L'extraordinaire évasion

WWII adventure that veers skillfully between drama and comedy . In War Was Two , captured British soldier Stephen Brooks (Oliver Reed) is on a prison train to Germany . On the train he meets an American prisoner, Packy (tiresomely flacky Michael J. Pollard in a major comic role) , who's obsessed with getaway. On arrival at the POW camp Stalag 7 , Brooks and other fellow POWs are sent to work at the local Munich zoo, to care for the animals .After a devastating bombing raid that kills some of the animals , the zoo staff is decided to evacuate the surviving animals. The prisoner of war , Hannibal Brooks working at the zoo is assigned to look after an elephant named Lucy , to whom he grows devoted , as he gets the chance to escape from the Germans, so he does and he takes with him the elephant that he's been caring for and liberated from Munich zoo . En route with the elephant from Munich to a safer zoo in Innsbruck , Hannibal accidentally kills the Nazi member of the escort and then he sets off with Lucy over the mountains to Switzerland . As he attempts to cross the Alps on the back of the elephant . Together they head for the Swiss border and freedom. Supersoldier in the Super Adventure . It's a suspense story. It's a comedy story. It's a war story. It's a warm story. It's a wild story. It's a love story. It's a moving story. It's an elephant story. It's a super story. Guess who "got the Steve McQueen-Sean Connery-Burt Lancaster-type role" in this super adventure?

A war comedy with adventures , thrills , humor , spectacular battles and a good thrilling climax . It is a sympathetic tale with entertainment and funny enough , featured by some likeable roles who enhance the amusement . It waves from comedy , noisy action to melodrama . Main and support cast are pretty well . British Oliver Reed plays a POW assigned to evacuate valuable elephant from Munich zoo , giving an agreeable acting , forming a peculiar buddie movie with snub-nosed American Michael J. Pollard who steals the the show by delivering comic relief , while the elephant wins all hearts in the emotive final. They're very well accompanied by a fine support cast , such as : Wolfgang Preiss as Colonel Friedrich von Haller , John Alderton as Bernard , Peter Carsten as Kurt , gorgeous Karin Baal as Polish Vronia , Ralf Wolter and brief appearance by James Donald as POW priest.

Hannibal Brooks (1969) contains a sensitive and catching musical score by French composer Francis Lai . As well as colorful cinematography by Robert Paynter , though a perfect remastering being really necessary . The picture was acceptably directed by Michael Winner. He had important commercial success in the mid-70 with his fetish actor, Charles Bronson , achieving various box-office hits, as ¨Deathwish I and II¨, furthermore ¨The mechanics¨ and ¨The stone killer¨. With his obsessive need to work, Winner accepted many inferior projects, including two weak Death Wish sequels , though occasionally he attempted to make more prestigious films, notably ¨The Nightcomers¨ (1971), a prequel to Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, made in Britain with Marlon Brando; and ¨A chorus of disapproval¨ (1989), a satisfying version of Alan Ayckbourn's bittersweet comedy . Hannibal Brooks (1969) rating : 6.5/10 . Fun and enjoyable film that will appeal to Oliver Reed fans and WWII enthusiasts.

What can you say about a war movie where an elephant crosses the Alps? It's silly but a heck of a lot of fun. The scenery is gorgeous, the acting is light and the action sequences are top notch. Oliver Reed is perfectly cast as our hero Brooks. He has played so many villain roles that it's great to see him play a nice guy for a change. The beautiful Austrian scenery steals the show. Somehow every time we see a breathtaking view of the mountains, we forget we're watching a war movie. The war is shown in a very comedic way(especially all of Michael J. Pollard's scenes, which are priceless) and this works to some extent. The comedy never goes overboard (a fine balance is kept throughout the film). A good example of this is the final action sequence at the border crossing which is exciting and well played with a nice dash of humour thrown in. At many times we are required to check our disbelief at the door but this is such a good natured movie that we don't really care.We root for our heroes to make it to safety, all the way to the end, without ever really wondering if they will make it, but that's part of the film's charm. Overall a great movie to see on a cold winter day.

The idea of a film telling the story of a POW taking an elephant across the Alps is ridiculous but guess what? It works. Good actors, fantastic scenery, action and fun,what else do you need? Well worth watching.

That got your attention, didn't it? The words "Michael Winner" and "Orson Welles" in the same sentence. And I don't just mean because of their fondness for wine and good food. No, the fact is, that like, Orson Welles, Michael Winner made all his best films at the start of his career ("The Jokers", "The Games" and this film). After the first "Death Wish", he was starting to go downhill professionally (although "A Chorus of Disapproval" was not bad). If you see any of his most recent films, you'll find it hard to believe that this was the same man that made such a class act as "Hannibal Brooks" back in 1968. In fact, his films don't get released any more, they escape. "Dirty Weekend" is a case in point, executed so crassly and seemingly assembled by some clueless chimp who has no idea about film-making.

Anyway, back to "Hannibal Brooks" and the days when Winner made films for the family that didn't involve women being raped and tortured. The story of a British P.O.W. in 1944 helping to lead an elephant over the Alps to freedom in Switzerland was devised by Winner and former P.O.W. Tom Wright and blessed by a great script full of quotable lines by "Likely Lads" Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. Reed is great, although the film is stolen by Michael J. Pollard, who has never been better than he is in this film. With great picture postcard photography of Austria (by Robert Paynter) and a terrific score by "Love Story" composer Francis Lai, this is great entertainment and deserves a DVD release now.

As war films go, this one stands alone as the daftest concept I have come across. However, as light entertainment, it has all the mix of goodies and baddies, superheroes, tragedy and comedy. The 'we're here' line never fails to bring a smile to my face. One can excuse the acting [which is a tad wooden and stilted at times] and settle back to enjoy a traditional good yarn. The music, I believe by Francis Lai, remains one of my favourite film scores and superbly compliments the film throughout. To summarise, take time out to watch this film and I'm sure you wont feel time was wasted.