El Alamein - The Line of Fire

A very realistic depiction of the famous World War II battle, from the point of view of some common Italian soldiers, this movie lack of any kind of rethoric, nor pacifistic neither heroic. It's something like a good Vietnam movie from American directors, as "Platoon" or "Hamburger Hill". A must for everyone who wants to know more about Italian war in Africa

Spectacular battles and noisy wartime action by Italian craftsman director Enzo Monteleone giving credibility enough to his story. June 1942, as general Erwin Rommel swept toward the Nile , battling General Montgomery's troops , but the fall of Egypt and the capture of the Suez canal seems inevitable . Italian and German advance units raced toward Alejandria . Mussolini had given explicit orders : The Italians must arrive first ! . In this one , the Italians and Germans, united in a difficult Alliance , fight the British in the North Afican desert . This is a breathtaking flick in which desert war is seen through the eyes of a simple Italian soldier , Serra (Paolo Briguglia) , an university student from Palermo who volunteers in 1942 to battle in Africa. He is assigned to the Pavia Division on the southern line in Egypt. Along with Soldier Serra , appearing other protagonists such as Serg. Rizzo (Pierfrancesco Favino), Sold. Spagna (Luciano Scarpa) and lieutenat Fiore (Emilio Solfrizzi). Meantime , Rommel and the Axis forces are bogged down ; it's October, the British prepare an offensive. At first, boredom, starvation, heat, hunger, and thirst bedevil the Italians ; things go wrong when the Brits attack, and there's no luck , bravery or heroism in death. Eventually, it's retreat in confusion and mayhem , all of them take a last walk toward Italian headquarter . Montgomery's Iron Back 8th Army ... Rommel's Crack Africa Korps ... they met head on and tore the earth apart !'

This movie gets lots of action , intense drama , impressive battles , crossfire , gunplay and explosion . A mostly unknown Italian cast of fine actors give decent interpretations . Here the Italians are the good guys and the British are the bad guys . While the battle itself is abridged and perhaps over-simplified to focus on the Italian division, that's perhaps best for the sake of narrative, character development, and making the emotional impact as strong as possible. It displays several extras and tanks , in fact , the production received help from Morocco Ministry of defense , beng shot on location in Morocco and Lacio , Rome , Italy . It displays colorful and evocative cinematography by Daniele Nanuzzi , son of prestigious cameraman Armando Nanuzzi . The motion picture was well and professionally directed by Enzo Monteleone.

The picture is based on the real battles , the true events is as follows : Alamein in WWII are two decisive battles in the western desert , north Egypt , in 1942 resulting in British victory over Axis forces under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel : 1- 27 July 1942 the British 8th Army under General Sir Claude Auchinleck held off the German and Italian forces . Neither side can be said to have won , but the British had the strategic advantage of short supply lines and so could reinforce faster than Germans . 23 Oct-4 Nov 1942 General Bernard Montgomery launched a diversionary British attack in the south , aiming to draw Axis forces into the area so that the main attack in the north could cut two corridors through the extensive minefields , enabling British armoured divisions to pass through and exploit the gaps . Progress was slow however and Montgomery decided to change tactics to fight what he called a 'crumbling battle' constantly switching the main emphasis to chip away at Rommel's front line and keep him guessing. Australian Division attacked along the coastal road , drawing the Axis forces toward them . Montgomery promptly launched a fresh attack further south, forcing the German armour to react in what became a major tank battle . By 3 Nov Rommel had only 30 serviceable tanks in action and on the next day began organizing his withdrawal. He was able to disengage and escape as the British were hampered by heavy rain and shortage fuel .

Given its small budget, this is a fine little film about Italian troops abandoned in the face of the British counter attack at El Alamein in late 1942.

More films and books need to be made about this sad chapter in the history of Italy, whose international military reputation is somewhat lower than that of the French.

Italian troops gave no less to their cause than did Germans or the British, the Russians, the Americans, and the Japanese. But because of poor leadership from Mussolini on down, they were forced to surrender in droves, and as much as we don't want to admit it, we Westerners hold those who surrender in pretty low esteem.

This film goes a long way toward correcting the historical record through its touching story, beautiful acting, wonderful art direction, and absolutely stunning cinematography.

No heroism. No victory in the end. Only the uneasy feeling of the omnipresent heat, the lack of anything else required for whatever war you're fighting and a growing feeling of despair. Yet the story touched me because it was brought in a way that made it quite believable. The optimistic student who goes to war in the belief that the Italian army will be in Caïro in no time at all, because he believed the public opinion and the promises of Il Duce back home like everybody else did. I must hereby add, that that feeling of believing the story was very much fed by the fact that in my opinion the director and his camera crew knew exactly what they were doing and I also would like to give a big compliment to the casting people. Maybe over the years I have seen better war movies, but not many and certainly not from Italy.

This is a good movie of men in war, not a war movie Hollywood style. It shows the madness of war and (at the beginning at least) reminds me of the surreal atmosphere of another great movie, "Il deserto dei tartari". El Alamein - Linea di Fuoco is a movie that gives at last some justice to the brave men who fought and died in Africa for their country, at that time led by a dangerous gambler, not because they were fascists (those stayed far from the battlefront) but because they felt it was their duty. They didn't lack courage or skills but the means of more advanced industrial powers - the German-Anglo-Saxon reputation in warfare being largely due to superior production and logistics. Showing how Italy could fall in love for "Il Duce" was clearly out of this movie scope and reach, but perhaps it will help reading again this quotation attributed to a world expert in this field, Herr Hermann Goering: "People can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country". In our days, our leaders do not even have to show us we are being attacked - see headlines for "preemptive war", "Iraq", "Iran"...