La grande bataille

Titre original : Il grande attacco

NOTE IMDb

4,7/10

613

MA NOTE

Drama War

Ajouter une intrigue dans votre langueHow World War II affected the lives of a German family and an American family, both of whom had sons and fathers fighting in the war.How World War II affected the lives of a German family and an American family, both of whom had sons and fathers fighting in the war.How World War II affected the lives of a German family and an American family, both of whom had sons and fathers fighting in the war.

Réalisation
- Umberto Lenzi
Scénario
- Umberto Lenzi
- Cesare Frugoni
Casting principal

Voir les informations de production sur IMDbPro

NOTE IMDb

4,7/10

613

MA NOTE

Réalisation
- Umberto Lenzi
Scénario
- Umberto Lenzi
- Cesare Frugoni
Casting principal

Voir les informations de production sur IMDbPro

Gaffes
In one of the scenes the American Flag has fifty stars, as it does now, but that flag was not adopted until Monday, July 4, 1960. The flag that should have been shown, which the Americans during World War Two served under, was the forty eight-star Stars and Stripes, which was valid from Thursday July 4, 1912 to Friday July 3, 1959, and is even seen hanging high in Grand Central Station in Hitchcock's North by Northwest.

Citations
German in Danielle's room: A French whore should work with her hips and not her lips!

Versions alternatives
The American release has been dubbed into English. The titles have been translated to English. However, on the Direct Source Special Products Home Video Release, the film remains dubbed in English, yet the opening and ending titles have been redone using modern computer technology. The opening features the title BATTLE FORCE, and credits the film's director Humphrey Longan as Humphrey Logan; credits actress Edwige Fenech as Edwige French; and claims the cast listing to be in alphabetical order, which it is not.

Connexions
Edited from La légion des damnés (1969)

Avis des utilisateurs13

Commenter

Commentaire à la une

Disappointing WWII Drama

The Biggest Battle (1978)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Incredibly disappointing drama starts off in Germany during the 1936 Olympics where an American general (Henry Fonda), a German major (Stacy Keach), a Jewish actress (Samantha Eggar) and a war correspondent (John Huston) are having dinner and agreeing that Hitler will not cause a war. Flash forward to 1942 and war is happening and all sides of this dinner are now in the middle.

THE BIGGEST BATTLE is an Italian and West German co-production that was meant to rival various American movies that took on the WWII subject. Of course something like MIDWAY was an obvious inspiration. The most interesting thing about this film is that it did have a bigger budget than you'd normally see in a film like this but the problem is that the budget wasn't big enough. It's clear that writer-director Umberto Lenzi wanted to make an epic war film and even got a terrific cast together but the film falls well short of that.

There's no question that the biggest problem with this film is its screenplay. I never found any of these characters to be interesting and especially the Keach character. I found the character to be extremely bland but so was another subplot that deals with Fonda and his two sons going off to fight in the war. The "proud father" aspect just doesn't work. There's really nothing story wise that connects with the viewer and this incldues the action. There are a lot of action scenes but they just feel cheap and never contain any tension.

With all of that being said, the most amazing thing about this picture is the fact that they got such a great cast. You've got Fonda, Keach, Huston and Eggar but there's also Helmut Berger, Edwige Fenech, Ray Lovelock and various other foreign actors. You've also got Orson Welles doing the narration in some versions but the version I watched didn't feature that. The story was confusing as it was so perhaps his narration was used to make more sense out of the film?

THE BIGGEST BATTLE is a pretty poor film but the worst thing is the fact that it's really disappointing considering the cast.