If you take Brass Target as a re-imagination of the situation in post-WWII Europe, similar to "Inglorious Basterds"©, this movie is easier to accept. However, any similarity to "Inglorious Basterds"© ends there. I feel this is a film made due to contractual obligations and maintaining SAG membership. The only reason I ever watched this film is because I was an extra in it, and even actually appear on screen for a second. Other than that, I MAY have been tempted to watch it once by some of the names, in particular Patrick McGoohan and George Kennedy, but other than my own one second of film glory, I wouldn't own it. The plot is completely implausible. I feel the actors make the best of it out of sheer professional pride. Here's a trivia point for you IMDb© keepers out there: Many of the extras are actually U.S. Army personnel recruited from troops serving in Munich at the time the movie was shot.

i wholly disagreed with most of the other comments. brass target is one of the best world war ii movies made. i do recall the tag line was different that that reported on this sight. Patton thought he was about to find who stole the Reichsbank gold and he ended up dead; millions of dollars says there was a connection.Brass Target is based on Frederick Nolan's book The Algonquin Project which appeared in the 1970s a period when fundamental assumptions could be called into question. Nolan tackled the tangled mess of the Patton assassination. Who ordered it? Was it The Russians whom Patton played here by grand eloquently by George Kennedy provoked, US politicians who found Patton distastefully attracted to the Germans, the Army full of pent up jealousies? Nolan hypothesized a connection between the looting of US occupied West Germany with Patton's demise allegedly in a mob styled rub out in an auto accident.As the film opens, the great war was won but Patton has days left in Germany. For various faux pas, the great general has been ordered home in disgrace, but he's still investigating the disappearance of the Reichsbank gold. It's very difficult to get anything done even for the General with a less than gentle roar.Though GC Scott is more like the diminutive wiry Patton, I think George Kennedy did a better job replicating Patton's bellow and hostility to the Russians who are always there to chide Patton about the virtual dissolution of the US Army.Enter Major Joe De Lucca (John Cassavetes) New York born Italian - American with a gritty charm. Patton wants the thief who stole the Reichsbank gold found. The trail of corpses left behind in the cover-up leads Major Lucca across occupied Europe back to Comstack Correctional Facility to visit convicted NYC gangster Lou Costello who tells the Major that Army Intelligence already knows the answer.Can Major Lucca make it back in time to warn General Patton? Even though history teaches you the answer to that question, the film keeps you riveted to the seat.

This was an extremely lacking WW II movie. The story is told poorly and most of the time is just mainly confusing. The movie also lacks in tension and the main characters in the story are handled in a boring and bad way.The cast of this movie is truly impressive. George Kennedy, John Cassavetes, Sophia Loren, Robert Vaughn, Max von Sydow, Patrick McGoohan, Bruce Davison. All are great actors but the material they had been given to work with in this movie was just plain awful. None of the actors really get the opportunity to shine, due to the very poor directing and some weak, ridicules dialog. All of the characters in the movie are just totally uninteresting to follow. Sophia Loren's character is just pointless and works only distracting and causes the movie its pace to be even more lacking in speed. George Kennedy also really wasn't convincing as Gen. George S. Patton Jr. Robert Vaughn plays a villainous American colonel, who also happens to be a very active homosexual in the movie. This just feels totally pointless and was not needed at all for the story. Basically the only really interesting and good character is the hit-man played by the always dependable Max von Sydow. Cheering for the bad guy in a movie like this one, that's never a good sign. It was also sort of fun to see a young Bruce Davison, before he received real fame in the late '90's/00's.The story itself really isn't that bad and was good enough to make this movie just as good and entertaining as movies like "Where Eagles Dare", "The Guns of Navarone" and "The Eagle Has Landed". However the story is told extremely muddled in the movie, which makes it hard to understand at times what is the main plot line of the movie. At first you think that the movie is about getting the stolen German gold stock back. However as the movie progresses it becomes obvious that the movie is about an assassination on General Patton instead and the movie turns into a whole different movie entirely, almost more in the same style as "The Day of the Jackal", which was made 5 years earlier. Needless to say that not all of the elements that happen in the story feel connected to each other.The movie is also truly lacking in tension. The movie is slow paced and could had really used some action sequences. Instead, the movie is a slow and boring one to watch. Also because the story is so confusing and distorted, you never really connect to anything that happens in the movie. The characters feel really distant and the events in the movie are far from interesting or exciting and the movie also totally lacks in style and atmosphere.So why should you watch this movie in the first place? I can think of no reason. It by no means is one of the worst movies ever made but it also most certainly isn't the best in its genre. It's a very poorly made movie, with weak directing and storytelling that feels like an huge waste of a great cast and a story that had quite some potential and deserved a better treatment. It's already an almost totally forgotten movie and it should better just stay that way as well.4/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

I taped this film off TCM but the title credits were missing from my tape, so I spent the entire movie trying to guess what year it was made. I'm proud to say, I was right on the money. And that for me was the big thrill of Brass Target. I'm not sure of the real historical background - whether the plot was made up or if there is an actual suspicion that General Patton was murdered. In this story, Patton launches a search for gold stolen by American soldiers, and a hit is put out on him. Max von Sydow, in a familiar role, is the hired hit man and believe me, he doesn't confine his activities to killing Patton. He kills everybody. Don't worry, that's not a spoiler.John Cassavetes plays the soldier trying to identify the assassin. Sophia Loren is his girlfriend. She is there for star power. Patrick McGoohan is pathetic going for some sort of American accent. Then there's George Kennedy as Patton. He must have needed the money badly. Robert Vaughn and Edward Herrmann are gay soldiers who are in on the heist. Lucky Luciano is also involved somehow.There is one really dandy scene at the end. See if you can find it if you're still watching.