A good deal of humor with explosive action...

Rating: 8/10 (5 July 2003)

The story is in the funny-macho style of 'The Dirty Dozen', with more emphasis on the fun... The film is set during World War II in post-D-Day France... The plot is a simple one, guaranteeing the minimum of complexity and the maximum of action...
Private Kelly (Eastwood) abducts a German colonel and accidentally discovers the whereabouts of a fortune in gold...
Being less interested in winning the war than in a little self-enrichment, he decides to liberate the hoard privately...
Being unable to take on the Nazi war-machine single-handed, he sees himself obliged to recruit some fellow conspirators... So he takes Telly Savalas, the top skeptical sergeant who initially vetoes the move, but changes his mind when it becomes clear that he cannot stop his men from going; Don Rickles, the hustler who can easily provide any weapon; and Donald Sutherland, the bizarre leader of a Sherman-tank squad, whose life style consists of getting high on drugs and meditating to unorthodox music... Sutherland, in fact, very nearly steals the film in his role of a spaced-out tank commander...
Certain amusing touches stand out in this piece of satire: The blazing battle led by Oddball's tanks, complete with inspiring music; the very suspenseful climax that makes the audience tingle with the fear that the soldiers' plan may fail; the title song, 'Burning Bridges,' which perfectly fits the mood of the film; and the wonderful parody of 'The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly,' with Eastwood and his gangster force advancing on a German tank guarding the gold to the strains of Ennio Morricone's memorable score...
Carroll O'Connor plays the egotist happy general who sees the move as nothing more than a group of dedicated soldiers taking the war into their own hand...