Anzio (1968)

Very Cool!!!

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Starts off on the wrong tone for a war movie. Cheesy acting. Boring movie. 2 hours of my life I'll never get back.

If you view this movie expecting to find a look at the World War II Battle of Anzio (which, given the title, wouldn't be out of the question) this is going to turn out to be a major disappointment. The actual Battle is barely dealt with (only the landing of the troops gets any real attention.) Instead, there's a very long lead-in to the battle, and then we basically follow the exploits of seven American soldiers who get stuck behind enemy lines and try desperately to get back to their comrades, led by a war correspondent named Ennis (played well enough by Robert Mitchum.) That story was suspenseful at times, but a movie with this title should have given far more information about one of the bloodiest battles in Italy during the war. Instead, all we really get told is that the Allied generals were far too timid in their approach, and that they missed a golden opportunity to occupy a largely undefended Rome. Instead, the American commander chose to concentrate on solidifying his beach-head, and the troops ended up unable to advance at all once the Germans realized what was happening. The end result - as the U.S. Commander himself notes in the movie - was summed up by no less than Winston Churchill: "I had hoped we were hurling a wildcat into the shore, but all we got was a stranded whale."There is some philosophical reflection about warfare scattered throughout this, largely through Ennis, who wonders why men fight and kill each other. In the end he himself picks up a rifle and kills, and he comes to a sobering conclusion (which certainly has some historical credence) - "we kill because we like to." This conclusion is somewhat tempered by the closing scenes which depict a triumphant American entry into Rome, with the citizens of Rome cheering them wildly - thus suggesting that there was some noble purpose to this particular war.Overall, though, this is a very disappointing movie about a battle of some significance (at least in cost) and the Battle of Anzio probably deserves a better treatment than this.

You know that you're in trouble when the protagonist in a World War II movie is an Ernie Pyle-style newspaper correspondent who is still trying to figure out why men kill each other. "Why do we kill each other?" the leading man asks a general on the eve of the historic landings. "How can a perfectly ordinary good-natured guy who wouldn't slap down a mosquito sit up in an airplane and bomb 1000 sleeping strangers down beneath him?" If the question weren't idiotic enough, the high-ranking general that he is discussing war with replies, "We do it to survive, Mr. Ennis. In war, it is kill or be killed." Talk about bromides! Sleepy-eyed Robert Mitchum is cast as this naive newspaperman named Dick Ennis who covers the war for the International Press. What a name. Dick Ennis?! Ennis likes to ask idiotic questions, and he refuses to carry a grenade or tote a gun. Nevertheless, he winds up giving orders to the G.I.s who assembly around him as if he were in command.No, "Young Lions" director Edward Dmytryk's "Anzio" doesn't qualify as a traditional big-picture military action epic in the tradition of either "The Longest Day" or "The Sands of Iwo Jima." This fatigue-inducing, 116-minute movie portrays the American military in a derogatory light, but the Hal Craig screenplay alters the names to protect the incompetents. The real battle of Anzio turned into a bloodthirsty nightmare, but this Dino De Laurentiis production amounts to one big bore. Instead of depicting the disaster at Anzio, the filmmakers focus their attention on some forgettable heroics behind enemy lines. History tells us that the Allies landed at Anzio but expected the same stiff opposition that they faced at Salerno. Instead, they landed and encountered no resistance. Ennis piles into a jeep with another G.I. and whirl off to Rome. Along the way, they pick up a wise-cracking U.S. Army Corporal Jack Rabinoff (Peter Falk of "Columbo"), and they wheel into Rome like a trio of tourists and spot only one German jeep. Meanwhile, British General Starkey (Patrick Magee of "A Clockwork Orange") wants to launch a small attack, but pusillanimous two-star U.S. General Jack Lesley (Arthur Kennedy of "The Lusty Men") refuses to believe that the Germans would let the Allies catch them with their pants down. Ennis and company return and describe the picnic that driving into Rome was. Meanwhile, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring (Wolfgang Preiss of "Raid on Rommel") cannot believe that the Americans have not launched a spearhead off the beach. Instead, General Lesley wants to establish a beachhead.Eventually, Lesley decides to send in an American Ranger battalion led by Colonel Hendricks (Wayne Preston of "The Man on the Spying Trapeze"), but German tanks are waiting for them, trap them in a cross-fire and wipe them out. Ennis, who accompanied Hendricks, survives with several other G.I.s, including Platoon Sergeant Abe Stimmler (Earl Holliman of "Sharkey's Machine"), and Ennis berates General Lesley over the radio for being a "timid" leader. Ennis taunts the bespectacled general with lines like, "He walked them into a park and left them in a graveyard." Naturally, nothing like this would ever have happened in a patriotic World War II era war movie. After they lose radio contact, Ennis, Stimmler, Rabinoff and the survivors spend the rest of the movie wandering around behind German lines. They discover that Kesselring is erecting fortifications at night with Italian citizens at gunpoint to stalemate an American advance. Later, Ennis gains some insight into the battle-hardened Rabinoff one night after they have holed up with three stubborn Italian women in their home. It seems that the irreverent corporal suffers from occasional bouts of belly aches brought on by hand grenade shrapnel left off from a tour of duty in the Pacific. Rabinoff explains that he came back, lied about his age and managed to enlist again because Rabinoff prefers the adrenaline thrill that he derives from these life and death antics. Basically, we have a U.S. soldier who is fighting—by his own admission—not to defend democracy but because he loves to battle. Naturally, Hollywood would never have portrayed an American soldier in such an uncomplimentary light in World War II era movies.Indeed, "Anzio" was lensed in Italy, but the scenery is the only thing authentic about this anemic combat thriller. Dmytryk helms one mildly suspenseful scene where Ennis and company have to pitch big rocks into a plowed up field so they will know where the enemy has planted landmines before a flame-throwing German tank gives them the hot foot. Near the end, Ennis finally picks up a Thompson submachine gun when his men and he are pinned down by German snipers. Ostensibly, other than Field Marshal Kesselring, the Germans are shown in long shot, speaking German, with the exception of one scene where they are seen up close disarming an American G.I. and later killing him because he tries to save a photograph that they have taken out of his wallet and thrown away. The opening titles song is out-of-place and the usually dependable composer Riz Ortolani provides a woebegone orchestral score. Robert Ryan appears briefly at the beginning and reappears at the end during a victory parade as U.S. General Carson. Arthur Franz, who starred in Dmytryk's 'The Sniper," has a cameo as Major General Luke Howard. "Anzio" exposes the folly of the battle and Ennis gets to berate the American general for being timid. Altogether, this Columbia Pictures release is not worth a Purple Heart. Anybody who watches "Anzio" deserves a Purple Heart.

Although I can generally take or leave Robert Mitchum. He was great in 'Night Of The Hunter' and a couple of other things, and Peter Falk? Well, there's Columbo, and maybe some other things.. But Anzio is NOT one of these 'things'. In my opinion, they're totally miscast as a reporter and a renegade soldier. They lead a team of soldiers in a rather risky mission to Anzio Italy, and then to Rome! Anyways, this is your War Movie 101. nothing really surprising happens that you haven't seen before. But if you guessed that One Of The Main Characters Survives The Whole Movie Because His Contract Demands It, well, a good one on you! Oh, and finally, the movie's ending is too long. The movie's false ending when it should've ended 10 minutes ago really makes the movie that more lame.