Best movie of this year hands down!

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

That was an excellent one.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

THE BATTLE FOR ANZIO is about as unexciting a war epic as you can get: an overblown (produced by Dino de Laurentiis), overlong US-Italian co-production, it fails to ignite the screen with any kind of energy, excitement or drive despite dealing with an interesting theatre of the Second World War. The first third is particularly gruelling, an almost plot less introduction to the leading characters before they head off to war, full of drunken partying and over-running scenes of people flirting and talking, all portrayed in the most boring way possible. Once we arrive in Italy, the next two thirds quickly change and the film degenerates into yet another men-on-a-mission type flick of which the Italians were so fond in the wake of THE DIRTY DOZEN.I was a little surprised to find out that such a supposedly epic film had turned into the usual low key story concerning guys trapped behind enemy lines. The budget isn't very evident anyway, with disappointing set-piece battles and only a few shoot-outs that manage to raise the pulse. The script is rather sub-par, throwing in the usual anti-war messages yet topping off with a cheesy happy ending in any case, and many of the characters are interchangeable aside from the leading duo. The young actors (Thomas Hunter, Giancarlo Giannini, Mark Damon, Anthony Steel) don't have a chance to shine and pointless cameos from the likes of Arthur Kennedy fail to register. Bob Mitchum and Peter Falk are typically good value for money but they're given particularly dull characters to work with here. THE BATTLE FOR ANZIO is definitely a war film that deserves to be forgotten.

Much noise has been made of the film's weaknesses including the decision to base it around Robert Mitchum as a tired and drunk war correspondent and Peter Falk as his barely coherent partying murderer friend. The historical details begin with some promise but as the film goes on they get glossed over in favor of various Hollywood World War II movie clichés. In my opinion this film stumbles out of the gate on the wrong foot with a tonally off opening credits sequence feature bizarre animated titles and an upbeat love song (when there's no love and barely any females to speak of in the movie!), and it never really recovers.The film just barely delivers on its title and shows us none of the actual battle of Anzio but some of the landings and an inaccurate version of the Battle of Cisterna in which 767 Rangers were surrounded and wiped out. Otherwise, the film is just another dull "trapped behind enemy lines" type movie with a lot of antiwar gum-flapping dialog about the uselessness of war.There is, however, some attractive scenery of the Italian countryside on display and a few quality war scenes at play. Wolfgang Preiss really shines in his brief scenes as Kesselring and one wishes we could have had more of him. Action-wise we're treated to two one-sided massacres; one of American rangers at Cisterna (led by a dubbed Venantino Venantini) followed by the main heroic squad mowing down several clueless Germans in a farmhouse. The only surprises really come during a tense sniper battle which for me was the highlight of the film. This wasn't quite the Dmytryk of the classic era, but he still had some good work left in him.It feels like a major missed opportunity that the film never gives us any major combat with both sides putting up a spirited fight. It may be for that very reason why the nearly-unanimous response among war movie fans to this film over the years has been that of utter disappointment.

When Winston Churchill was asked to appraise the Anzio operation he said that instead of hurling a wildcat on the beach and flanking the Germans the 36,000 allied troops at Anzio were nothing more than a stranded whale.Of course the whole Anzio landing was Churchill's own idea, but to give him some credit it was an attempt to try and break the logjam of the Italian offensive. The Allies had landed back in 1943 at Salerno and Churchill's 'soft underbelly of Europe' proved to be armor plated. Progress was measured in yards. It wasn't like the trench warfare of the first World War, but it was enormous American, British, Canadian and other assorted allies casualties.Anzio Beach was selected for a landing up the Italian coast near Rome to both outflank the Germans and maybe take Rome. It worked, but the American commander John P. Lucas moved too cautiously having remembered the 21 Day pitched battle at Salerno in those first landings in Italy. Field Marshal Kesselring was able to bring down reinforcements from the north and contain the Allies on that beach. There in fact they stayed until they linked up with the main offensive months later, just before the American Fifth Army liberated Rome officially on June 5, 1944.The story of the military failure of Anzio is told with fictional names as Robert Ryan, Arthur Kennedy, and Arthur Franz play Mark Clark, John Lucas, and Lucian Truscott respectively. Truscott is the guy who relieved Lucas and kept the Allies from being driven off the beach, although to be fair to Lucas his priority was a secure beachhead and he certainly succeeded.The other story of the film Anzio is that of Ernie Pyle like war correspondent Robert Mitchum who drives all the way to an unguarded Rome and then gets caught with a bunch of American GIs and one Canadian in trying to get back to Anzio beach.Earl Holliman, Reni Santoni, and Peter Falk play some of the soldiers with Mitchum and they do well. This is definitely not a war for glory for them, they're just trying to survive out there. Falk particularly is riveting in playing an American who was wounded and invalided out of the American army from the Pacific Theater who then moved to Canada to join their army. Why you would ask, because he's grown to like it and has a real jones for combat.Anzio unfortunately doesn't concentrate on either story long enough to tell it in the best possible way. It had potential to be a great film, but falls short. In addition Jack Jones's singing of the theme song is jarringly out of place. What I would like is someday for someone to tell the story of the original landings in Italy at Salerno, Messina, and Brindisi. That would make a great motion picture if done right. When you watch Anzio you are sad for the colossal waste of human life it was, especially since the objective wasn't obtained. And a great story needs better telling.

Dull at times, but it get's the job done. Over acting done on Peter Falk's part.I had the opportunity to watch this film on Digital Cable this morning. I took the chance as it was a war film I had not gotten to see yet. It has some decent action, but was rather dull at times. I may be mistaken, but it also appeared that during the ambush scene, the German's were using Bren light machine guns (wth). Perhaps I am wrong, but it I don't believe the MG-42 or 34 or had top loaded clips.Still worth a watch if you got time to kill though. Just don't expect a masterpiece.