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Released by: MGM Limited Edition Collection
Released on: December 5, 2011.
Director: by Michael Winner
Cast: Oliver Reed, Karin Baal
Year: 1969
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The Movie:
From the prodigious director of Death Wish comes this goofy tale of escape and escapism in WW2. Oliver Reed is the titular character, a British enlisted man who clearly has no use for the war he's caught up in. Michael J. Pollard is Packy, the get-anything-done, carefree American who's only goal is escape and, later, shutting down the Germans any way he can.
Brooks is captured at the start of the film and he and Packy are soon given the detail of working in a zoo that's near their prison camp. Brooks is assigned elephant duty and quickly bonds with the animal in his care, by name of Lucy. After an Allied bombing raid kills her regular keeper the duty falls to Brooks who's to escort the animal to another city for safekeeping.
Brooks and Lucy set out on the journey on foot after their train car is commandeered by the evil SS colonel (redundant much?) von Haller (Wolfgang Preiss who does a lot with very little screen time here). They're accompanied by two German guards, a duty-driven bully and a bespectacled sympathizer, Willi (Helmut Lohner), and the hot female cook, Vronia (Karin Baal). The film now turns into a bit of a travelogue, featuring many scenes of German and Austrian village life set against stunning backdrops of the rural countryside and the towering Alps. After killing the bully guard in a drunken struggle the party goes on the run and splits up, leaving for even more footage of Brooks and Lucy strolling through the countryside.
Eventually, Brooks finds Packy again who's now the leader of a resistance group. Brooks has no use for the killing, still, and so the two groups part ways and then find each other several times, each time one group assisting the other in some way. I suppose that could be called passive vs. aggressive? In any event, the Nazis mostly get to be evil cannon fodder bent on harming Lucy and her goofball caretaker.
The film is at its best when it keeps the action moving and keeps things light, which is often. It's tough to say which actor - Reed or Pollard - chews more scenery here but given that the latter has to share his screen time with the former, I'd say the challenge goes to Reed. But he's in his full element here and certainly doesn't make the film boring by any means, even when it's just a series of walking scenes.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The transfer from MGM here is pretty sharp looking, considering what state the original source material must be in by now. Colors are sharp and well-balanced and the 16:9 ratio amply shows off the stunning locales used in the film. The soundtrack is Dolby Digital 2.0 but handles the duties of this war thriller/comedy quite capably.
The original trailer is included which features VO from Michael J. Pollard. He sounds as if he's taking massive bong rips in between each statement - for example, “This picture is set in World War II. There were two wars, one and two, and this one's set in 'II'.†And his character gets described here as a “super-soldier†from the other VO on the trailer. It makes me wish they'd done a Captain America with him in the lead role.
Summary:
I think I do prefer my WW2 films to have Nazis that speak in non-subtitled German. It makes them less sympathetic and easier to root against. Throw in a big elephant and Hannibal Brooks is just a fun time all around.
