It definitely seems that this movie was butchered to bring it down to a shorter length action flick and take it out of the realms of a wartime espionage type thriller.
The plot is loosely based upon the experiences of Ian Fleming (ala. James Bond author) during his time in the commandos during WWII and really should have been much more of an espionage movie and less of a 'let's all do or die'. The story also really fails to even manage that also as the resultant feeling of the movie when all is said and done is kind of a 'let's barely manage to do and also pretty much all die' story instead.
Sure, realism is an important point in a war film as those that sugar-coat it too much or simply turn into weird fantasy come of feeling really false (think of the apparently drug-induced nonsense of Kelly's Heroes) but that doesn't mean to say it has to make you feel utterly miserable as many parts of this movie do.
With the inclusion of the Danny Dyer character from the stockade and pending court-martial, the training sequence in a bare landscape somewhere in England, the parachute drop into enemy territory, the maniacal SS squad hunting down the heroes through to the main mission and final escape to freedom, there seems to be too much borrowed from many other films (The Dirty Dozen, Where Eagles Dare etc.).
There are whole sections of this film that seem to be missing in the final cut which make things a little rushed and not to mention confusing. During the training sequence of the film Dyer's character is punished for being a good marksmen and subsequently told that if he had failed in his training and was being sent back to the stockade. 'Why?' you are left asking as there has seemingly been no cause for to be necessary as we haven't seen Dyer misbehave, be rude to anyone or fail any training task he has been given.
We also assume that Bean' and the Sgt characters are killed or captured during the final stages of the movie but we just don't know as it isn't part of the film nor is the air-drop into Norway where we lose a character due to a broken neck (presumably on landing).
My strongest dislike in the movie was the over-use of the 'F' word by pretty much all the squaddies, NCOs and officers as it just isn't necessary. One sentence from the Sgt's mouth was around twenty words long and over half of them where the 'F' word and I know from stories told to me by my late Grandfather, who was a WWII serving Drill\PT instructor in the British Army, that bad language was not permitted and quite often meant disciplinary action with the strongest language being permitted being around the 'bloody-hell' mark.
Besides all that the movie had the potential to be so much better and fails to deliver on so many levels that I would suggest people avoid it at all costs (something I very rarely say about a movie).
I give the movie a 2-star review as I personally reserve a 1-star for the truly awful but also feel obliged to add that if this film's plot, cast and editing where a whole 100% better than in the final release I would still not consider giving it more than a 4-star vote.
Final Words: do yourself a favour and watch the classic Where Eagles Dare instead of this movie as it is a truly awesome movie with everything that Age Of Heroes should and could have been and a whole lot more!
28 out of 38 found this helpful