Magnificent

Rating: 10/10 (19 December 2009)

This movie is magnificent for two reasons: Firstly, there is the performance of James Coburn. There are few if any celebrated actors who could've carried this role so well. There is simply a gulf in dignified class between what Coburn brought to the role and anything so called contemporaries such as McQueen and Marvin could've given. James Mason's own marvellous performance echoes Coburns. This performance by Coburn first and foremost makes this movie special.
Secondly, this was a very important film in that it humanized German suffering. It is sad but true that following this release, instead of a growing understanding of right and wrong having existed on all sides during that terrible war, the emergence of the series 'Holocaust' placed all Germans back into the convenient stereotype of being brutal, unquestioning sadists. This phenomenon is only now beginning to have run its course. An extremely important movie.