THE BATTLE OF NERETVA is one of the best war films I have ever seen. It focuses on a group of partisans who battle the Germans, Italians, Chetniks and the elements to reach a strategic bridge in southern Yugoslavia. This epic has excellent battle sequences, a great script, and fairly good dubbing. However, the print of the video I saw ran 106 minutes, and in some places it lost coherency -- I had to watch it multiple times before I could understand what was going on. Secondly, the video is from an unrestored negative, making for very bad picture quality.
The basic story:
Hitler reorganizes his forces -- German and Italian troops, as well as the Chetniks and Ustasha factions to carry out Plan Weiss, a major offensive to crush the Yugoslav partisan movement. Their aim was to prevent an allied sea-borne invasion of the Balkans.
As the enemy forces launched their offensive, the partisans pull out of the town of Bihac and movie along the open road south, toward the Italian held city of Prozor. They march with over 4,000 wounded and over 10,000 refugees.
After heavy fighting the Partisans manage to crush the Italian forces at Prozor, and then continue south until they reach the town of Konjic on the bank of the Neretva river, occupied by Chetnik forces. The partisans manage to capture the town, but as they are fighting the Chetniks, the pursuing German forces in the north catch up with them and attack their column of wounded with aircraft and tanks. The partisans must turn around and defend their wounded. Rather than leave the bridge open to cross, the partisan commander destroys it to prevent enemy cavalry from crossing and closing in on their rearguard.
During a pitched battle with the enemy forces, the partisans manage to halt their advance. While fighting, a group of engineers builds a footbridge over the wreckage of the destoryed bridge. Once this is done, the partisans move their hospital group out and across the bridge, along with all of the refugees and military personnel. They burn the makeshift bridge behind them.
Now that they are across the river, the partisans move out to engage the enemy cavalry massed on the opposite bank ... but who will win out? You've got to see the film for it's incredible final battle scene.
This is really an incredible film. It has some big-name actors playing the leads -- Yul Brynner as a coolheaded Partisan demolition man; Sergei Bondarcuk as a stubborn Partisan artillery commander; Curt Jurgens as the commanding German General; Silva Koscina as an emotional partisan girl; Hardy Kruger as a German colonel obssesed with victory; Franco Nero as an Italian captain who wants to fight for good and not evil; and Orson Welles in a small part as a Chetnik senator.
A good movie, worth [item price] for the story but only the $10 price for the quality of the tape.
THE BATTLE OF NERETVA is one of the best war films I have ever seen. It focuses on a group of partisans who battle the Germans, Italians, Chetniks and the elements to reach a strategic bridge in southern Yugoslavia. This epic has excellent battle sequences, a great script, and fairly good dubbing. However, the print of the video I saw ran 106 minutes, and in some places it lost coherency -- I had to watch it multiple times before I could understand what was going on. Secondly, the video is from an unrestored negative, making for very bad picture quality. The basic story:
Hitler reorganizes his forces -- German and Italian troops, as well as the Chetniks and Ustasha factions to carry out Plan Weiss, a major offensive to crush the Yugoslav partisan movement. Their aim was to prevent an allied sea-borne invasion of the Balkans. As the enemy forces launched their offensive, the partisans pull out of the town of Bihac and movie along the open road south, toward the Italian held city of Prozor. They march with over 4,000 wounded and over 10,000 refugees. After heavy fighting the Partisans manage to crush the Italian forces at Prozor, and then continue south until they reach the town of Konjic on the bank of the Neretva river, occupied by Chetnik forces. The partisans manage to capture the town, but as they are fighting the Chetniks, the pursuing German forces in the north catch up with them and attack their column of wounded with aircraft and tanks. The partisans must turn around and defend their wounded. Rather than leave the bridge open to cross, the partisan commander destroys it to prevent enemy cavalry from crossing and closing in on their rearguard. During a pitched battle with the enemy forces, the partisans manage to halt their advance. While fighting, a group of engineers builds a footbridge over the wreckage of the destoryed bridge. Once this is done, the partisans move their hospital group out and across the bridge, along with all of the refugees and military personnel. They burn the makeshift bridge behind them. Now that they are across the river, the partisans move out to engage the enemy cavalry massed on the opposite bank... but who will win out? You've got to see the film for it's incredible final battle scene. This is really an incredible film. It has some big-name actors playing the leads -- Yul Brynner as a coolheaded Partisan demolition man; Sergei Bondarcuk as a stubborn Partisan artillery commander; Curt Jurgens as the commanding German General; Silva Koscina as an emotional partisan girl; Hardy Kruger as a German colonel obssesed with victory; Franco Nero as an Italian captain who wants to fight for good and not evil; and Orson Welles in a small part as a Chetnik senator. A good movie, worth [item price] for the story but only the $10 price for the quality of the tape.