Steiner - Das Eiserne Kreuz, 2. Teil

I expected rubbish, and that´s what I got. Compared to this, Andrew McLaglen´s Wild Geese is actually pretty classy, and the original Cross of Iron definitely shines! Richard Burton can be pretty awful if needed. His version of Steiner expresses his hatred of war by staring like a madman and looking generally sick. It is also funny to see the two surviving actors from the Cross of Iron (didn´t the other one die?) playing dull, diluted versions of their former selves. The single most annoying element of the film, however, is the score by Peter "Raumpatrouille" Thomas. At his best Thomas is a genius. But here the music is irritating, gimmicky, and totally unsuitable for the film´s style. At one scene a German soldier sits in a hut with a radio, listening to some weird space-age Peter Thomas Singers. 1944, yeah. A fanatic lover of war films MAY want to check this out.

1944, Nazis are suffering a crushing defeat,Richard Burton commands a group of misfit soldiers for a dangerous mission .This is a rugged WWII Actioner concerning about the experienced Sergeant Steiner, he's assigned by Colonel Nazi (Curd Jurgens)to contact enemy for a treaty of peace . The Nazi commando turns out to be a rag-tag, oddball and motley gang (a largely cast formed by Klaus Lowitsch, Werner Pochath, among others), under command Sergeant Steiner . The commando led by Steiner get a chance to redeem themselves by execute a risked mission. The picture stars Robert Mitchum as American Colonel who is saved by heroic German Sergeant. Then the mission is suspended when the Nazi authorities (Gunter Meisner) thwart an attempt on Hitler's life, the famous event ,¨the 20 July plot¨ designed by Claus Von Stauffemberg. Later on, they are sent on yet another new mission by staff command (Major Nazi played by Helmut Griem and captains performed by Joachin Hansen and Horst Janson) . Later its cancellation they must participate in suicidal missions, the first to wipe a French village and prepare an assault over a strong position located on the hill where are the Allied tanks led by General Rogers (Robert Mitchum) and assistant (Michael Parks). Finally the American infantry, artillery and tanks enter on the village at some spectacular scenes.

This tiring wartime movie about the heroics of weary German soldiers results to be a following to ¨Sam Peckimpah's Cross of Iron¨ .This dull war film of marginal interest packs frantic thrills, perilous assignments, relentless feats,and buck-loads of explosive action and violence.The noisy action is uniformly bad-made, only deserving of mention the rip-roaring final scenes on the impregnable village. Like most Warlike movies , there is some of action-packed , but that alone can't help the worn-out argument or usual clichés.Serious and rough Richard Burton is average as leader of the motley pack together thwart the the Nazi schemes, as well as the largely secondary cast with special mention to Rod Steiger as vociferous general. This is is a wartime typical vehicle and inferior into the warlike commando genre, which also belongs the classics from the 60 as 'Dirty dozen(Robert Aldrich), 'Where eagles dare(Brian G. Hutton)' and 'Kelly's heroes(again Hutton)'. The motion picture is badly realized by Andrew V McLagen, son of the great actor Victor McLagen. He's a warlike expert , such as proved in several films(Return to Kwai,Wild Geese, Dirtdozen: the next mission,Sea wolves). However director McLagen proved had lost the touch that made ¨Devil's brigade¨, ¨Sea wolves¨ and specially ¨Wild Geese¨ such memorable films. ¨Breakthrough¨ cannot be called great and did not received , deservedly, much acclaim when released. Certainly a lousy work done by one of Hollywood's more skill director, a real craftsman.

First of all, there is a major issue with this movie: captain (major) Stranski must have died at the end of part 1. At least everything refers to this fact. His weapon was out of ammo and some russians of the red army were just pointing guns at him. I don't believe they let him live. In fact I'm not sure if Steiner survived either. Next thing is the two main characters were replaced. If the roles of major Stranski and sergeant Steiner had been played by Maximilian Schell and James Coburn this movie could have been much much better. On behalf of Sam Peckinpah, I wouldn't have given permission to release this movie.

This is one of those movies that, for me, is tough to categorize/rate. On the one hand, Breakthrough is nothing more than a poorly made B-grade war movie -- hardly worth watching. On the other hand, it's bad enough to make it worth watching -- provided, of course, you have a soft spot in your heart for terrible movies, you have friends who like terrible movies, and, of course, you have enough alcohol to swill while watching it.

What's wrong with it? Well, for starters, the story is fairly ridiculous. Secondly, the score is, for lack of a better term, weird -- it's hardly evocative of Europe in 1944, but more akin to really bad 60s hippie music (or something like that). Burton & Mitchum, both seasoned actors, spend the majority of the film "phoning-in" their lines -- you get the strong impression that this movie was nothing more than "contractual obligation" for the both of them. The other aspect of this film that we thought was really amusing was the number of times a high ranking military officer is out, walking around alone (or with one other person), in the middle of the night, well within the front lines. Who the heck does that!?

The other thing we found odd about this movie, is the fact that the production values reek of late 70s / early 80s made-for-TV-movies. Was this movie originally destined for the small screen?

So, in the end, I would recommend that you avoid this movie. Unless, of course, you enjoy bad movies, and have friends who enjoy bad movies (it would help if they're also self-styled WWII buffs).

Good movie rating: 4/10 Bad movie rating: 6/10

This film is a sequel to Sam Peckinpah's CROSS OF IRON (1977) which I have not seen. The lead character, Sergeant Steiner of the Wehrmacht, is played by an aging Richard Burton who, despite only being 54 at the time, looks more like 74 because of his dissolute private life. He only had five more years to live. The story of the rebellious German sergeant who does not support the Nazis, has twice refused promotion as an officer and wishes to assist an anti-Hitler general make peace with the Allies in Normandy against the wishes of Berlin is intriguing. The fact that Burton looks so old and 'past it', and is so wooden and stiff in the role, actually makes it more believable. After all, such a man could convincingly be at the limit of what he is prepared to put up with, and might really rebel against his own side in this way. In contrast to the comatose Richard Burton, Robert Mitchum, aged 62, seems twenty years younger than Burton and has all the energy and verve of a twenty-something as he big-shoulders his way through his scenes with all of his usual aplomb and confidence, as an American colonel who meets up with Burton and tries to facilitate a 'deal on the side' to break peace early. Unlike Burton, he had another 18 years to live. Curd (or Curt) Juergens is superb as General Hoffmann, who is part of the plot to kill Hitler and asks Burton to carry a secret message to a senior officer on the other side of the lines. Rod Steiger is also only 54 like Burton, but he looks, let us say 70, not quite as ravaged as Burton but still pretty ropey. He plays an American Brigadier General, but is getting too fat for it, and has lost most of his fire by this stage of his career. There is not much 'young blood' visible in this wartime tale. There are the usual nasty Nazis and gum-chewing Yanks. The result is a mediocre film which has never been issued on DVD, so that I watched an ancient video of it. It's just interesting enough not to switch it off, but not interesting enough to seek out and watch.