Screening: The Battle of El Alamein

On previous Memorial Day weekends, we've shown movies (and animation) with a variety of viewpoints on war - primarily, World War II. This year is no exception!

This 1969 Italian film was one of the most historically accurate portrayals of the 1942 North Africa tank battle wherein Rommel's Italian forces were essentially used as disposable shields by the Germans, and insertss a fictional story into a non-fictional setting. The plot concerns a front-line Italian infantry company enmeshed in the campaign, as well as the officers on all sides controlling the battle. And interestingly, the Italians are portrayed as more heroic, while the British (including Michael Rennie as Field Marshall Montgomery) are shown as more villainous. This low-budget film is notable for showing real military action better than most of it's Hollywood blockbuster counterparts, and throughout actually has a fairly strong anti-war message which is not obscured by the epic battle scenes. For the history buffs out there, we'll say right now that the main criticism of this film is the fact that the tanks used didn't exist in WWII, but beyond that, it is historically accurate even down to the Italian uniforms.