The battle of El Alamein has been object of numerous movies. Guido Malatesta's version is one of the strangest and most unknown that I have seen.
Like in so many other movies, the war separates a few lovers. In this case, he, Italian, must join immediately the army and her, Englishwoman, flees of Italy and shelters in Cairo.
Soon he will have to be going to fight to the desert in the north of Africa under horrible conditions. He will have to take difficult decisions under the belief of which he has lost his dear one.
Undoubtedly the central object of the movie is the battle between the Italian command against the Africa German Korps. The love story remains relegated to the background and it's showed in a telegraphic form preventing any empathy from the spectator with the main characters, one wonders if this love story was necessary. While, the combats of the courageous Italian ones against the German tanks appear in a vehement and spectacular way.
For a moment it seems that this could be a movie with realistic connotations that would had favored the final result; but it isn't like that, a made in Hollywood ending waits for us, a forced ending without any visual and/or emotional impact.
There is nothing technically prominent. The photography probably is the aspect most distinguished from the movie. The music passes unnoticed.
Finally I will say that the unknown actors (for me) do it discreetly well.
6 out of 10.
