Rating: R
Length: 132 minutes

Widescreen 1.78:1 Color (Anamorphic)

ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 2.0
FRENCH: Dolby Digital 2.0

English, French

It's 1943 in Russia and the tide is turning against the German army. A platoon receives its new Captain whose sole purpose for volunteering for this assignment to win the Iron Cross; and he will do anything to accomplish this goal. Standing in his way is he ranking NCO of the group, Steiner (Coburn), who isn't impressed with aristocracy.

The fight scenes and Army equipment were very well done considering this was filmed long before CGI. It also wasn't afraid to show the horrors and casualties of war, not just the heroics.

The movie dragged on and spent very little time on the plot (or I just didn't understand what the plot actually was). And since when did the Russians fly US Navy F4U Corsairs (the planes shown during a bombing run)? Did Boyington's Black Sheep Squadron stray way off course? :-)

• Audio Commentary by Film Scholar Stephen Prince
• Photo Gallery of German Lobby Cards
• Theatrical Trailer

A great movie if you want to see some good fight scenes and are a fan of James Coburn, just don't watch it for the storyline.

Sam Peckinpah   [The Wild Bunch]

Senta Berger - Eva

Arthur Brauss - Pg. Zoll

James Coburn - Unteroffizier/Feldwebel Rolf Steiner

[Duck You Sucker, The Great Escape, Hell is for Heroes, The Magnificent Seven, Midway]

Burkhard Driest - Schütze Maag

Roger Fritz - Leutnant Triebig

Vadim Glowna - Gefreiter Kern

Klaus Löwitsch - Unteroffizier Krüger

[Firefox]

James Mason - Oberst Brandt

[20000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Blue Max, The Boys from Brazil, The Desert Fox, The Desert Rats, The Fall of the Roman Empire, Julius Caesar, North by Northwest, Salem's Lot]

Michael Nowka - Dietz

Maximilian Schell - Hauptmann Stransky

[A Bridge Too Far, Deep Impact, Joan of Arc, The Odessa File, Vampires]

Dieter Schidor - Anselm

Fred Stillkrauth - Unteroffizier Schnurrbart

Véronique Vendell - Marga

[Barbarella]

David Warner - Hauptmann Kiesel

[Hitler's S.S.: Portrait in Evil, The Omen, Planet of the Apes (2001), Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Time Bandits, Titanic]