Sbarco di Anzio, Lo (1968)

In terms of battle scenes, this movie has some interesting ones: like the one where the Rangers are surrounded by tanks, as my impression is that the purpose of most of the scene is to get you to feel what it's like to have a gun pointed at your head (though I doubt they would rush machine gun nests they could clearly see, as depicted in the film). Another is Mitchum's duel with a crack German trooper. In fact, Mitchum's character refers to that feeling late in the movie.

But the thing to focus on here is the attitude towards killing, which I believe is the point of this movie. Many of the deaths are pointless (eg the soldier with the photo of his daughter, the way the soldiers are tripped up by a timid general, and so on), and the reaction of the soldiers is interesting: when Falk, like several other soldiers, hear of someone's death, or the slaughter of many of their troops, they basically say "So what? They're dead now, so what focus on it?". Is inevitable, and you can't change it by mourning. I think this is meant as contrast to Mitchum's more "civilized" attitude. By the end of the movie, Mitchum adopts the same cynical attitude regarding the inevitability of killing and dying in war - it's going to keep happening because they enjoy the killing, or at least people don't value life the sanctity of life as much as he thought. And people are going to keep dying, so get used to it and get on with the job. Note Mitchum's speech near the end and his final line (regarding the conquering hero).

Peter Falk's character, with his matter-of-fact attitude towards killing, and the way he lives in the moment, was the pivotal one of this movie, and he does a great job with it.

It would be interesting to hear the appraisal of this movie by someone who was there.