Anzio (film)

During a shipboard meeting with American General Jack Lesley, commander of the Allied forces set to land at Anzio, war correspondent Dick Ennis (a thinly disguised Ernie Pyle) tells Lesley (who has admired Ennis' combat reporting for years) that his journalistic efforts at the front lines has been motivated by his life long quest to discover why men go to war. He confesses he has yet to find an answer but he rejects Lesley's explanation that it is all a matter of survival. Ennis is assigned to accompany US Army Rangers for the upcoming attempt to outflank the tough enemy defenses. The amphibious landing is unopposed, but General Lesley, is too cautious, preferring to fortify his beachhead before advancing inland. Previously, Lesley and General Carson (a thinly disguised US Army General Mark Clark) agreed at an impromptu press conference in Naples that there would be no repeat of the near-fatal landing at Salerno the previous year when the Allied commanders grossly underestimated the German opposition. Ennis and a Ranger drive in a jeep through the countryside, discovering there are few Germans between the beachhead and Rome, but his information is ignored. As a result, the German commander, Field Marshall Kesselring, had time to gather his forces and launch an effective counterattack.

Ennis is with the Rangers who are ambushed at the Battle of Cisterna. Ennis radios the news of the disaster back to Lesley at the beachhead calling it another costly failure in judgment by the brass albeit this time because they were (ironically) too timid. From there, the film departs from being a view of all sides and levels of the campaign to a story of a handful of survivors making their way back through enemy lines. The men take shelter in a house occupied by three Italian women. A German patrol arrives at the house, only to be slaughtered by the Americans. Ennis asks what makes one human being willingly kill another. Corporal Jack Rabinoff (First Special Service Force) replies that he loves it, and that combat and war allow him to live more than anyone else. The adrenaline rush of war is what distinguishes him from civilians back home who spend their lives in routine, boring jobs. Rabinoff adds that Ennis is just the same: he doesn't carry a gun but war is part of him, the thing that gives meaning to his life. This provides Ennis with the answer he had been searching for as a life lifelong war reporter: why do men go to war?

Having almost reached friendly lines, most of the men, including Rabinoff, are killed in a shootout with a group of German snipers. It is during this shootout that Ennis is finally forced to kill one of the Germans with Rabinoff's gun. As Movie tells him, Ennis is now a member of the club of killers. Only Ennis, Technical Sergeant Stimmler, and Private Movie make it back and deliver intelligence about the Germans' new defense line. Ennis learns that the too-cautious General Lesley (based on US Army General John P. Lucas) had been relieved of command of the Allied forces at Anzio and even publicly humiliated by Winston Churchill who called him a beached whale when a wild cat was called for. The movie ends with the break out of the Anzio beachhead, thanks to the behind-the-enemy-lines information provided by Ennis followed by a race to Rome by General Carson. Carson and the American Army enter the Enteral City and enjoy an enthusiastic victory parade. Ennis spots Movie on a tank enjoying the fruits of victory. Movie points out an image of an ancient Roman victory parade on an arch. Ennis realizes it is further confirmation of his thesis and comments that nothing has changed in thousands of years of warfare except the uniforms and the means of transportation.

The film opened to mixed reviews in the US; many felt it did not work as well as Dmytryk's early war films. The New York Times film review was generally dismissive, and described the film as "a very ordinary war movie with an epic title, produced by Dino De Laurentiis, the Italian producer... who thinks big but often produces small".[2] In contrast, Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert had a more favourable opinion of the film, described it as "a good war movie and even an intelligent one".[3]

Riz Ortolani scored the film with a ballad called The World is Yours with lyrics by Doc Pomus that was sung beneath the credits by Jack Jones. Luigi Scaccianoce was the production designer.

Peter Falk thought that the script he read was clichéd and wanted off the film. At the last minute, Dino De Laurentiis put Falk's name above the title billing and gave him his choice of writer for his character's dialogue. Falk stayed and wrote his lines himself.[4] The production saw De Laurentiis bring in for the first time another actor who made a debut, Giancarlo Giannini, who would later do international films and would work with director Lina Wertmüller.

Rabinoff is based on a real 1st Special Service Force soldier, Sgt John L. "Jake" Walkmeister, who ran an illegal brothel of Italian prostitutes in a stolen ambulance.[5] Walkmeister was killed by shrapnel at Port Cros during Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France.[6]

• List of American films of 1968

• Anzio at IMDb
• Anzio at Rotten Tomatoes
• Anzio at the TCM Movie Database
• Anzio at AllMovie
• Anzio at the American Film Institute Catalog
• You tube (trailer).
• Connolly, W (May 2009), "Thomas Hunter on Anzio", Blogger (interview).