Most war movies, "Green Berets" included, consist of a lot of worn-out dialog and a few incomprehensible battle scenes. At the film's end, when the Allies enter Rome, he observes the parade from beneath a 2,000-year-old Roman monument: "Nothing has changed," he says, "except the uniforms and the transportation." And when he finally does kill for the first time, it is a clear-cut case of self-defense. Trapped behind enemy lines with six soldiers, he refuses on several occasions to accept a weapon. He says he covers wars because he cannot understand why men fight them. The action is again seen from the point of view of a correspondent ( Robert Mitchum). In the version by Dino De Laurentiis and the veteran action director Edward Dmytryk ("The Caine Mutiny," "The Young Lions"), the Allied armies could have marched straight into Rome, but they cautiously stayed on the beachhead while the Germans brought up reserves. It's told from the Italian point of view (in itself a refreshing novelty in World War II movies), and argues that Anzio was a strategic defeat even though a military victory. This sort of sophomoric bugle tooting is in sharp contrast with "Anzio," which is a good war movie and even an intelligent one.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |