Italian produced films often try and paint their own involvement in World War 2 as some sort of accident.
Here in Anzio, the film tries to treat Italy as just another country like France, waiting with baited breath for liberation. Granted, Italy did surrender in the middle of the war but ask the Brits from the 8th Army at Tobruk if the Italians were neutral.
It takes on sides in a debate over the handling of the battle by the various generals. That the film is so unworthy to do so is like listening to a lecture from a 14 year old about how society works.
The film tries under the guise of being gritty to portray a number of the American soldiers as criminals, nutjobs, and horndogs. While the horndog might be accurate, the other two groupings do not represent the American military. Of course some in the military were like this, but the producer tends to shape it as if it were the rule, instead of the exception.
Robert Mitchum, one of the most over-rated actors in Hollywood history tries to play it both ways here. He talks about why men kill other men. A comment, during the second world war, which would require only a 5 second film clip from one of the concentration camps to explain why the Brits and the Americans were fighting and thus killing Germans. Within 2 minutes, however of this pacifist musing the director wants you to get all jazzed over some Germans being shot.
The stereotypes are sloppy. Falk, another actor that gets more credit that he deserves is way over the top and seems not to have a grasp of what his character is all about.
Like the actual Anizo campaign, this film is disorganized and doesn't at all live up to the potential that was there.
Here in Anzio, the film tries to treat Italy as just another country like France, waiting with baited breath for liberation. Granted, Italy did surrender in the middle of the war but ask the Brits from the 8th Army at Tobruk if the Italians were neutral.
It takes on sides in a debate over the handling of the battle by the various generals. That the film is so unworthy to do so is like listening to a lecture from a 14 year old about how society works.
The film tries under the guise of being gritty to portray a number of the American soldiers as criminals, nutjobs, and horndogs. While the horndog might be accurate, the other two groupings do not represent the American military. Of course some in the military were like this, but the producer tends to shape it as if it were the rule, instead of the exception.
Robert Mitchum, one of the most over-rated actors in Hollywood history tries to play it both ways here. He talks about why men kill other men. A comment, during the second world war, which would require only a 5 second film clip from one of the concentration camps to explain why the Brits and the Americans were fighting and thus killing Germans. Within 2 minutes, however of this pacifist musing the director wants you to get all jazzed over some Germans being shot.
The stereotypes are sloppy. Falk, another actor that gets more credit that he deserves is way over the top and seems not to have a grasp of what his character is all about.
Like the actual Anizo campaign, this film is disorganized and doesn't at all live up to the potential that was there.