Highly Overrated But Still Good

Admirable film.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Winner of the 1959 David (Italy's equivalent of the Oscar) Award for Best Film (shared with Generale della Rovere). Winner of the 1959 Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion for Best Film (also shared with Generale della Rovere). Alberto Sordi was voted Best Actor of 1959 for his performance in The Great War by the Syndicate of Italian Film Journalists. The Syndicate also voted Garbuglia's art direction as the best of the year. Nominated for the 1959 Award for Best Foreign Film, The Great War lost to Black Orpheus. COMMENT: For the most thrilling and effective use of genuine CinemaScope, it's hard to go past Mario Monicelli's La Grande Guerra. In this exceptionally lavish recreation of WWI Italian battlefields, Monicelli never allows a single square foot of waste space to appear on his screen. Instead his images are constantly crowded — almost always with men: ragged men, jostling men, cheering men, fighting men, slaughtered men, training men, retreating men, advancing men, hungry men, weary men, stupid men, brave men, victimized men, dead men. Vast columns of marching men are stretched across the screen, thousands often forming just a distant background to the forefront knockabout. Monicelli's idea was obviously to fill his screen to bursting with overflowing action. Somehow he has managed to persuade the producer to open his purse and spend more money on soldiery than Selznick did on Gone With The Wind. Just as the overwhelming hideousness of it all is beginning to lose its power, Monicelli skilfully pulls off a last-minute twist that drives home the film's firmly pacifist message with uncommon force. I'm not a fan of Vittorio Gassman, especially not Gassman in boisterous mode as here — well cast though he may be. But Sordi is ever appealing. Miss Mangano is saddled with a conventional and unlikely characterization which she plays with spirit if not conviction. Folco Lulli effectively repeats his Wages of Fear vignette. Blier's performance seems tired, but the Italian dubbing of his dialogue makes it difficult to judge. The other players are unknown to me, but all these minor roles were credibly cast, with Elsa Vazzoler especially compelling as Bordin's wife and Gerard Herter suitably menacing as the Austrian captain. It's true that the 140-minutes version does seem just slightly too long towards the two-hour mark, though, as said, interest is cleverly lifted soon after. The problem is, what scenes to cut? Those that could easily be removed with little loss of continuity are often the most effective and affecting. Personally, I'd take out Gassman's first long scene with Silvano Mangano — but no exhibitor in his right mind is going to do that!

A comedy (or perhaps more accurately a dramedy) about two lazy, cowardly Italian soldiers in the first World War. Sordi and Gassman are both terrific, there's some funny bits and touching commentary, and the film is very well shot with realistic battlefields. It's a sharp, humorous anti-war sentiment. I'm a bit at a loss to explain why I wasn't more taken with it. Maybe it was too scattershot, too episodic. While this does sort of mimic the chaos and randomness of war, I never felt like I could settle into the movie. Some event would start to develop and then be over a few minutes later. Then again, I can think of other movies I enjoy that do something similar (M. HULOT'S HOLIDAY) so maybe that's not it. For whatever reason, I didn't get fully engaged with this film, although I do recognize its assets. One of them being the fantastic, and very appropriate, ending.

I've only seen it twice, and it's already one of my favorite Italian movies of all time.Directed by legendary Mario Monicelli, this excellent comedy is set during WWI, when the Italians had to defend the river Piave from the Austrians.Two of the Italian soldiers happen to be really lazy cowards:Giovanni Busacca(Vittorio Gassman) from Milan and Oreste Jacovacci(Alberto Sordi) from Rome.They would rather spend their time at home with the mates and the ladies instead of fighting for their country.The only fights they have are with each other, both insulting the other one with their particular accents and dialects (you probably have to be Italian yourself to really appreciate most of the gags). The most interesting thing is perhaps how the two actors handle their roles: Sordi is very calm, controlled and "normal", while Gassman just can't stop being nervous, shouting and gesticulating all the time.Just like La Vita è Bella, this movie's purpose is to blame the horrors of war as well as making you laugh as much as you can.For those who like Italian cinema, La Grande Guerra is a must-see.

I saw this in Czechoslovakia way back in 1960's and still remember it. I am glad it lists here as a "comedy", it sure is one. That is why it will not be available to us on video of any format in any language under any circumstances. It subverts the "enetertainment' concept. An alternative ? Try Roberto Begnigni, the schlemiel nouveau.