“Breakthrough”
is a sequel to the famed “Cross of Iron” which means it continues the
adventures of one of the great war movie characters – Sgt. Steiner of the
German Army. The original, directed by
Sam Peckinpah, is one of the great war movies and has a cult following. It certainly called for a sequel – directed
by Peckinpah and starring the perfectly cast James Coburn. The fact that the sequel has neither of them
is a major red flag. Coburn was set to
star but backed out at the last minute.
I assume he finally got around to reading the script. His replacement was a ridiculously too old
Richard Burton. Burton was 53 years old
and looked at least ten years older than that.
His heart was not in the project and his drinking was a problem. Sticking with the decision to hire old
has-been actors, the producers tabbed three other “Longest Day” veterans –
Robert Mitchum, Rod Steiger, and Curt Jurgens.
This quartet has the dubious distinction of appearing in one of the
great war movies and one of the worst.
Director Andrew McLaglen sandwiched this movie between “The Wild Geese”
and “The Sea Wolves” so it is obvious he had a fetish for old stars embarrassing
themselves in action roles.
The
movie opens in May, 1944 which would be a few months after the events in “Cross
of Iron”. So now we know Steiner
survived the climactic fight. And so did
his nemesis Capt. Stransky (Helmut Griem) who is still a thorn in his
side. The movie seems to start off right
with a scene with plenty of action, however it does not take long to silliness
to set in. Steiner is sent to destroy a
railroad tunnel. When his men peer in to
see the light at the end, it turns out to be a T-34. Although he takes out the tank, Steiner
perplexingly does not blow up the tunnel and follows this up with a
confrontation with Stransky. Steiner
once again can’t play nice with generals and gets himself court-martialed. The punishment is a head-scratching two week leave
in Paris! While there, Steiner steals
Stransky’s girl. I’m not making this up,
people. Just as our hero is celebrating his bizarre punishment of being shipped
from the Eastern Front, the D-Day
invasion occurs. Look out Allies,
Steiner’s band of misfits has joined him and they are assigned the defense of a French village. This is a seventies war
movie, so we need a political subplot of Steiner getting involved with his
Hitler-conspiratorial Gen. Hoffman’s (Jurgens) attempt to negotiate surrender
of his forces. The negotiation involves
a Col. Rogers (Mitchum) and Gen. Webster (Steiger). They spend the first half hour complaining
about their arthritis. Just kidding. Luckily the
talking does not prevent the big set piece battle for the village. Unluckily, there is a battle for the village. This scene defies polite description. Make sure you have been drinking heavily by
the time you reach this stage of the movie (if you make it this far). Richard Burton was.
How
do you tarnish a great movie and character?
See this movie. Thankfully, few
did. It is horrendous. The acting is wooden. Or should I say
geriaratric? Burton is not even the
worst performer. Just the most
disinterested. Steiger chews the scenery
as much as his false teeth will allow.
The dialogue is laughable. The plot
is inane. The action is ridiculous. This is one of the worst war movies ever made
and one of the most disappointing.
NOTE: Check out that poster. The artist does not even bother to make the main stars look younger! But he does manage to get two women in separate clenches. Kudos!
GRADE = F-
