Interesting twist of a war drama about a National Guard infantry company stuck with an incompetent, politically appointed, company commander, Captain Cooney, played by Eddie Albert. Cooney's father is a big whig back home and the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Bartlett, played by a very young looking Lee Marvin has big political ambitions for after the war so he puts Eddie Albert in command of Fox Company as a favor to the 'Old Man'. Captain Cooney is a coward and at the beginning of the movie leaves one of his squads hanging out to dry and they are quickly killed. When Lt. Costa (Jack Palance) is ordered to take a farmhouse at the edge of an enemy infested town, he warns Cooney what will happen if the company doesn't show up as promised. Cooney's behavior eventually puts the whole battalion at risk and pushes each man nearly to his breaking point.
The performances are brilliant all around with Albert and Palance turning in arguably the best performances of their careers. Lee Marvin essentially does Lee Marvin and if you've seen a few of his movies you know what to expect. Attack is 107 minutes but felt more like two hours. The pacing is spotty and another round of editing, cutting six or seven minutes, would vastly improve the film. I'm not sure but there were a few spots in the beginning where it seemed they mixed up the ranks and had a lieutenant in charge of the squad that was killed. Lieutenants command platoons in an infantry company, sergeants command squads.
The performances are brilliant all around with Albert and Palance turning in arguably the best performances of their careers. Lee Marvin essentially does Lee Marvin and if you've seen a few of his movies you know what to expect. Attack is 107 minutes but felt more like two hours. The pacing is spotty and another round of editing, cutting six or seven minutes, would vastly improve the film. I'm not sure but there were a few spots in the beginning where it seemed they mixed up the ranks and had a lieutenant in charge of the squad that was killed. Lieutenants command platoons in an infantry company, sergeants command squads.