"There are always opportunities for redemption."
Six stories unfold in various regions, from Sicily to the northern Po Valley as American military personnel interact with a variety of Italian locals over eighteen months in the push north during the Italian Campaign of WWII as German forces retreat.
Carmela Sazio
Carmela
Robert Van Loon
Joe
Benjamin Emanuel
American Soldier
Raymond Campbell
American Soldier
Harold Wagner
Harry, a German soldier
Albert Heinze
German soldier
Merlin Berth
Merlin, American Soldier
Mats Carlson
Swede, an American soldier
Leonard Parrish
An American soldier
Six stories unfold in various regions, from Sicily to the northern Po Valley as American military personnel interact with a variety of Italian locals over eighteen months in the push north during the Italian Campaign of WWII as German forces retreat.
As the Allies begin their invasion of Italy in 1943, Roberto Rossellini tells us half a dozen stories that might have occurred as the largely American army made their way through the country heading for Rome. These stories are not connected in any individual way, only by virtue of their providing some interesting vignettes illustrating the attitudes of the locals they encounter and the soldier's own behaviour. As they move from Sicily on up the peninsula, we meet a population who have had different experiences of the war so far - some barely touched by it, some deeply so - and the US forces are not universally welcomed. I won't try to explain the plots of each of these episodes, but suffice to say that they each have a potency that demonstrates quite well the ravages of war on both the victors and the losers - and it's not always immediately clear whom is whom! My personal favourite involves a young, homeless and streetwise scrounger who takes advantage of a sozzled soldier only to end up back in his war-torn hometown where the seizure of a pair of boots is rather put into context. There's some philosophy here, too. The sense that all are united against a common enemy until the fractured nature of human nature re-emerges, and things like religion start to re-impose a sometimes quite questionable dogma on a previously conjoined family of beliefs and opinions is effectively presented. These are six mini-adventures. One or two of them may deal more with the romantic or personal aspects of war, but all are delivered under a fairly constant threat from bullets and bombs that culminates well with a scenario that sort of offers us the wartime equivalent of snagging! The last few pockets of resistance to the advancing forces proving dangerously effective and highly tenacious. There's something intensely plausible about these dramatisations - the Italians all speak in their own tongue; the production uses intimate photography and grand scale cinematography as well as maintaining a palpable sense of menace throughout. This is certainly amongst the best of the genre.
In 1943, two British intelligence officers concoct Operation Mincemeat, wherein their plan to drop a corpse with false papers off the coast of Spain would fool Nazi spies into believing the Allied forces were planning to attack by way of Greece rather than Sicily.
In 1945, the dictator of fascist Italy and Hitler's close ally Benito Mussolini faces defeat. In a desperate attempt to avoid capture, he tries to flee the country with his lover Claretta Petacci, but Italian partisans are on their tail.
Fr. Hugh O'Flaherty is a Vatican official in 1943-45 who has been hiding downed pilots, escaped prisoners of war, and Italian resistance families. His activities become so large that the Nazis decide to assassinate him the next time he leaves the Vatican.
During the Nazi occupation of 1944 Rome, Resistance leader Giorgio Manfredi is pursued by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a means of escape.
Based on the memoirs of author Curzio Malaparte, diplomatic liaison between the Allied and Italian forces after the defeat of the Nazis in Italy, The Skin follows the collapse of Italian society under the US occupation and the desperate measures required for survival.
War stories about family, ethics and honor include the true story of two U.S. Marines who in a span of six seconds, must stand their ground to stop a suicide truck bomb, a Navy Corpsman who attempts to hold on to his humanity, and a WW2 soldier who gets separated from his squad and is forced to re-evaluate his code.
World War I, Italian north-eastern front after the 1917 bloody battles on the Altipiano. A group of soldiers face the difficulty of war in a story that unfolds in the space of one night. Events follow one after the other without any kind of pattern: the peaceful mountains suddenly become a place where men die. But every story told in this film is a true story.
In late 1940s Italy, a mother makes the difficult decision to send her son to the north, where he catches glimpses of a new life away from poverty.
War seen through the eyes of Serra, a university student from Palermo who volunteers in 1942 to fight in Africa. He is assigned to the Pavia Division on the southern line in Egypt. Rommel and the Axis forces are bogged down; it's October, the British prepare an offensive. At first, boredom, heat, hunger, and thirst bedevil the Italians; then the Brits attack, and there's no luck or heroism in death. Finally, it's retreat in confusion. Serra, his sergeant Rizzo, and his lieutenant Fiori take a last walk toward home. It's said that each soldier gets three miracles; when Serra's are used up, what then?
A chronicle of the Cristeros War (1926-1929), which was touched off by a rebellion against the Mexican government's attempt to secularize the country.