An excellent Henry Silva thought otherwise, taking on the odds. Sure, it's virtually a suicide mission, but they're not going down without a fight. The Italians wanting to cash in on "THE DIRTY DOZEN", instead delivered something more along the lines of the "GUNS OF NAVARONE" in this rather bleak boys' own Spaghetti war adventure.
Conventional to a tee, moving at a steady clip and staying grounded, yet the solid production design shows authenticity in its battle raids, underground sets and picturesque locations. This is all building to a pressure pack final third of dangerous rock climbing (a win-win if you like dummy work), fierce machinegun fire, lethal knife encounters, flame-throwing action (although not enough) and ravaging explosions. What we see throughout is that the mission does come first, as a stone-faced Silva grits his teeth. Leading a ragtag group of commandos and a torpedo behind German lines (Norway) to blow-up a fortified Nazi bunker that's harboring an advanced radar unit from a shot-down British plane.
Co-written by Dario Argento, the plot is lean, but when set in motion it's filled with obstacles, elaborate scheming, tough dialogues, heated rivalries, double-crossings, and typical self-sacrifice with a stirringly downbeat closing.
Conventional to a tee, moving at a steady clip and staying grounded, yet the solid production design shows authenticity in its battle raids, underground sets and picturesque locations. This is all building to a pressure pack final third of dangerous rock climbing (a win-win if you like dummy work), fierce machinegun fire, lethal knife encounters, flame-throwing action (although not enough) and ravaging explosions. What we see throughout is that the mission does come first, as a stone-faced Silva grits his teeth. Leading a ragtag group of commandos and a torpedo behind German lines (Norway) to blow-up a fortified Nazi bunker that's harboring an advanced radar unit from a shot-down British plane.
Co-written by Dario Argento, the plot is lean, but when set in motion it's filled with obstacles, elaborate scheming, tough dialogues, heated rivalries, double-crossings, and typical self-sacrifice with a stirringly downbeat closing.