” It was a big budget commercial failure, for a number of reasons unrelated to its excellence.”
There are many reasons for a flop which have nothing to do with quality. Bad distribution/advertising can do it in.
Quite right. It was a British-made film (filmed in Tyrolia in Austria) with bad distro in the USA. At the end Vietnam, I think folks were too war-weary to appreciate a movie about the 30 years war. And some critics didn’t buy Caine’s accent. I buy it, but it is admittedly strange to hear him with a German accent.