故事发生在1943年9月,邪恶的希特勒(Peter Miles 饰)决定实施一个危险的计划——绑架丘吉尔(Leigh Dilley 饰)。瑞德尔上校(罗伯特·杜瓦尔 Robert Duvall 饰)接受了这个几乎不可能完成的任务,他选择了训练有素的戴福利(唐纳德·萨瑟兰 Donald Sutherland 饰),同科特上校(迈克尔·凯恩 Michael Caine 饰)率领的伞兵队一同出发。
戴福利和科特潜伏在丘吉尔经常前往的农庄猎场之中,然而,一场意外却暴露了他们的真实身份,一时间,农庄里弥漫着危险而紧张的气氛。一位勇敢的少女将德军来袭的消息通报给了美国驻军,之后,农庄里发生了激烈的战斗,死伤无数。尽管已经殚精竭虑,但科特依然没有放弃自己的计划,然而,等待着他的,只有失败和审判。
In 1954 Vietnam, at the time of Diên Biên Phu, a French unit on patrol under the command of an inexperienced lieutenant is gradually depleted by Vietminh until only an ex-Wehrmacht Alsatian adjutant remains. He is to die, a title informs us, in Algeria in 1960.
Semi-documentary in style, this is an effectively low-key appraisal of the difficult choices with which war confronts its soldiers. As so often in Vietnam films the enemy is only glimpsed from a distance, the camera remaining a disembodied observer among the group. Bertrand Tavernier acted as co-writer on the film.