Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Clarissa Mora The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

zardoz-13 Before British director Michael Winner made his world-famous or infamous Charles Bronson revenge thriller "Death Wish," he made a most unusual World War II movie. Imagine a British P.O.W., played by Oliver Reed, escaping to Switzerland with an Indian elephant that he has been ordered to evacuate from a German zoo and you've got the basic plot of "Hannibal Brooks." In his autobiography "Winner Take All," Winner remembers that Aida, the elephant, had to be accompanied by another elephant, each of them tipping the scales at two and half tons! Between the elephant, the rowdy Reed, and drug-addled Michael J. Pollard, Winner wound up helming the usual firefights between the Germans and the escaped prisoners-of-war that make up this slightly overlong war movie. Winner stages a convoy ambush, a train derailment, avalanches of logs and stones, and ultimately the destruction of a massive border guard post with verve. Although it doesn't qualify as a really big World War II epic like director J. Lee Thompson's "The Guns of Navarone" or Brian G. Hutton's "Where Eagles Dare," "Hannibal Brooks" is still above-average because it is so unlike all other World War II movies. Patriotism doesn't clap its heels together and storm to the front of the action. Indeed, James Donald of "The Great Escape" where he portrayed the Allied P.O.W. Commandant has the only role in "Hannibal Brooks" that vocalizes patriotism. Meanwhile, the Germans—especially the S.S.—aren't demonized. Appropriately enough, Winner relied on Pollard—fresh from his Oscar nominated role in "Bonnie & Clyde"—to serve as comic relief, and Pollard easily steals the show from Reed and his gigantic co-star. French composer Francis Lai furnishes a majestic orchestral score that sounds like something the 101 Strings would have no problem immortalizing. Nevertheless, like the pachyderm, "Hannibal Brooks" amounts to a slow-moving melodrama which makes it easy to pause it and walk off for a while to attend to other necessities. There is no burning urgency, but the film dutifully arrives at its grand finale.The Germans captured Stephen 'Hannibal' Brooks (Oliver Reed of "The Three Musketeers") in the beginning after he has repaired a vehicle and they shoot it the tires out, taking him prisoner. Cue the Francis Lai music and lenser Robert Paynter, who worked with Winner on most of his pictures, regales us with scenic long shots of Germany as a period train trundles through it. During the train ride, British enlisted man Brooks meets American enlisted man Packy (Michael J. Pollard of "Bonnie & Clyde") and persuades him to serve as their look-out while they try to loosen some planks in the ceiling of a train. The escape attempt is short-lived, but for the remainder of this 101-minute actioneer, Packy and Brooks cross paths at the best and worst times. Once they have been settled into Stalag 7-A, our heroes learn that the Germans are looking for men to work for them in the nearby town of Munich. The vicar (James Donald of "The Great Escape") suggests they pass up this opportunity because they are still on the British Army payroll, but Brooks takes the Germans up on their offer and finds himself tending an elephant named Lucy (Aida in her only starring role) when he isn't in camp.Packy manages to escape when the Allies drop bombs on the zoo. Brooks refuses to abandon Lucy. A piece of shapnel lodges in her side, but our hero nurses her back to health. The bombing killed the German elephant so Lucy is entrusted entirely to Brooks. Indeed, the zoo curator arranges for Brooks—under guard of course—to take Lucy to Innsbruck and so the journey of hardship begins for both man and beast. Kurt, the German soldier (Peter Carsten of "Dark of the Sun") who supervises their trip, rubs Brooks raw and neither man has respect for the other. Eventually, Brooks can longer abide Kurt, and they tangle in the middle of the woods when Kurt makes a foolish move to shoot Lucy. The second time that they trade blows, Kurt falls down a hillside and the woman, Vronia (Karin Baal of "Dead Eyes of London"), who accompanies them discovers that he is dead. Brooks decides to make a dash for Switzerland. Vronia and a sympathetic German guard, Willy (Teutonic actor Helmut Lohner), go their different ways. The closest character to being a villain—other than the drunken Kurt—is German Colonel von Haller. One of the most recognized German character actors to play officers in World War II movies for 30 years—Wolfgang Priess—is instantly credible and twice as villainous. Initially, he forces Lucy, Brooks, and Kurt vacate a train freight car that was assigned to accommodate them during their trip to a quiet part of Germany that Allied bombers wouldn't devastate. Later, when they are crossing a narrow bridge, our heroes encounter the unsavory von Haller again. This time Brooks doesn't capitulate to von Haller. He explains to the colonel while Kurt stands by impotently that you cannot turn an elephant around on a narrow bridge and that Lucy cannot walk backwards."Hannibal Brooks" won't top anybody's list of memorable World War II movies. This is war as an adventure with few opportunities to cast combat in an unglamorous look. Nevertheless, Winner does make war seem ironic. After they knock over an eight truck German convoy, Packy discovers the Jerries were carrying cans of bully beef. This color picture is still entertaining and most of all different compared to most combat movies. Winner recounts in his autobiography that he collaborated on the script treatment of "Hannibal Brooks" with a Norwich house painter who tended an elephant in Munich during the war.

patsylovesjazz Sadly they do not make films of this type today. an innocent film (if a film about war can be that), and very funny in places which also does not surprisingly, conflict with the film's war content.I have seen this brilliant 'British' film only twice and narrowly missed seeing (and recording)it for the third time recently. As it doesn't seem to be shown on TV (as often as the Great Escape anyway), I tried to buy a DVD instead. I was therefore completely surprised and frustrated to find it isn't listed as available anywhere, as far as I could see.Mr Winner, if you ever read this, please, please, please, make arrangements for this excellent film to be made available (again?) with possibly,dare I suggest, a Director's commentary, and comments from some of the (sadly few) remaining actors.

Jonathon Dabell Before he became obsessed with violent thrillers like Death Wish and vulgar costumers like The Wicked Lady, director Michael Winner made a reputation for himself making quaint family movies. His early directorial efforts are littered with light-hearted films like Play It Cool, The System, and You Must Be Joking. The transition probably began in 1969 with Hannibal Brooks, for in this film Winner veers erratically between cute family-orientated escapades and modestly violent wartime action. The switches in mood and style are somewhat jarring - one moment we are cooing at the delightful elephant around which the story is based, the next we witness a German soldier plunging to his death from a cable car.... similarly we are meant to feel tension when those darned Nazis are on-screen, but the evil that is Nazism is absurdly counterbalanced by the presence of the comical supporting character played by Michael J Pollard. Hannibal Brooks is desperately uneven, and is one of the most oddball films ever made, but something about it is endearingly likable.Prisoner-of-war Stephen Brooks (Oliver Reed) is assigned to work in a Munich zoo, where he becomes the keeper of a huge, friendly elephant named Lucy. During a heavy bombing raid on Munich, Brooks escapes from the zoo but decides, absurdly, to take his new elephant friend with him (!) Brooks' plan is to follow in the footsteps of the famous Carthiginian general Hannibal who, if you know your history, led his soldiers and elephants over the Alps in battle. Brooks guides Lucy into the Alps intending to find his way to the Swiss border, where freedom and neutrality await. Along the way, Brooks frequently runs into an American saboteur named Packy (Michael J Pollard) who, with his team of misfits, spends most of his time being a thorn in the side of the Germans. Progressing through the German countryside with an elephant in tow proves no easy task, but eventually Brooks and Lucy close in on the Swiss frontier. Occasionally, Lucy proves herself to be a useful creature to have along, such as in the scene where her brute strength is used to dislodge a German checkpoint from a hillside.Hannibal Brooks is as implausible as it is inoffensive. The backdrop is beautiful, and Robert Paynter captures the Alpine landscapes in wonderful DeLuxe colour. Oliver Reed gives a superb performance, holding together the potentially ridiculous story with infectious enthusiasm, and proving the old saying that actors should never work with children or animals is not always true. He has an on-screen chemistry with his elephant co-star that is surprisingly heart-warming (Reed really does seem to have some kind of rapport with the pachyderm, which helps to add some believability to an otherwise unbelievable scenario). Like I pointed out earlier, the film veers dramatically between cuteness and cruelty, action and comedy, and is consequently so uneven that it doesn't really gel. Pollard's eccentric performance as the saboteur Packy is also distracting for the wrong reasons, pulling the film down a further notch or two. But in all honesty, Hannibal Brooks still emerges a strangely likable misfire, and is a film that always goes down nicely on a rainy afternoon when there's nothing better to do.

Wiseguy-7 Well worth watching! Escaping from Germany to Switzerland with an elephant, Hannibal Brooks embarks on an action-packed adventure that will keep your attention, and provide some laughs along the way.