Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

gilligan1965 This is a great and historic movie!This is the kind of great war documentary/movie that most people outside this particular language/nation/area rarely get to see because it's not 'Hollywood.' Also, for lack of a better word...it's 'foreign' to most...uncommon. The same with Poland's "Katyn"(2007); Italy's "Torpedo Zone"(1955); and, many others...The Netherlands' "Soldier of Orange"(1977).Although these 'same' T-34 Russian tanks converted into Tiger 1 German tanks, and, American Sherman tanks, are in the same movie (as well as the American M3 half-tracks converted to German Sd.Kfz. 251s), because it's a Hollywood production 'filmed in Yugoslavia,' everyone in the world can see "Kelly's Heroes"(1970); but, rarely this great movie. Just as everyone can see Hollywood's "Battle of the Bulge"(1965) and "Patton"(1970) (both filmed 'mainly' in Spain) that use the same tanks...because it's big-budget Hollywood. Hollywood is great, but, it sometimes leaves equally great non-Hollywood movies behind, and, sadly forgotten.To me, this is likely the best eastern European war documentary/movie production ever. The German movie "Stalingrad"(1993), filmed in Germany, Finland, Czech Republic, and, Italy, is another sadly 'forgotten great.'As per national budget at that time, this movie's ranks up there with "Doctor Zhivago"(1965); "Lawrence of Arabia"(1963); "The Guns of Navarone"(1961); "The Sand Pebbles"(1966); and, "A Bridge Too Far"(1977).This movie even has an international 'Hollywood' movie-making cast - Yul Brynner and Oleg Vidov(Russia); Hardy Kruger and Curt Jürgens (Germany); Franco Nero(Italy); Orson Wells(USA); Sergey Bondarchuk(Ukraine); Sylva Koscino(Croatia); and, Anthony Dawson(Scotland). Despite this...this great movie isn't nearly as famous as similar Hollywood movies that take place in 'Yugoslavia' like "Force 10 From Navarone."If you're a World War II buff who likes to see every aspect of that war, even the lesser-known parts...see this.

MARIO GAUCI There exist various versions of this film – running anywhere between 102 and 175 minutes; the one I watched, dubbed in Italian, was itself around 142 – although the official Italian print is actually 134 minutes long! Over the years, I had missed out on a couple of occasions to watch this – both on Italian and local TV, as well as a VHS rental. Given its title and roster of established international movie stars – Yul Brynner, Curd Jurgens, Sylva Koscina, Hardy Kruger, Franco Nero and Orson Welles – one could be forgiven for mistaking it as yet another WWII-set Hollywood epic a' la THE LONGEST DAY (1962) and BATTLE OF THE BULGE (1965). Consequently, its eventual nomination for Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award proves at first suspect and highly surprising but, in hindsight, well deserved since the film is actually a big-budget co-production between Yugoslavia, West Germany, Italy and even the U.S.A.While the film is mostly distinguished by the fact that it features an impressive array of battle sequences which must surely be counted among the most spectacular of its era, it must also be said that it takes care and time to show the effects that constant warfare has on the behavior of human beings: an explosives expert (Brynner) is renounced and spat at by his own people when he is forced to destroy their only way back home to stop the advancing troops; two blind men leading each other during an airborne attack are led by the sound of another man's voice already taking cover; a partisan is driven crazy when stricken by typhus; a proud Italian general (Anthony Dawson) commits suicide in a shabby room where he is held in captivity by the partisans; an Italian captain (Nero) deserts his side to join the ranks of the partisans and is taken under his wing by an artillery officer (Sergei Bondarchuk); a brother and a sister (Koscina), both members of the Yugoslav partisans, die together when hugely outnumbered during a deadly encounter with a band of long-haired renegade Chetniks led by a hesitant senator (Welles)!; a German captain (Kruger) comes to respect the determination of his enemies during combat, etc.Despite the various strands of plot touched upon and the multitude of major and minor characters involved, the unknown director weaves a clear and expansive picture of the river Neretva conflict – at least in the version I saw; one can only wonder what an incoherent mess the shorter versions (some of them accompanied by a new score by Bernard Herrmann, no less) must have been! Incidentally, in spite of that afore-mentioned Oscar nod, THE BATTLE OF NERETVA is still highly undervalued today – no doubt, its reputation is lost among the countless WWII actioners made both by Hollywood and Euro-Cult film-makers during the 1960s and 1970s.

ktang_rph very good movie for world war 2 fans. there is pretty good comparison about the expression of emotions between german and the slavic people. as the previous comments, if there is a partizan get killed, the whole world is bleeding. when german colonel kranzer called host and suddently he realised that host is killed. he just supressed his emotion. this is a international movie. there are two german tiger tanks, some ex-cccp t34 tanks and us made sherman tanks. of course, the german tiger tanks are too expensive to be destroyed. most of the destroyed tanks are us made sherman tanks(cheap).

von-13 Hmm....don't like this Yugoslav warflick all that much. Story + acting is hard to feel interested in and it's too gloryfying of the Yugoslavian resistance battling Chechtnics + Germans. Ok...some of the battlescenes are well staged with good explosions and bullits whipping up dirt, etc...Rather chaotic and a little intense. But whenever a partizan is killed or wounded, we are forced to feel ooohh sooooo sad...like if the whole wide world is bleeding/crying.. Irritating as h...!! Orson Welles gets a few bullets in his (f..) belly and tumbles to the ground. Great stunt !!!! Also there's a fine little homage to Sergio Corbucci's DJANGO. We see Franco Nero clutching to a cross with bloodied hands and a "sick" expression on his face. Danish tape runs 126.45 mins...letterboxed about 1:1.70