Clint Eastwood and Telly Savalas lead a group of American soldiers in France on a mission to retrieve a stash of Nazi gold, aided by Donald Sutherland.
It tries to be a comedy, but isn’t funny. It completely lacks dramatic tension, too, so it can’t work as a war film either. The beginning is painfully slow. When the mission finally gets underway it improves a little but the ending is a major disappointment.
I have no idea what the film was trying to achieve. Clint Eastwood is wasted in his part, and there’s even a fake “Western” scene added in to make the most of his popularity in that field. His 1970 haircut makes no attempt to look like it’s from the 1940s. Likewise, Donald Sutherland’s awkward, embarrassing hippy character is a deliberate anachronism. But why? Is it intended to be a subversive parody of contemporary (i.e., 1970) American culture?
There could have been a decent wartime comedy or satire in there somewhere, but director Brian G. Hutton fails to find it.
One of the weirdest films I’ve ever seen, and not in a good way.
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