Customer Reviews

The Battle of El Alamein

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I came across this little gem of a film over 20 years ago, although the dubbing is "B" rate and this version was mercilessly cut,it is still a very good war movie for anyone interested in the desert war to see in that it recounts one Italian chapter of the battle of El alamein that is not very well known to many English viewers.

It follows the actual British 8th army and Italian documented records of the account, which we get to see refreshingly this time from the Italians side.

This movie was produced as a low budget production portraying the heroic and desperate attempts of a bersaglieri regiment to stop the advancing hordes of allied armour from decimating the outnumbered Italian Infantry and remaining light tank division in the last few days of the battle of El alamein.

The great thing about this flick is that we actually get to see the Bersaglieri and ariete (two of Italy's elite divisions) in action.

Unfortunately for many the actual feats of bravery achieved by the Italians in WWII have been kept out of the English press for propaganda reasons for many a year and only recently are we finding modern historians acknowledging the Italians true fighting spirit during that war in better researched well balanced publications about WW2 using solid sources from both sides..

The ending to this movie is indeed awesome, facing superior armour we see the bad leadership that caused the Italians to eventually lose this conflict in the desert in effect, we also get to see some tank battle strategy in action.

We witness the courage of the Ariete division in poorly armoured small tanks ( later nicknamed "steel coffins")relentlessly charging the better armoured more powerful sherman, matildas and crusader tanks of the allies knowing their eventual fate but pursuing the fight to the end.

In fact the last actual documented recorded message in WW2 intercepted by the british from the Italian ariete medium tank division to Commando supremo was "Ariete engaging enemy now -till the end"

And this film sums up their determined fighting spirit and fateful end.

We then find the Bersaglieri out of munitions preparing to fight the tank divisions leading a molotov coctail charge against the british in a suicide mission.

These were actual feats that are recorded by both Italian and British sources , so the film does do justice to history in these regards as the bersaglieri were fiercely patriotic many of them chose death rather than capture.

The End portrays the British command finally capturing their objective against the outnumbered Italian defenders whereby the British award the remaining few Bersaglieri a full military salute and honour them for bravery before taking the few left as prisoners.

I enjoyed this movie not because of the quality of production, because it is evident that the production was very low budget indeed, but for the factual portrayal of the actual battle- this alone is a good reason for the war movie enthusiast to view and enjoy this film..

I thoroughly recommend it!!

Well what can i say this is the first film ive seen which focus's on Italien troops for a change.It mainly focus's on an Italien company of soldiers who are fighting for survival during the battle of el alamien.The film is fairly cheap, half the tanks are obviously models n the others are Russian with an Iron cross put on them.It doesnt really stand up say to longest day or a bridge too far but is acurate to events.It watchable ill say that even though half the brits sound like they have got really bad colds and most of its dubbed.

This was a really good Italian war movie. However, the copy ... is currently offering from Congress Entertainment, is of low quality. It is from an unrestored, bad-looking negative and runs only 80 minutes, rather than the 105 release time and the 92 minute length advertised. It's hard to follow; some scenes are obviously removed. In one part Rommel is recalled to Berlin for a long rest, only to be seen in Africa 10 minutes later! It's not worth the ... price for something this bad. If a full-length restored print is ever released then GO BUY IT! Until then, ignore this print.

This is a great movie for a war buff looking for a different twist, that being a heroic Italian war view. .... I saw it on tv a long time ago and the ending is awesome! The version I purchased was done in LP mode (jacket says HIGH Quality, LOL)and it was about 100 line resolution so little things like, say, peoples faces were a total blur, LOL. It was dubbed on the label Star Classics so definetly stay away from that version. Movie is worth going onto DVD escpecially considering some of the worthless garbage stuff they're putting out lately when it comes to vintage war flicks.

Too bad the producers did this one on the cheap as it is more of a documentary in content in that it gives an accurate picture of the actual role of the Italian army in North Africa under Rommell's comand. Rommell and his Panzer Corp is shown in the proper dependent relationship to the much maligned Italian army in Libya where it gave a good account of itself despite being ill equipped and ill supplied by Il Duce. We are spared the unhistorical, distorted and biased accounts of battle always rendered by Hollywood.

There is no gainsaying the importance in historical terms of the battle of El Alamein in World War two .Its significance was described by Churchill ,with typical eloquence as being " Not the beginning of the end , but rather the end of the beginning "

From this point on it was possible for the Allied powers to take the initiative against the Axis and take the fight to them rather than simply adopt a defensive posture based on buying time .
The battle deserves a major movie ,and indeed it has been treated -albeit tangentially -in pictures like " The Desert Rats" and " Tobruk " .This particular picture is an Italin -French co-production and primarily focuses on events from an Italian perspective .It looks at how an experienced group of soldiers comes to terms with a new leader ,their initial hostility turning to respect for his courage under fire and how they seek to keep their spirit and morale together in the face of desertion by their German allies and the new spirit of attack created by the "up and at 'em "leadership of the British leader General Montgomery

The movie shows how the Italians were sacrificied by Rommel who needed them as cover while he set about extracting the German army from North Africa ,in the face of opposition from Hitler ,in order to ensure they lived to fight another day

The problem is that budgetary restrictions render the battle scenes somewhat low key and it is unfair to judge the actors since their performances are dubbed -with the exception of Michael Rennie as Montgomery .Muddy colour further handicaps evaluation of the movie

Good to get an Italian perspective on events and to see a movie that shows courage is not the exclusive province of the winners but it is not a great picture,rather it is a war movie that has
been shabbbily treated by its distributors who have dubbed and hacked it into borderline incoherence

A wasted opportunity but not unwatchable

The Battle of El Alamein, 1971 film

We see combat on the sand dunes of North Africa. The Italians attack the British and are thrown back. Montgomery takes command. There will bo retreat, plans for withdrawal are burned. Rommel plans to hold the line, but he has health problems. The Italians try to dig holes for protection against shell splinters. Too late! Shells kill those in the open. Monty orders a scouting expedition. They discover fake gun positions and dummy soldiers! The Germans reinforce this line, but do not return fire to avoid warning the enemy. The British march towards the hidden enemy until they open fire. "When I want your advice I"ll ask for it." Rommel is recalled to Berlin. The Germans send out a patrol at night to check for mines. An explosion reveals the mines.

One Italian lieutenant is captured and given treatment. Later he escapes and borrows a jeep to return to his lines. The British have a scheme to plant a phony map of the mine fields on the enemy. Three on a match? "Him! Why him?" The enemy buys this phony map and plans a surprise attack with tanks at night. The British will lay down a curtain barrage when the enemy tanks enter the trap. It works, they lose half. Back in Germany Rommel meets Admiral Canaris, head of intelligence. Rommel is ordered back to North Africa. The Italian orders his troops to sing in the night. The British attack all along the line, the Germans plan to fall back to Tobruk. Anti-tank weapons will remain on the line. The British have first-class weapons and ammunition to attack and win.

The Germans are ordered to attack to the last man; Rommel ignores this command. British tanks attack with cannons, and roll forward. But a sandstorm reduces visibility so Monty orders a retreat. The Italians are ordered to fight to the last man. The Italians have mines that can be attached to tanks and explode. This takes daring and skill to knock out tanks. [This is why tanks are accompanied by troops.] The German tanks are saved by their retreat. The few remaining Italians surrender, their war is over. Imprisonment today is better than an unknown future.

This is an interesting movie in presenting the war in North Africa from the Axis' viewpoint. There was a lot more going on in 1943 than in this one area.

I watched this movie for the first time recently on Pay-per-View, mainly because I was surprised to see a second Italian movie about the subject(I had seen the 2005 Alamein movie some years ago). Like many of these old movies on Pay-per-View, it didn't have a proper preview trailer just a short clip. I could predict what I would see in the rest of the movie: odd dubbing, yellowish film tone and both sides using post WW2 American vehicles and tanks(just like Patton, Battle of the Bulge and other movies of this period). Just for the heck of it I tried it out and was surprised to see even odder anachronisms. Although the producers took great pains to gather Italian WW2 weapons (although finding Carcano rifles and carbines and Beretta SMGs probably wasn't too hard for an Italian production team) the majority of equipment was supplied by the Italian Army of the 1960s(who are thanked profusely in the pre-film credits. Thus, almost all the armored vehicles are U.S. Army surplus. I say almost, because while we have American M24 Chaffees and M26 Pershings playing both Axis and Allied tanks, they also have modern-for the time-M113 APCs playing British personnel carriers. These APCs also look particularly odd as they have FN MAG 58 machine guns mounted on them. Ironically, against this backdrop of anachronistic armor, two genuine Italian WW2 AFVs show up in the last tank battle sequence; an M13/40 light tank and a Semovente 75/18 self propelled gun! The efforts of the Italian filmmakers are earnest and passionate but they end up looking ludicrous all the same. For example, an attempt to make up for the lack of genuine looking German tanks has remote control scale models being blown up. The scene is filmed at night to simulate the bombardment that began the British counter attack at El Alamein and to try to cover up the 'Toy Tank' appearance of the models but it still looks as real as a Godzilla movie of the period. On top of this, both the 'British' and Italians use Italian Breda 37 MGs and American BARs and the Brits all carry M1 Garands except for the final scene where they take the Italians prisoner. The Italians fight with the reckless courage they have always been credited with but they are shown to have an unrealistic success rate with it. I'm sure the Bersaglieri rushed British MG teams with satchel charges. But they show one man take out one MG post and then get blown out of it without even a concussion. I'm also sure the Folgore paratroopers tried to take out tanks with Molotov cocktails and tossing AT mines by hand. Unlike in this movie, in real life they were cut down by British infantry before they got that close to their targets. These tactics worked for the Japanese in low visibility jungles and elephant grass covered plains because they hid better and they didn't try to survive. Unlike the Italians, they threw themselves AND their bombs on or under the tanks. Another example of Italian bravery against reality is the long sequence with a 47mm AT gun crew dueling with British armor(the aforementioned M113 APCs). While it is true the Italian AT crew fought to the death at El Alamein, their guns couldn't scratch British tanks or even the APCs they are shown fighting! Yet the film shows both actions taking out several tanks before their defeat. The most realistic aspects of this movie are the emotional touchstones. The two Italian soldiers, one a Bersaglieri veteran who just wants to survive along with as many as his men possible and his reckless paratrooper brother who wants to win glory with his misguided bravery, represent the very real gamut of the Italian soldiers in the African campaign.Rommel's use of the Italians to protect the flanks of the Afrika Corps and the rear as it retreated is also portrayed. The film is the only one I know of that shows the acrimonious nature of Montgomery's replacement of Auchinleck (who totally defeated the Italians in 1941 and had fought the Germans to a standstill. This movie or at least this subject deserves a big budget remake for this century to salute the courage of all those who fought in this battle.

The picture quality is very disappointing. Also, the movie was originally done in a foreign language then dubbed badly in English.

Pathetic and forgetable presentation of a major WWII event. The real problem with this film is its scope. The battle of El Alamein was a sprawling tank engagement across the North African desert, but this film involves itself with relatively miniscule vignets that in no way add up to the its name. This is an Italian production that, if you close your eyes and listen to the voices you would wonder if you were watching The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. A mish-mosh of multi-national nobodys portraying other multi-nationals unconvincingly led by the great Michael Rennie looking very unhealthy as General Montgomery. Tanks are British Comets and Crusaders painted as German vehicles. All in all a sappy attempt that will leave true war movie fans unsatisfied.