Rossi have a very strange encounter with a German skirmisher.Ĭaptain Beckman and the Count are horrified that the Major will not abandon the castle, a decision that will surely lead to its destruction Falconer, however, is adamant that to give the Germans one thing means that they'll just end up 'taking everything' later on (see appeasement).

A German recon plane buzzes the castle Beckman, under Falconer's direction, shoots it down with a. The Count is both disquieted and impressed by Falconer's ruthless efficiency. And while horseback riding with the Count, the Major discovers a German reconnaissance patrol whose officer was once billeted in the castle and was a previous lover of the Countess (he in fact abandoned his men in an attempt to see the Countess again) and Falconer kills them all. Billy Byron Bix ( Bruce Dern), attempts to evangelize the town and are driven away by Sgt. The war approaches piece by crazy piece: A band of zealous, hymn-singing conscientious objectors, led by Lt. He is soon proved correct after seeing German star shell signals over the town of St. The cynical Major Falconer predicts that the Germans will attack the thin American positions in the Ardennes and that the castle is a strategic point in the Germans' advance towards the crossroads of Bastogne. And, although the men are eager to sit out the war that they feel will soon end, there is a sense of foreboding, a feeling of inevitability of what will eventually transpire. There is also a recurring theme of eternal recurrence, as one soldier drunkenly ponders out loud that maybe he's 'been here before'.

The American soldiers are happy to enjoy a respite from combat while being surrounded by unimaginable antique luxury, however, their days of leisure and peace almost undermine the very reality and the ugliness of the war itself. Corporal Clearboy falls in love with a Volkswagen Beetle with his affection for the vehicle bordering on paraphilia which becomes a long-running and anachronistic gag throughout the rest of the film. Rossi, a baker before the war, falls in love with a baker's widow and goes AWOL, resuming his pre-war life in the village boulangerie. Beckman marvels at the castle's artworks, which he begins to inventory and store beneath the castle for safekeeping, while the enlisted men seek their own pleasures at the psychedelic 'Reine Rouge' (Red Queen) brothel in the nearby town, run by a mystic madam.

Meanwhile, Beckman begins to argue with Falconer over both the value of the art (in the context of either saving or destroying it in the event of a German assault) as well as Beckman's own unrequited attraction for the Countess, who seems to symbolize the beauty and majesty of the European art that he had studied before the war. The Count of Maldorais, Henri Tixier ( Jean-Pierre Aumont), admits to Falconer that he is impotent, and he hopes that the Major will impregnate the Countess so that his line may continue. While at the castle, Falconer begins a love affair with the young and beautiful Countess (Astrid Heeren) and is surprised to find that she is not the Count's niece but is actually the Count's wife. They take shelter in a magnificent 10th century Belgian castle, the Maldorais, which contains many priceless and irreplaceable art treasures. Rossi ( Peter Falk), art expert Captain Beckman ( Patrick O'Neal), and the highly intelligent narrator, African-American Pvt. The group is led by the one-eyed Major Abraham Falconer ( Burt Lancaster) and includes Sgt. It is December 1944, and a ragtag group of American soldiers (implied to be a group of wounded sent for some quiet R & R) slowly enter the scene, riding on a problematic Jeep towing a small trailer. The film opens with long, beautiful shots of ancient European art and sculptures being blown to pieces amidst the sounds of war and dissonant screams while a lone narrator begins his tale of 'eight American soldiers', when suddenly, and abruptly, the scene jumps back to a few weeks earlier.

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