Just caught some of it on Turner Classic Movies and have heard of the DVD release. It appears that everything was done right - civilisation VS Nazism conflict, grim determination without grandstanding on the part of both sides, great B&W shooting, real war-era hardware, real train wrecks, effective location shooting, believable fake-outs involving depot walls and water towers... of course, not all modern art is worth saving but it's acceptable for the art of modernity to be here used as a metaphor. The film shows the peril that existed as post-industrial-revolution riches are coveted by latter-day thugs, little different from barbarians of ages ago. And this example shows an INTELLECTUAL barbarianism, rather like Orson Welles describes in mentioning Nazi reasoning in "The Stranger".
May rival "Casablanca" in my pantheon of greats!
May rival "Casablanca" in my pantheon of greats!