A fine ensemble cast headlines this worthy but dull WW2 drama that tells of human conflict in Nazi-occupied Rome in 1944. When a group of local partisans successfully manage to ambush a Nazi platoon and kill a number of soldiers, the Nazi powers decide to retaliate by executing ten Italians for every soldier killed. It sounds like a powerful, intriguing story and it is, but I can't help wonder whether it would have worked better as a documentary.
There's tension in the film, but it's limited to brief interludes as we follow the resistance fighters planning to blow up the Nazi march. Unfortunately, in between these affecting moments are lengthy dialogue sequences between the Nazi officials, sequences which add little to the production. There's plenty of attempts to humanise the historical characters, but I didn't care for any of the scenes involving Marcello Mastroianni's priest; they just felt long-winded and self-consciously arty. Similarly, the climax showing the aftermath of the attack – and the Nazis' ultimate revenge – is hard-hitting indeed, but takes so long to come about that I didn't care much after all.
The casting is fine; the producers assembled numerous heavyweights to play the Nazi officers, including Richard Burton, Peter Vaughan and Leo McKern, and as an Italian production this features many notable faces from Italian cinema, such as John Steiner and Renzo Palmer. There's little to fault in the direction of George Pan Cosmatos either; the director is best known for his later work in action cinema (including RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II and COBRA) but he cut his teeth on work like this. It's just a shame the film couldn't have been a little pacier.
There's tension in the film, but it's limited to brief interludes as we follow the resistance fighters planning to blow up the Nazi march. Unfortunately, in between these affecting moments are lengthy dialogue sequences between the Nazi officials, sequences which add little to the production. There's plenty of attempts to humanise the historical characters, but I didn't care for any of the scenes involving Marcello Mastroianni's priest; they just felt long-winded and self-consciously arty. Similarly, the climax showing the aftermath of the attack – and the Nazis' ultimate revenge – is hard-hitting indeed, but takes so long to come about that I didn't care much after all.
The casting is fine; the producers assembled numerous heavyweights to play the Nazi officers, including Richard Burton, Peter Vaughan and Leo McKern, and as an Italian production this features many notable faces from Italian cinema, such as John Steiner and Renzo Palmer. There's little to fault in the direction of George Pan Cosmatos either; the director is best known for his later work in action cinema (including RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II and COBRA) but he cut his teeth on work like this. It's just a shame the film couldn't have been a little pacier.