I'm almost lost for words to describe how incredibly dull and poorly made this movie REALLY is. Did I even see the same movie that other reviewers have raved about? The DVD cover that I have with this movie indicates that it won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes. How in the name of all that's holy could that have happened?The several words I have to describe this lot of dross go something like this: boring, dreadful script, poorly directed, even more poorly acted, banal, schmaltzy, cheesy and totally unconvincing. The scene of the gunfight in the wheat field was so laughably bad I just couldn't believe it.The Italians can make good movies - Cinema Paradiso is at the top of my list but this one is certainly NOT a great movie. It's not really a movie at all. I was very glad when it ended.This is NOT the worst movie I've ever seen - but it's bloody close!!

Also know as The Night of the Shooting Stars in some cases, this Italian film I found in the book of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die was one had knew nothing about in terms of the concept, but I was very much looking forward to crack into. Basically, set during the end of World War II, 1944 in Italy it seems that defeat is certain for the Germans invading the country, they may be retreating but have left a path of destruction behind them, and there is rumour that they plan to bomb several buildings in small town. The villagers of this town are told that they should gather in the church, while half listen to this and trust the safety of the church with this threat is coming, the other half of the people dress in dark clothing and leave to seek the Americans who are rumoured to be near and liberating towns that they come to. Of course on the journey to find salvation the villagers cannot escape the pain, exhaustion and of course potential threat of incoming attacks around them, but they all stay close together to get through this and find the Americans and whatever hope for the future. Starring Paolo Hendel as Dilvo, Omero Antonutti as Galvano, Margarita Lozano as Concetta, Claudio Bigagli as Corrado, Massimo Bonetti as Nicola, Norma Martelli as Ivana, Enrica Maria Modugno as Mara, Sabina Vannucchi as Rosanna, Dario Cantarelli as Priest, Sergi Dagliana as Olinto and Giuseppe Furia as Requiem. I admit that on occasion this was a little hard to follow, but I understand the story well enough, there were some interesting moments of surrealism and humanity, the feeling of unity is good and obviously the fear of war is terrific, all in all it is a worthwhile Second World War drama. Very good!

Rapturous. A movie full of risks, yet steered with a completely confident hand. A small town in 1944 Italy is caught in the last stages of World War II; it is rumored that the American army is approaching to liberate them, and the Fascists holding the town have tightened their grip in response, mining all of the houses and ordering the populace to take shelter in the church. While most of the town complies, a few brave souls decide to venture out into the woods at night to try to locate the Americans themselves. What happens to them on the journey is shot through with horror and suffering, yet it is also as fantastical as "A Midsummer Night's Dream"--the townspeople have been through so much that life itself seems unimaginably absurd. And although the war has taken almost everything from them, it has also smashed class barriers and social restraints. Now at last (for example) the elderly Galvano can admit his love for the rich woman he could never think of approaching in peacetime.Few films give us so many treasures; the heavenly vision granted to a young woman killed by soldiers in the instant before she dies; the improvised Communion in the village church, with the congregants dividing their own bread among them; the six-year-old narrator Cecilia (who, in a framing device, is telling the story in flashback as a young mother to her child at bedtime) finding a watermelon in the forest and smashing it with her bottom; a horrifying 15-year-old fascist who tortures and kills his victims in order to make his father proud; Cecilia tumbling onto a basket of eggs and, having been punished by her mother, spitefully smashing the two eggs that survived the fall; a teenage girl in the woods at night, hearing the distant blasts as her home is destroyed and remembering the first time she stripped in front of her bedroom mirror as she tosses away her housekey; the climactic series of one-on-one and two-on-two skirmishes in a wheatfield as the soon-to-be-defeated Fascists and the desperate townspeople--most of whom know each other, some of whom are lifelong friends--grapple to the death. It's slapstick black comedy, yet timed so well it just seems like the natural state of affairs in war--there's nothing arty or pretentious about it.

Set during the last year of the Second World War where village peasants flee from the nasty Germans. They attempt to make their way to the American Army who have just landed in for the rescue. The journey for these peasants become an ordeal but their lust for life allows them to survive. A film filled with human spirit during the chaos and destruction of humankind.