Artivels Undescribable Perfection

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Bluebell Alcock Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

stefano66 El Alamein is a movie well deserving of being watched and appreciated. Surely one of the best Italian movies from the turn of the millennium, and a an apt and just requiem for those who gave their lives, or their best years, in the sands of Sahara. The ensemble of imagery and music is haunting enough to give us an idea of what war in the desert was. The director takes no definite political stance, limiting himself to describe things as they historically were for too many of our soldiers and officers. The young student volunteer, Serra, goes to war excited at the prospect of conquering Egypt, but being a well-read, clever boy, soon realizes the failure of Mussolini's army, and the power of the British and Commonwealth enemy. The other roles are a bit more rhetorical, in the sense that they recall some old clichés: the wise sergeant, the numbed-out lieutenant, living in a sort of permanent shell-shock and crushed under his responsibilities. The best part of the movie is the dry (we are in the desert, aren't we?) narration of the soldier's life, made of boredom, heat, dirtiness, thirst and hunger, with sudden moments of absolute panic when the Brits, an ominous presence in the (short) distance, send ahead a marksmen, or launch random artillery or mortar attacks. The night battle scenes are short and frantic, while miles away from the video clip style so dear to Americans. They are made really creepy by a haunting soundtrack, plus some quite gory and realistic depictions of wounds, shell-shock people going crazy and disappearing on the battlefield and so on.It was just and sobering to end the movie on the sight of the memorial to Italian soldiers fallen at Alamein. That's what remains, of all that action, of all those futile efforts to swim against the current of history. A country tragically defeated, since then only partly free, subjected, in one way or another, to its captors, deeply divided and at the same time always ready to the serve the strongest: that has been the enduring legacy of Fascism. Maybe those dead, despite having fought for the wrong side, deserved better: they themselves were the betrayed.

PWNYCNY The problem with this movie is not so much the movie itself, though the movie does not lack in technical glitches, but rather the historical context in which the story is set. The director tries to tell a story about Italian soldiers in World War Two, suggesting that they are hapless victims of incompetent commanders who basically had them fighting in a hopeless cause, period. This narrow theme produces a two-dimensional story that completely ignores the fundamental reason why the Italians were in the fighting in the first place: to achieve the strategic goals of Adolf Hitler. As a result, this movie is dramatically flat. The Italian soldiers are portrayed as self-sacrificing, suffering and heroic when in fact they were invaders who were brought all their problems on themselves. In an interesting twist, the British are portrayed as faceless automatons who mercilessly drive through the depleted Italian lines, as if it were the British who were the bad guys. That the Italian soldiers were capable of acts of courage on the battlefield is not the question. Rather, the question is why were they fighting in the first place, and any movie, especially a movie that is set in World War Two, that avoids dealing with that question is fundamentally flawed.

moss_icon History has not been kind to the Italian army for it's efforts in WWII, garnering a rather depressing image. Ill-equipped, ill-trained and ill-led, they were trounced by the British in North Africa prior to Rommel and the Afrika Korp's arrival, and later gave up the ghost in their own country with little resistance. So it is interesting to get the viewpoint of that nation on the subject of their part in the war. This film portrays the trials of a division on the front. It dispenses with the traditional war movie clichés, guns blazing, American heroics, you're more than familiar with it... choosing instead to focus more on the lives of the soldiers who have tired of a conflict that is heading nowhere bar the inevitable defeat whilst the British horde their forces. The initial hour covers small tales and little moments that break the boredom of life on the immobile front. An artillery attack here, a swim in the ocean there, a bullet dodged, a mortar shell detonating just far enough away to allow the soldiers to see another day. I enjoy this style of movie, where it does not attempt to tell a grand story, rather give us an insight into how people cope with being alive in such a morbid situation.The second half of the film sees the British finally assault the Italian lines, which are overwhelmed by the sheer weight of numbers that are brought to bear. The division is over-run and forced to retreat, and no longer is anything relevant to these men but the slim hope of survival, pushing on, hoping to make it home. Ridiculous orders to stand fast come down from Il Duce, far removed from the ravages of desert war. The film becomes a detached, dreamlike affair as the dwindling force stumbles through the dry desert, pushed westward, severely lacking food and water.This film may also hold the distinction of being the only WWII movie to feature full frontal male nudity, but I can't qualify that comment. Beyond that, this is an excellent movie - devoid of the trappings of Hollywood and presenting the conflict from the viewpoint of a bitter, soul-crushing defeat for the Italians. They may have been over-matched, but they were no different to any other soldier who just wanted to make it to the end of the war.Top notch.

mulligen No heroism. No victory in the end. Only the uneasy feeling of the omnipresent heat, the lack of anything else required for whatever war you're fighting and a growing feeling of despair. Yet the story touched me because it was brought in a way that made it quite believable. The optimistic student who goes to war in the belief that the Italian army will be in Caïro in no time at all, because he believed the public opinion and the promises of Il Duce back home like everybody else did. I must hereby add, that that feeling of believing the story was very much fed by the fact that in my opinion the director and his camera crew knew exactly what they were doing and I also would like to give a big compliment to the casting people. Maybe over the years I have seen better war movies, but not many and certainly not from Italy.