Die große Offensive

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.

For a low-budget movie set during World War II, it does have a rough and violent edge. Above all, BATTLE FORCE surrenders to a non-existent plot and storyline that's been duped hundreds of times repeatedly. Don't expect much here as there's no specific meaning. Explosions and body counts are nothing new! Adding to the troop casulty count is of Orson Welles' annoying and interrupting narration, making it feel like a made-for-television documentary. War movies are instant classics in the grade "A" Hollywood circuit, and SAVING PRIVATE RYAN triumphs realism today. Despite a fairly good replica of those WW2 days, BATTLE FORCE is another run-of-the-mill production without enough substance. Anyone who grew up watching Hollywood war dramas in their lifetimes probably avoided this one while history was made.

This spectacular movie starts in Berlin during Oympic Games 1936 with the African-American Jesse Owens as champion . There reunites a Nazi officer (Stacy Keach) , a veteran American journalist (John Huston), a famous actress (Samantha Eggar) and an US General (Henry Fonda). Keach gives gifts to the hosts captioning : 'In God we trust' . The group of different nationalities vows to meet five years later but WWII interrupts their lives . Los Angeles 1942 , the upright General incarnated by Henry Fonda is assigned to West Point Academy and his son (Ray Lovelock) takes the ranks to North African campaign . After the action is placed on several locations , as London , West Point, Le Hauvre (France) . Island of Creta , October 1942, an official (Giuliano Gemma) whose mission is to destroy a German installation before being used against the Allied forces . Following the feats about Partisans and a parachuted squadron (led by Giacomo Rossi Stuart) attacking a train (commanded by Helmut Berger) transporting a big German-built cannon (whose scenes are taken from ¨Battle of commands¨). Meanwhile the German actress (Samantha Eggar)for the reason his Jewish origin is detained by SS and Nazi official Berger is enamored to prostitute (gorgeous Edwige Fenech) . Posteriorly , it tells battles in Mareth line March 14, 1943 and Gabes , North Africa , engaging war German Army against British VIII army . There a captain (Gemma) neutralizes a bomb camp and Nazi officer (Berger) impersonates Allied soldier to destroy supplies . Taking place spectacular battles with miniaturized tanks (whose footage is taken from ¨Battle of Alaimen¨ by Giorgo Ferroni and the same producer Mino Loy) .

This is a regularly conceived WWII with action filled , studio character , drama and exciting battles , but nothing special . Packs inaccurate details and an extremely talented though wasted cast make this one of all-time great Italian epic productions though failed . The film contains news-reel documentary , stock-shots vignettes and miniatures , however lost continuity with several cuts and zooms . The battle scenes were shot in desert of Tabernas (Almeria) where in the 60s and 70s were filmed lots of Westerns . Furthermome, a prestigious cast , as Fonda , Eggar , Keach and appears as narrator the great Orson Welles . Numerous Italian secondaries as Jack Stuart , Andrea Bosic , Venantino Venanti , Ken Wood , Ida Valli and Rick Battaglia habitual of Peplum and Spaghetti . The tale was middlingly directed by Umberto Lenzi , he often used the pseudonym Hank Milestone and Humphrey Logan . He's an expert on wartime genre such as he proved in ¨ Desert commandos¨ , ¨Battle of commandos¨, ¨From hell to victory¨, and ¨Bridge to hell¨.

Not bad at all for an Italian war spaghetti film. Of course it is not BATTLE OF THE BULGE, BATTLE OF ENGLAND nor THE LONGEST DAY either but the international cast helps much. Not a bad story, not so far from historical accuracy, good convincing acting and poignant scenes too. Excellent battle sequences. I have seen far worse in terms of Italian spaghetti war films. Here, at least, the German army - Afrika Korps - is not shown as silly soldiers - which they certainly were not - and a difference is made between SS - Gestapo - and the Wehrmacht. I enjoyed it very much. I guess there are many more films like this, Italian movie industry from the late sixties and late seventies provided so many of them.

I don't understand how Luciano Martino and Mino Loy were able to raise the money to hire so many big-name actors of the time (such as Orson Welles, John Huston, Henry Fonda, and Samantha Eggar) but they still had to rely on plentiful stock footage from earlier war movies like THE BATTLE OF EL ALAMEIN and LEGION OF THE DAMNED. Pretty much all the substantial action scenes featured here consist of lifted shots from late 60's films, giving it an overall dated appearance.

Umberto Lenzi's directing is good as usual, with lots of emphasis placed on the well-edited action scenes. The budget for production design and extras casting appears minimal however, with a lot of the same actors dying over and over again, and a few really shoddy toy tanks exploding.

As for the cast, just about everybody that had anything to do with the Italian movie industry shows up somewhere in the movie, from familiar dubbing voice Robert Spafford as Patton to future director Michele Soavi as Fonda's dead son. The photography and music are all top notch, yet this movie has gotten ad reviews across the board. Why? My guess is that it's because it has little or no plot to speak of. There are so many characters and so much going on in the film that it has no focus or direction. Eggar's character has no point in the movie other than she makes it slightly longer, and Edwige Fenech gets one lousy scene as a French prostitute. Eventually, most of the actors end up in Africa fighting on one side or the other and (surprise!) the Germans lose and all the German characters die, the end. But who goes to watch a good old-fashioned war movie for the plot anyway? There's plenty to enjoy if you like watching German soldiers lying in the road pretending to be dead so they can shoot the American soldiers that run up to help them. It also contains a number of memorable scenes like when Stacy Keach gets lost in the desert and falls over after about 10 seconds of walking, and a very irritating case of bad communication when Ray Lovelock attempts to call up his father and the two barely manage to get through even a few words.

The ending really comes out of nowhere though, but it's made especially funny as John Huston seems to just get bored of the movie and walk off saying "seeya around" right into the camera! The extended European cut at least provides a little more closure and overall much less disjointed, though it's missing the Orson Welles narration which so desperately tries to tie everything together. Definitely not a movie to miss... for fans of the Italian war movie sub-genre and those curious to see a sort of dry run for the WINDS OF WAR miniseries.