A grand-scale account of one of the most decisive campaigns in the Balkans in World War 2. Considering it was made largely for propaganda purposes, THE BATTLE OF NERETVA manages to remain somewhat true to the historical details and certainly delivers on action.
This is one of those old-style painstakingly flawless films – you know, where almost every shot is beautifully composed and it's all directed with a certain dramatic fervor. Before this film I'd only seen low budget small-scale Yugoslavian films so I was surprised they were even capable of this. There's plenty of sweeping shots of thousands of extras battling, charging, or marching through the snow as far as the eye can see. Add to that, even the plain Jane strategy meetings between generals are shot and written to deliver the interesting battle details to make it all make perfect sense. Excellent unflinching air attacks and artillery bombardments sparing us nothing of the constant suffering and loss of life. You really get a great sense of how furious the German high command was and how frustrated they were that the Partisan army could not be knocked out.
Add to that a top-notch international cast (for the time), including Yul Brynner, Orson Welles, Hardy Kruger, Curt Jurgens, Anthony Dawson, Sylvia Koscina, Sergei Bondarchuk, and Franco Nero all in substantial roles. A lot of Yugoslavia's top stars of the day make appearances as partisans, but unfortunately there's so many that they start to blur into each other after a while. Bondarchuk was given a role and brought on as technical adviser, and it's easy to see his hand in things after watching his battle scenes in WAR AND PEACE and WATERLOO.
There are several different versions of this film of various lengths. East-bloc and West-bloc versions tend to be the main alternates from which various other smaller ones were cut. My favorite cuts tend to fall under the West-bloc category as they contain the glorious score by Bernard Herrmann, has most of the higher profile names speaking English in their own voices, and cut away some of the more outrageous propaganda. Then again, the East-bloc version contains a lot more humanity and fleshes out its characters a lot better, but to each his own. The commie version is a character drama; the capitalist version is an action movie.
Like with any 60's World War 2 film there are plenty of technical inaccuracies and continuity problems due to the budget. For instance, a lot of the tanks and planes are improper equipment, but at least they made the effort to dress two T-34's to look like Tiger tanks. Unfortunately the Germans would have more likely used Panzer III and IV tanks which make no appearance here. Nicely, it does include lengthy subplots involving the numerous Nazi collaborators during the war, with the climactic battle not being Partisans vs. Germans, but Partisans vs. (poorly-coordinated and low-morale) Chetnik Militia.
This film, unsurprisingly enough, was followed up with a similar though not quite-as-good (yet not entirely deservedly obscure) sequel SUTJESKA, doubling as a biopic for Yugoslavia's dictator (and Partisan leader) Josip Tito.
This is one of those old-style painstakingly flawless films – you know, where almost every shot is beautifully composed and it's all directed with a certain dramatic fervor. Before this film I'd only seen low budget small-scale Yugoslavian films so I was surprised they were even capable of this. There's plenty of sweeping shots of thousands of extras battling, charging, or marching through the snow as far as the eye can see. Add to that, even the plain Jane strategy meetings between generals are shot and written to deliver the interesting battle details to make it all make perfect sense. Excellent unflinching air attacks and artillery bombardments sparing us nothing of the constant suffering and loss of life. You really get a great sense of how furious the German high command was and how frustrated they were that the Partisan army could not be knocked out.
Add to that a top-notch international cast (for the time), including Yul Brynner, Orson Welles, Hardy Kruger, Curt Jurgens, Anthony Dawson, Sylvia Koscina, Sergei Bondarchuk, and Franco Nero all in substantial roles. A lot of Yugoslavia's top stars of the day make appearances as partisans, but unfortunately there's so many that they start to blur into each other after a while. Bondarchuk was given a role and brought on as technical adviser, and it's easy to see his hand in things after watching his battle scenes in WAR AND PEACE and WATERLOO.
There are several different versions of this film of various lengths. East-bloc and West-bloc versions tend to be the main alternates from which various other smaller ones were cut. My favorite cuts tend to fall under the West-bloc category as they contain the glorious score by Bernard Herrmann, has most of the higher profile names speaking English in their own voices, and cut away some of the more outrageous propaganda. Then again, the East-bloc version contains a lot more humanity and fleshes out its characters a lot better, but to each his own. The commie version is a character drama; the capitalist version is an action movie.
Like with any 60's World War 2 film there are plenty of technical inaccuracies and continuity problems due to the budget. For instance, a lot of the tanks and planes are improper equipment, but at least they made the effort to dress two T-34's to look like Tiger tanks. Unfortunately the Germans would have more likely used Panzer III and IV tanks which make no appearance here. Nicely, it does include lengthy subplots involving the numerous Nazi collaborators during the war, with the climactic battle not being Partisans vs. Germans, but Partisans vs. (poorly-coordinated and low-morale) Chetnik Militia.
This film, unsurprisingly enough, was followed up with a similar though not quite-as-good (yet not entirely deservedly obscure) sequel SUTJESKA, doubling as a biopic for Yugoslavia's dictator (and Partisan leader) Josip Tito.