Anzio (1968)

One of wwiis bloodiest battles as the allies smash through the german lines which have enclosed the anzio beachhead. Four months and 30000 casualties before the allies finally march to rome. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 12/21/2004 Starring: Robert Mitchum Earl Holliman Run time: 117 minutes Rating: Pg Director: Edward Dmytryk Product Description

Gritty War Movie

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: From the Secret Files of Harry Pennypacker
Shadow Watcher
Nobody Drowns in Mineral Lake

Edward Dmytryk directed this gritty drama about one of the biggest Allied blunders of World War II.

Robert Mitchum stars as a war correspondent who lands with the American troops at Anzio.

Shortly thereafter, along with soldiers Peter Falk and Reni Santoni, he discovers that the Germans were unprepared for this invasion, and that the road to Rome is completely clear.

Unfortunately, the general, well played by Arthur Kennedy, doesn't believe him and decides to fortify his beachhead, which gives the Germans time to mount an effective defense that is disastrous to the Allies.

Earl Holliman, Mark Damon and Robert Ryan co-star in this exciting film, which features some well-staged action sequences, particularly one in which Mitchum and a squad of soldiers escape across a mine field.

© Michael B. Druxman, author of ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD October 25, 2008

AVERAGE WWII HOLLYWOOD POT BOILER

The worst thing about this movie for me was the dreadful song that accompanies the screen credits at movie's beginning. Everything moved up a notch from there.

Great movie this is not, great history either. But some things do stand out in this WWII drama: the sniper episode near movie's end as other reviewers mention, the starkness of some scenes is very reminicent of BIG RED ONE and even BATTLE OF THE BULGE, but one that leaves good impressions is the actual battle footage, mostly Navy, and the amphibious landings using fairly realistic landing craft. Though I served in the military, never used a landing craft to take a beach, but that scene was for me fairly captivating.

For the first time viewer this is a somewhat spellbinding, suspenseful movie. And for most people whether reviewers give this movie a good or bad rating, it will be too late, for most will have already purchased and viewed the movie. And generally if this isn't true, most people won't believe the reviews, wanting to experience the movie for themselves.

Semper Fi. June 21, 2008

Entertaining + Suspenseful snipering scenes + rushed to ending = Worth watching

The best thing about this movie is the sniper scene in which 4 out 7 US solders were killed. It's suspenseful, exciting and entertaining. It's also touching when it showed who surrended only to be killed in revenge.

What I don't like is the ending. It seemed the director rushed to the ending. Because of that, the film failed to depict the intensity and great suffering of 5,000 Americans and British who were injured and killed in the fighting. It's worth watching once.

P.S.
The number of 5,000 Americans and British injured and killed at Anzio is quoted from [...] May 22, 2008

Large scale reconstruction of key battle

This is a lavish Italian -American co-production tracing the Allied landings on Anzio Beach ,Italy and the consequent long ,bloody and costly advance on Rome .It is mainly seen through the eyes of an American war correspondent "Dick Ennis"-Robert Mitchum giving an assured ,idiosyncratic performance .
The movie is grievously hampered by a quite dreadful script -hang your head in shame Harry AL Craig -which indulges in enough windy,verbose and pompous,sententious sermonising to put even Al Bore (the spelling is accurate)to shame .The characters ,the GI's in particular are not given dialogue to speak ;they are given "statements"to make .
It makes the fatal mistake of so many historical movies-judging the past by the standards of today .By all means use war movies -or any movies for that matter -to raise moral issues but not at the expense of the narrative drive of the movie .Thus we have a picture that takes a while to get going .The action when it arrives is well staged with a sniper duel and a pasage through a minefield especially excitingly done

The performances are sound with solid turns from Arthur Kennedy as General Lesley and Robert Ryan as General Carson .

The movie is based on an admirable book by Wynford Vaughan-Thomas which exposed the decisions that were made during the campaign which allegedly cost thousands of US lives .Try and get your hands on that -it will illuminate the campaign more acutely than this sermonising missed opportunity .

You may find the first half an endurance test but the final section is well done and pretty rousing

December 14, 2007

i loved this movie as a kid , but it really doesn't hold up well

when i was young i loved this movie and can remember watching it. sadly it has not stood the test of time very well. the history of the movie is very far from fact and the whole cast looks like they want to get as far away from the screen as they can. to make it worse the battle scenes are just ok not great like a movie like this needs,and that just makes this all the more a reason to avoid this one. May 18, 2006

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