Published via Ecency

(source:tmdb.org)

Wars bring death and misery, but they also tend to make certain people rich, usually those unburdened with morality and scruples. One such opportunity is used in the beginning of Brass Target, a 1978 period thriller directed by John Hough. In 1945 Germany, shortly after the end of the Second World War, a US military train is attacked by masked robbers who gas dozens of military policemen to death and escape with US$250 million worth of former Nazi gold. This crime infuriates General George S. Patton (played by George Kennedy), commander of US occupation forces in Germany, who is convinced that it was most likely committed by people under his command. The suspicion initially falls on Major De Luca (played by John Cassavetes), an OSS veteran whose wartime exploits in Nazi-occupied Italy resembled the robbers' modus operandi. Determined to clear his name, De Luca begins his investigation and it gradually leads to a small group of high-ranking officers led by Colonel Donald Rogers (played by Robert Vaughn). They decide to stop the investigation by getting rid of Patton and contact Webber (played by Max von Sydow), a professional assassin who comes up with an idea of killing the general in a way that would resemble an accident.

The death of Patton, one of America's most celebrated and most controversial generals, was for decades the subject of numerous conspiracy theories. One such theory was used in The Oshawa Project, a 1973 novel by British author Frederick Nolan upon which this film was based. While most of those theories speculated about the general's problematic politics and dangerous warmongering as a motive for assassination, the novel and the film give a more prosaic and convincing alternative in the form of 1945 Europe being filled with ruins, poverty, refugees and general lawlessness not unlike the Wild West. 1970s cinema was fertile ground for both a cynical revisionist approach to history and conspiracy theories, but those potentials weren't met in Brass Target. This is mostly due to uninspired direction by John Hough and terrible miscasting. Cassavetes, one of Hollywood's most formidable character actors, is wasted in a poorly written lead role, while Sophia Loren appears only to fill the quota of female characters. Even worse is the inevitable comparison with other 1970s films with similar or related themes. George Kennedy simply looks unconvincing as Patton following George C. Scott's formidable performance in 1970 film, and even Max von Sydow – who is actually the best thing in Brass Target – looks like a poor man's version of the formidable assassin played by Edward Fox in The Day of the Jackal. With the target set so high, it isn't surprising that this film missed it.

RATING: 4/10 (++)