With such a strong cast, this directorial farewell from the highly regarded John Sturgess should have been a classic; sadly, it has a preposterous plot, lack of character development - and a ludicrous romance between Donald Sutherland, playing an IRA supporting republican, who so hates the Brits, he's supporting the Nazis, and Jenny Agutter. Their relationship develops with no proper interplay, like an empty Polaroid picture, with no meaningful significance or personal chemistry. At one point, Agutter ludicrously shoots a local suitor, who's already lost a fight with Sutherland over her.
This was supposed to show things from a German perspective, but its a pale shadow of All Quiet on the Western Front.
It depicts Michael Caine as leader of a unit dropping onto the Channel Islands to kidnap Winston Churchill, with such a stiff upper lip, he could have been playing a butler in a P G Wodehouse film, or maybe sucked ice cubes during the filming.
Sutherland is mysteriously able to tame dogs, he should have found a tree in the Marshland he was supposed to be supervising and asked one to bark up it; like him, it would have been barking up the wrong tree.
As for Jean Marsh, as the traitor who shoots the ludicrous American Colonel, spoiling for a battle (Larry Hagman hamming it up), I just saw a pig fly past (not hamming it up).
The only aspects of this baloney I had sympathy for, were the leaded and stained glass windows of the village church, damaged during battle scenes, and those remotely thinking this hogwash bore any resemblance to reality.
This was supposed to show things from a German perspective, but its a pale shadow of All Quiet on the Western Front.
It depicts Michael Caine as leader of a unit dropping onto the Channel Islands to kidnap Winston Churchill, with such a stiff upper lip, he could have been playing a butler in a P G Wodehouse film, or maybe sucked ice cubes during the filming.
Sutherland is mysteriously able to tame dogs, he should have found a tree in the Marshland he was supposed to be supervising and asked one to bark up it; like him, it would have been barking up the wrong tree.
As for Jean Marsh, as the traitor who shoots the ludicrous American Colonel, spoiling for a battle (Larry Hagman hamming it up), I just saw a pig fly past (not hamming it up).
The only aspects of this baloney I had sympathy for, were the leaded and stained glass windows of the village church, damaged during battle scenes, and those remotely thinking this hogwash bore any resemblance to reality.