I hadn't even heard of this movie before coming across an ex rental video copy at a thrift store in my city. Though upon sitting down to watch the movie, it soon became clear why I hadn't heard of the movie before. It certainly boasts an interesting cast - Bruce Davison, David Carradine (who gives a very lazy performance), and Oliver Reed (who only appears for about six minutes) - and for what was a limited budget the movie's production values aren't bad, at least if you aren't a nitpicker about certain World War II military details. However, the script is kind of a mess. It tries to both be funny and hard-hitting, but the two extremes do not jell. It's too serious (and violent) to be funny, and it's too goofy to be serious. Another problem is that the narrative is kind of rambling. It takes forever for the central characters to be assigned their mission, going through a number of vignettes that add little to nothing to the movie. Then when the mission starts, there is still a clear lack of focus - the characters seem kind of aimless as they go forth, lacking proper planning and preparedness. It almost seems as if the filmmakers were making things up as they went along.In the end, this is a movie that is too strange to be immediately dismissed, but at the same time it's not terribly entertaining.

Svel Hassle has written a lot of books about his war experiences as a Dane in the German Army in WWII. Most of these fictional accounts but based on real-life events), the books have been widely released in Europe, but from time to time are available in North America as well (Corgi Press).This is the one and only movie made from one of his books, a shame really, since Swen Hassle portrays way in a most realistic manner; neither making light of what is happening, not glorifying war, but emphasizing the "Kameradschaft" - the effects of the war's events on Swen and his friends.The movie unfortunately has some flaws that keep it from being really great. Foremost of these is the casting of David Carradine as a German officer. Too bad, since his performance in this film is sub-par at best.The casting of Bruce Davison as Porta is a great choice, and he really shines in this movie, and along with David Patrick Kelly (as "The Legionnaire") gives realistic performances.One of the major reasons this movie didn't receive wider distribution was protests from a number of groups who thought the movie - although they probably had not seen it - glorified the Nazi regime. It doesn't - it portrays war as brutal (on all sides), with no leaders to rely on, rather only one's fellow soldiers to depend on for your life.A side-note - Swen Hassle is still alive (at this writing) and until relatively recently, has still been writing (although not writing fiction any more). Two of the three major characters in his books (Tiny, Porta and the Legionnaire) survived the war as well.

If you fell in love with the books of Sven Hassle, you might think this is a movie not to miss. Sorry, have to bring your hopes down.The movie doesn't catch anything from the books! The characters are nothing like in the books. Can it be so that they couldn't find any actors to resemble the characters in the books or was the directing so terrible? I don't know but I was SO disappointed after seeing this movie that I was sorry I bought it.As far as I'm concerned, this movie shouldn't have been done, at least not in the 80's! They probably had a very small budget which may be the reason for the terrible style of the movie and the story, that doesn't remind me of the exciting and cruel stories in the books of Sven Hassle. Skip the movie and stick to the books!

A very watchable low budget WWII action adventure in the same vein as Kelly's Hero's. You could say it's a cross between Kelly's Heros and the Dirty Dozen. It's a light-hearted adaptation of a Sven Hassle novel about a German penal tank crew sent to the Russian Front. On their return they are sent on a mission to destroy a train behind enemy lines with the promise of retirement if their mission is successful. The tone is one of anti-war and anti-nazism, with the laid back crew pushing insubordination to the limits. The movie has a good cast and characters. David Carradine is superb as the nazi Col. Von Weisshage; and indeed one of the things that make it enjoyable is that all the actors seem to be enjoying their roles. The other thing that makes it enjoyable is the solid humour that keeps a steady pace.