A movie that doesn't know what it wants to do. A weird quirky movie.

Rating: 3/10 (8 January 2010)

I used to like this movie a lot more in my 20's. It tries to be a war comedy, but falls short. It tries to be a serious war picture, but the action isn't quite right for a war movie. It suffers from "Ramboization." Ramboization is the phenomenon where the heroes bullets always find their mark, but the enemies miraculously seem to miss the hero(s) with far too much regularity.
Basic plot: Typical GI's just trying to stay alive find out about a secret cache of gold 30 miles behind enemy lines. Unit goes rogue, recruits a tank commander and does what the army has been unable to do, mainly break through enemy lines. Several fight scenes occur on the way, mainly suffering from the Rambo problem.
Problems - Movie is way too long. Also the Donald Sutherland hippie character is totally wrong for WWII. I know this movie was made in 1970, but did people think that this would be funny? It's just weird in the context of this movie.
Strange scene: The movie is obviously trying to cash in on Eastwood's popularity. The spaghetti western scene in front of the bank with the Enrico Morricone like music is an obvious homage to Eastwood.
The movie just turned 40 years old this year. It hasn't aged well. Not truly bad, but definitely not recommended.