La grande guerra (1959)

User Rating:

8.7/10   

Director:

Mario Monicelli

Writers:

Agenore Incrocci (writer)
Mario Monicelli (writer)

Release Date:

2 August 1960 (West Germany)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | War

Plot:

Italy, 1916. Oreste Jacovacci and Giovanni Busacca are called, as all the Italian youths, to serve the army in the WWI...

Plot Keywords:

Front | WWI | Train | Italy | Prostitute

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 5 wins

Cast

Alberto Sordi	...	Oreste Jacovacci
Vittorio Gassman	...	Giovanni Busacca
Silvana Mangano	...	Costantina
Folco Lulli	...	Bordin
Bernard Blier	...	Capitano Castelli
Romolo Valli	...	Tenente Gallina
Vittorio Sanipoli	...	Maggiore Venturi
Nicola Arigliano	...	Giardino
Geronimo Meynier	...	Messenger
Mario Valdemarin	...	Cadet Lorenzi
Elsa Vazzoler	...	Bordin's wife
Tiberio Murgia	...	Nicotra
Livio Lorenzon	...	Sergente Barriferri
Ferruccio Amendola	...	De Concini
Carlo D'Angelo	...	Capitano Ferri

Also Known As:

La grande guerre (France)
The Great War (USA)

Runtime:

137 min

Country:

Italy | France

Language:

Italian | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Finland:K-16 | Italy:VM18 | Spain:18 | West Germany:16 (f) | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Nespoledo, Lestizza, Udine, Friuli - Venezia Giulia, Italy

Company:

Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica

Movie Connections:

Featured in Splendor (1989)

A totally fulfillingly, masterfull black comedy

La Grande guerra is one of the underseen, undervalued hordes of sublime European films that never see the light of day.

In the 1960s in the centre of London there was the Academy, Oxford Street, Curzon, Mayfair and one of two other cinemas where the delights of the European cinema were on view. I have lived in Oslo since 1990. It is a cinema friendly city, but overloaded with Hollywood rubbish like most Bruce Willis actioners, or Nicolas Cage going for the money and not to expand his substantial talents as he has done in the past.

This is not intellectual snobbery, just a cry from the heart about the lack of quality that is so endemic in current films.

"Crouching Tiger, Flaming Dragon" - I forget the real title is an example of American audiences accepting the quality of non-US movies.

"Die Hard"-type movies are good only to perhaps release aggression. It shows the typical obsessive need for America to breed only heroes. The villains with the fantastic exception of John Malkovich are usually superb English actors with foreign accents. Alan Rickman in "Die Hard" and Jeremy Irons in one of the mindless sequels.

U571, now the most popular film in video shops where I live is such a devasting con-trick. A real piece of history when a British submarine acquired the Enigma decoding machine which made a significant difference for the Allies to get advance information about German war plans. The heroes are American. Sickening. Dramatic licence is one thing, but fraud is another. The event occurred six months before the US even entered the war. These are well-known complaints.

Reminds one of the crassness of putting of Warner Bros. promoting "Objective Burma" in the autumn after the end of the war. Depiction of Errol Flynn (unfit for war service) winning against the Japanese military with not one British soldier in sight.

Reminds me of the stories of a close friend and veteran of World War II. The US Army using earthmoving machinery to dig trenches when the British had shovels, the often sidelining of American troops due to the prevalence of veneral disease. The stories of British and other troops relieving American positions with a quarter of the manpower.

In movies, with the exception of garishly-suited black pimps in stretch limos, the villains in movies and TV series used BMWs, and other European cars, which also were often beset with engine problems. Unlike the perfection of GM, Ford models etc.

_Don't get me wrong. With the exception of a mad Bellevue, New York psychiatrist I had once Americans are certainly charming, friendly people.

La Grande Guerra is one of the thousands of films that ought to be revived every 10 years like a classic Disney feature.