For the six year-old boy in all grown-up men this is wonderful!

Rating: 9/10 (11 November 2010)

Firstly the plot doesn't really hold together at all but somehow this doesn't matter. It's all about Richard Burton's wonderful performance, keeping the whole show on the road. From the thrilling drum beats of the title sequence music over the spectacular backdrop of the Alps the viewer is captured. My parents took me to see this in in 1968 when I was six and I thought it was the best thing I had ever seen (My mother was probably yawning.). At that age it probably was. In later life of course one is a more critical viewer and there are several glaring flaws. Why do none of the Germans ever speak German is only the most obvious. What are all these German soldiers doing in Bavaria, when the war was being fought everywhere else is another. Also in the whole course of the protracted escape sequence, while the five goodies mow down German troops like fresh hay, the Germans all appear to be firing blanks as none of the heroes gets so much as a scratch. I've seen the film so many times now I know the dialogue word for word so it's impossible to be moved now but I will always recall the first time I saw it. All those explosions! The tension of the gradual entry to the castle by Eastwood and Burton and the thrill of the chase afterwards! Thanks dad. You gave a boy the thrill of his young life.