Mason as Colonel Brandt. Good support by David Warner as the war-weary, cynical Captain Kiesel. Pick of the bunch is Maximilian Schell who is perfect as the cold, scheming, manipulative Captain Stransky.
A classic and one of the greatest war movies ever made.