Anzio ~ at Runboard.com

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War Film Reviews - 1960s
Anzio

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warfilmman
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Registered: 02-2005
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Anzio

I have very mixed feelings about this film from 1965. I really like Robert Mitchum and I love Peter Falk, and I very much like the fact the film tackles the Italian campaign.

Though a few movies have dabbled in the Italy battles of 1944; Go For Broke, Darby's Rangers, The Victors and The Story of GI Joe, to name but 4, few have attempted to explain the stategy of the various fronts and landings as ANZIO does.

But, and alas it's a big but, the film simply stinks!!!! From the insipid love song over the opening titles, to the awful philosophising of Mitchum's character about the horror of war, to the gun-less armored cars the film is awful. Then let's talk about the postwar tanks and trucks, the terrible haircuts and the bad locations.

However the mid part of the film when the patrol of Rangers together with Falk's 1st SSF Cpl and Mitchum's Correspondant escape the massacre in the valley and cut back to their own lines just about saves the film. Though it features clichéd characters and tired old scenarios the action moves along fairly briskly, and the final battle between the German snipers and the survivors is quite tense and well photographed.

I recently bought the DVD version, I skipped the first chapters and launched straight into the action, and it was nice if nothing else to finally see a full widescreen version.

For a Limey like myself it's nice the film includes Anthony Steel in the cast, okay so he was as wooden as an oak tree, but he was in some fine war films in the 50s; Albert RN, the Wooden Horse, The Sea Shall Not Have Them and the Black Tent. When he lived in Italy in the 70s he made a few Eurofilms, westerns and the war move - War Devils, and also dabbled in some softporn flics. He died a couple of years ago.

Paul

2/17/2005, 3:17 pm

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