This movie had it's day

Rating: 5/10 (11 August 2014)

Sam Peckinpah was known for the display of violence in his movies, but since then directors like Tarentino set the new standard. So what worked in the 70s does not necessarily work now. What remains is a movie to be judged on its message and on its acting.
The movie is about the personal fight between a 'rusty' soldier and an upper class officer. The soldier does the fighting, the officer is only there to get his decoration, because he can't bear the humiliation to go back to his entourage in Germany without one. This collision between interests is the theme of this movie. It is an interesting theme but the movie is only partly able to display it. The story is fragmented, some events hardly fit into the movie. The end is very sudden, it seems no one knew how to finish the movie, or maybe the budget was gone. Anyway, it seems rushed.
But that is not the biggest problem. Acting is. Good acting should make you forget you are looking at an actor. Instead the actor must be able to make you believe you are looking at the character he plays. High ranking stars James Coburn, Maximillian Schell and James Mason were chosen for principal parts. James Coburn is not really an actor, he is only able to show his face and it depends on the movie whether you accept him in his role. In this entire movie he remains an out of place James Coburn. James Mason is a good actor but profoundly British and his part is to small to see him as the German he is playing. Schell is the only one who is able to make you forget he is a star, and merges with his character in this story. So the movie fails primarily on the acting and secondly on the flow of the story.
This movie seems to be out of date, maybe it was good in its time but it misses the extra to still be attractive. That is too bad because the theme is interesting.