La bataille pour Anzio

Take every war movie cliche, visual and verbal, mix in some American and Italian stereotypes, stir in a couple of heel clicking Nazis, discard the history books and hire macho tough guy Robert Mitchum as your star. This film is typical of the romanticised portrayals of war that were common in the era. They were crap then and they're crap now except that we're a little more sophisticated now. The only thing that possibly could have made this movie worse than it is would have been to use John Wayne rather than Robert Mitchum.

Empty and shallow telling of a bloody siege. Music is ridiculous for a war film of this nature. Short scene of a white dog broke the boredom. The budget must have been small. Peter Falk was not up to his other roles. Mitchum spouts rhetoric about the futility of war. Arthur Kennedy is miscast. Too bad. I wanted to learn more about that campaign. Not satisfied on any level.