BREAKTHROUGH (SERGEANT STEINER)

West Germany, 1978, 92 minutes, Colour.
Richard Burton, Rod Steiger, Robert Mitchum, Curt Jurgens, Michael Parks, Helmut Griem.
Directed by Andrew V.McLaglan.

Breakthrough (Sergeant Steiner) is very routine World War Two film. Made at the end of the '70s, it seems almost anachronistic and out of date.

The screenplay is an attempt at continuing the storyline and some characters of Sam Peckinpah's excellent war epic Cross of Iron. However, this film remains generally on the surfaces of war and with stereotype characters. Richard Burton, showing his age, is an unrealistic Sergeant Steiner, although Burton does have his rhetorical touches and the indication of his talent. Robert Mitchum is more at ease as the sleepy-eyed American official, but he has done this many times. Rod Steiger gives his usual vigour to the role of the American General. Michael Parkes as well as well-known German cast add some distinction to the supporting cast, especially Klaus Lowitsch (from so many of Fassbinder's films).

The film shows, rather conventionally, action scenes of the progress of the war in Germany and France in 1944. The battle scenes are exciting in a usual type of way, there is some sense of atmosphere given to the German occupied town and the attacking Americans. In the background is dissidence in the German army, exemplified especially by a stern Nazi officer played by Helmut Griem (Cabaret). There is a personality clash between Steiner and the officer played by Griem. There is also a romantic interlude in Paris.

The film was directed by Andrew V. McLaglen? who showed that he could make exciting war films with The Devil's Brigade (1968). McLaglen? was a maker of many westerns in the John Ford tradition in the '60s and '70s. In the late '70s he made the action adventures The Wild Geese, The Sea Wolves and North Sea Hijack. This is an average war film.