Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36520 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-08-16
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Colour, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Italian
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 117 minutes

Customer Reviews

A good story about the common Italian soldier in WW2
This movie is among the best war movies in the last years and should not be confused with the older movie form the sixties "Battle of El Alamein", although both movies share the Italian prespective of the battle they are very different in subject and quality.

El Alamein tells the story of the rank and file fucilieri, common Italian foot soldier, seen through the eyes of Serra, a university volunteer in the Italian Army. When he comes to the front everything is very different from what he or indeed anyone else would have imagined. Thin soldiers, malnurished with no real access to clean water and suffering from diarrhea and despair is very different from the idea of a glorious conquering Italian Army.

There is very good character development as the older men take Serra into their care and they experience their share of joy and sorrow. Then on the 23rd of October 1942 all hell breaks loose when Monty and the 8th Army attack and the Italians are pushed to their limit until they break into a headlong retreat.

The movie holds very true to historical events and great attention is paid to detail (acute viewers with a passion for detail will notice that the British tanks aren't quite right but by adding camouflage netting this isn't half bad and everything else is very well done, besides there aren't that many vintage British tanks around). Cinematography is excellent and the Desert plays a part of a character in the movie and you can almost feel the dry heat. All that and it offers a fresh Italian perspective on this important battle and how it was to be an Italian soldier.

It is regrettable that such a good European movie should only be available in a region 1 DVD format, but it is well worth the buy and I have watched it several times.

It comes with my best recommendations.

A rare chance to get the Italian perspective on WWII in the desert
History has not been kind to the Italian army for it's efforts in WWII, garnering a rather depressing image. Ill-equipped, ill-trained and ill-led, they were trounced by the British in North Africa prior to Rommel and the Afrika Korp's arrival, and later gave up the ghost in their own country with little resistance. So it is interesting to get the viewpoint of that nation on the subject of their part in the war. This film portrays the trials of a division on the front. It dispenses with the traditional war movie cliches, guns blazing, American heroics, you're more than familiar with it... choosing instead to focus more on the lives of the soldiers who have tired of a conflict that is heading nowhere bar the inevitable defeat whilst the British horde their forces. The initial hour covers small tales and little moments that break the boredom of life on the immobile front. An artillery attack here, a swim in the ocean there, a bullet dodged, a mortar shell detonating just far enough away to allow the soldiers to see another day. I enjoy this style of movie, where it does not attempt to tell a grand story, rather give us an insight into how people cope with being alive in such a morbid situation.

The second half of the film sees the British finally assault the Italian lines, which are overwhelmed by the sheer weight of numbers that are brought to bear. The division is over-run and forced to retreat, and no longer is anything relevant to these men but the slim hope of survival, pushing on, hoping to make it home. Ridiculous orders to stand fast come down from Il Duce, far removed from the ravages of desert war. The film becomes a detached, dreamlike affair as the dwindling force stumbles through the dry desert, pushed westward, severely lacking food and water.

This film may also hold the distinction of being the only WWII movie to feature full frontal male nudity, but I can't qualify that comment. Beyond that, this is an excellent movie - devoid of the trappings of Hollywood and presenting the conflict from the viewpoint of a bitter, soul-crushing defeat for the Italians. They may have been over-matched, but they were no different to any other soldier who just wanted to make it to the end of the war.

Top notch.

A little gem .
Its nice to see these sort of lower budger antidotes to some of the more recent CGI driven Hollywood efforts which for all their drama often neglect fundamental story and character development .
The story follows a group of ordinary Italian soldiers dealing with the harsh desert enviroment and the calous indifference of those that have sent them to fight while dealing with certain knowledge that British and Commonwealth forces are preparing an offensive that they are ill equiped both in men and material to resist .
When the inevitable attack comes and despite their best efforts sweeps them away the plight of the the survivors as they try to keep together as everything disintergrates around them is very compelling as these are characters you will have come to care about .
The cinematography is at times quite stunning and the hauntingly beautiful score suits the stunning desert scenery pefectly,this film really does deserve to better known and appreciated .