Directed by Sam Peckinpah - 1977 poster
I made the mistake of researching Sam Peckinpah before watching the movie. What a self-destructive character! Even James Coburn thought he drank too much. Every day, Peckinpah was consuming 180˚ proof Slivovitz. Every two or three weeks, he would go on a binge which led to lost shooting days whilst he was allowed to regain his cognitive abilities! No wonder the film's costs overran - there was no more money to shoot the final scene (expected to take three days); so Coburn made the director film a quick improvised ending. Whilst later editing the rushes, Peckinpah added snorting cocaine to his drinking. I'm afraid, I have no empathy and little sympathy for such behaviour.
What of the movie itself. Reading that it was the story of a German unit retreating in the Russian Caucasus - and looking at the 'white' cover of the DVD, I assumed there would be plenty of action shots in a snow-filled landscape. No. It was the usual mud and bushes and trees (it was shot in Yugoslavia). Sergeant Rolf Steiner (James Coburn) leads a German platoon raid on a Russian forward outpost, kills Russians but captures a young boy. An aristocratic Prussian officer Captain Stransky (Maximilian Schell) turns up as the new commander of the battalion. He orders Steiner to shoot the boy. The latter is hustled away but, when told by Steiner to return to the Russian side, gets killed by his own army. One of the many brutal moments in the film.
Captain Stransky and Sergeant Steiner
(Maximilian Schell and James Coburn)
Steiner is wounded in a Russian attack and is sent to a military hospital to recover. He has a romantic fling with the nurse Eva (Senta Berger) - once again, an add-on for the cinema-goers? He returns to the 'Front' - is left behind in the retreat (purposely not being informed of this by Stransky). Before this, Stransky had lobbied for an Iron Cross (his real aim of coming to the Russian frontier). When asked by the regimental commander Oberst Brandt (James Mason), whether Stransky deserved the medal, Steiner makes it clear that Stransky had lied about being at the forefront of the conflict.
Oberst Brandt and Hauptmann Kiesel
(James Mason and David Warner)
During their ensuing forced retreat, Steiner's group captures an all-female Russian detachment (cue for nudity and more brutality which is best left unsaid). Using the Russian women's uniforms, Steiner leads his men to the new German front. The one unlikely (coincidental) bit occurs - Stransky is in charge of that very section and orders his side-kick, Lieut. Trieberg (a closet homosexual) to shoot Steiner's group. This nearly succeeds, but Trieberg is then dealt with by Steiner (more brutality). Finally, Stransky and Steiner meet up, look to retreat and the final scene is Steiner (presumably) being gunned down by a look-alike boy from the earlier episode, whilst Steiner gets away (presumably) laughing his head off!
There are some memorable lines:
"I believe God is a sadist and probably doesn't even know it." (Steiner)
"For many of us Germans, the exterminator is long overdue." (Brandt)
"You pile of Prussian pig shit." (Steiner to Stransky)
(Senta Berger of Pekinpah): Brutality? He wanted to show that "beauty in dying, consciously. Life drifts away, the soul drifts away, the body falls to the ground."
Well, whatever. The film did not add to Peckinpah's reputation. The New York Times said it was his least interesting, least personal film in years...I can't believe that the director ever had his heart in this project, which, from the beginning, looks to have been prepared for the benefit of the people who set off explosives. It wasn't so much his 'heart' but his 'head' which was the problem!
Other comments included phrases such as graphic mayhem, violence-fixated, and blood bath picture.
The Los Angeles Times reported: it becomes a wearying, numbing spectacle of carnage that tends to inure us to the violence it so graphically depicts.
The movie did poorly at the USA Box Office (the same year as the mega Star Wars), but performed well in Germany. Coburn said it was one of his favourite films he had been in!
As the Director of such films as The Wild Bunch and Straw Dogs, it's not surprising that Peckinpah's nickname was Bloody Sam. In his career, he directed as many 'misses' as 'hits'.
2015 DVD
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