After seeing Attack, a great film featuring one of Jack Palance's best performances, war films and Palance seemed like an ideal combination. Legion of the Damned(aka Battle of the Commandos) disappoints however, there are some good things but it underwhelms on the whole due to budget limitations and careless directing.
Legion of the Damned's best components are the music score and the acting. The music is very rousing, and gives the film the tension and excitement that it is lacking in otherwise. The cast is a good one and they give credible performances, with Jack Palance being animated and grippingly hard-nosed(if a little too brutish for a leader), Thomas Hunter clearly having fun, Helmet Schneider heartfelt, Guido Lollobrigida charmingly roguish and Wolfgang Preiss authoritative. The film is not too badly paced, it certainly doesn't drag but it does at times feel rushed especially in the action, there are some great one-liners from McPherson and the conclusion is intense and moving.
It is a shame though that it is badly let down by the production values and the direction. The photography never rises above that for a low-budget late-60s-early-70s TV series(which I am not sure was not the look that was intended), the sets are sparse and dreary with even drearier lighting and the editing is very confused and so constantly rapid it's enough to make one dizzy. In all three cases, it is especially bad in the action. The same can be said with the direction too, which throughout is incredibly careless and the film fails to achieve momentum and suspense in the action outside of the conclusion due to the bad editing and the frantic pacing. The script has its moments definitely with some nice one-liners and makes some good points, but has an abruptly jumping about to the next point without developing everything feel and a lot of melodramatic talk that doesn't develop the characters enough. The anti-war statement intended well but came over as tacked on and muddled.
The characters are generally very one-dimensional, especially McPherson, with some even floating in and out of the story and action, and the story while not dull in pacing could have had more tension, suspense and excitement(which is why it underwhelms as a war film, and a higher budget, a slightly longer length and if the film on occasions had slowed down a tad would have helped) and could have been less jumpy and episodic.
Overall, underwhelming but watchable. 4/10 Bethany Cox
