The "Three Kings" of the seventies.

Rating: 7/10 (20 May 2005)

I guess there are two ways of seeing this movie. Either you see it as a comedy with the Second World War only as a setting, but not as a movie that shows some real and actual events, either you watch it as a war movie. If this had been a real war movie, than I wouldn't have liked it a bit, because it doesn't show anything of what the war really was like and it doesn't do anything but harming history and the soldiers that fought in that war. Personally I think this is a comedy and it has to be said, it's a nice one.
When Private Kelly (Clint Eastwood) interrogates a German Colonel who has been captured with nothing but a briefcase, he finds out what the man's task was. He had to keep an enormous amount of gold worth $ 16.000.000 out of the hands of the allies, by transporting it from the French bank, where it is now, to another location further away from the front line. Kelly wants that gold for himself and plans to rob the bank with some fellow soldiers. To do so, they slip through the enemy lines. But this bold action does not only bring them close to immense richness, it also gives new hope for the stranded troops and they are decorated for their bravery by the unknowing general Colt...
A movie that stars Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland, ... always promises a lot of fireworks and that's exactly what you can expect here. No, it isn't real or possible at all, but it is incredibly funny. A hippie tank commander who always is talking about positive and negative vibes, general Colt wearing a flashy red pyjamas with stars on the shoulders,... Of course that never really happened, they didn't even have hippies in that era, but this movie gets away with it all because it is all so humorous.
I guess the best movie to compare it with is "Three Kings", the movie about three US soldiers who are trying to capture Iraqui gold during the first Gulf war. This is exactly the same type of story, only told in a different time period. And just like I liked that one, I also liked this movie. It offers a top cast, some fine acting, a nice story and a lot of laughter. What more can you possibly ask from a comedy? I reward it with a 7.5/10.