Italiani Brava Gente aka Attack and Retreat (1964) Needs to be remastered
I was wondering the other day (since I’m in the middle of reading Elsa Morante’s La Storia aka History) if there were any Italian war movies on the Italians on the Eastern front. Purely accidentally I found this movie Italiani Brava Gente aka Attack and Retreat, an Italian-Russian co-production.
Italiani Brava Gente depicts the unsuccessful and tragic Battle of the Don. The Italians role during WWII wasn’t exactly glorious (I’m not talking of the Resistance!) and this movie seems to bear testimony of this.
There are bits and pieces of it on YouTube but, as you will see, in very bad condition. This is deplorable as the movie looks very interesting. If ever a movie needed to be remastered, I think it’s this one. And yes, you see correctly, Peter Falk is in it.
Has anyone seen this or any other Italian war movie (apart from Roma, Open City aka Roma, Città Aperta)?
warmoviebuff said,
August 20, 2011 at 7:56 pm
I am vaguely familiar with it. It is in my Brassey’s Guide to War Films and gets a 4/5. I am aware of no other WWII Italian army films which is not surprising. Even the Italians would not want to relive their pitiful performance in that war. Here’s a joke I heard as a kid: “Did you hear about the new Italian tank? It has four speeds – one forward and three in reverse.”
This movie sounds intriguing and I would like to see it someday.
allaboutwarmovies said,
August 20, 2011 at 8:25 pm
There seem to be far more Italian war movies as I found out meanwhile. I did a search on Italian sites and there were loads. I’ll have to have proper look.
I think this one might be worth watching.
I had a feeling they did a lot of running on the Eastern front. Back home that is. Who can blame them? The Italian people were far less fascist than the German people were Nazis.
TBM said,
August 20, 2011 at 11:20 pm
It is so depressing how many movies are deteriorating. As a history person and a movie lover, it breaks my heart.
allaboutwarmovies said,
August 21, 2011 at 7:07 am
You mean the bad quality, right? Yes, I agree, one can hardly watch this. But some of the remstered movies look quite good. The problem is, if nobody wants to watch it, they will not do it.