Dear sirs
I don't know if this is the most suitable place but I wanted to point out, in case you missed it, the recently released movie "Comandante" with Pierfrancesco Favino. It is one of those very rare cases in which Italian cinema deals with men who demonstrated their value during WWII.
This is the link to the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD9VLqTrbyQ
locandina.jpg (53.79 KiB) Viewed 1427 times
locandina.jpg (53.79 KiB) Viewed 1427 times
The movie tells the story of the submarine commander Salvatore Todaro, in particular the story of the Belgian cargo ship Kabalo which was sunk by Todaro's submarine who, however, despite the orders received, wanted to save the crew.
When Donitz found out about it, he reproached the Italian commanders, reminding them that they were at war and not on a Samaritan crusade. Todaro then replied, a phrase that became famous in the Italian Navy, that "the others had no more than two thousand years of history behind them".
Subsequently, Donitz met Todaro and told him "I always disagree with you but I always wish I could give orders to Men like you".
Todaro was awarded the Bronze Medal for military valor.
I don't know if this movie is distributed outside Italy but if you have the chance, watch it!
Best regards
...Do hope it does well at box office. I've not been in a theatre since 2012, last sold-out one critical documentary during 2004 USA presidential campaign put on by Vietnam Swiftboaters who'd served with John Forbes Kerry. Number of WWII movies Internet stream on weekends as "backround noise", 1985 Das Boot miniseries + 1977 A Bridge Too Far Saturdays, 1962 Lawrence of Arabia + 1951 The Guns of Navarone Sundays, "filliers" 1945 They Were Expendable, 1962 The Longest Day, 1968 Where Eagles Dare, 1969, Battle of Britain, 1970 Patton & Tora Tora Tora, 2016 Panvilov's 28 Men Russian language with English subtitles etc. making up the rest.
Hi RIK
if I may say, it is an Italian film that tells the true story of a submarine commander when Italy was part of the Axis. There is therefore no celebration of someone who fought for the Duce: unfortunately, in order not to fall into celebrations of the fascist era in Italy, many brave figures have been forgotten. There is no need to talk about politics but to this day, in Italy, being proud of being Italian means being automatically classified as right-wing and therefore linked to fascism. Stereotypes are very often hard to fight.
It is not the usual war film with the good guys on one side and the bad guys on the other, much less a Hollywood production that spectacularizes a war theater.
Personally, I explain the release of this movie, played by the Italian actor who currently enjoys the greatest public favor, as a reference to the situation we are experiencing daily in the Mediterranean Sea with numerous landings of migrants coming from Africa and mostly headed towards Italy. Many, too many, are shipwrecked on the journey and lose their lives. And the spirit that always animates Italians is solidarity. Then, if appropriate, we send them back to where they came from.
It's a battle.
And the movie reminds us, with real events even in an extreme situation such as combat, what the most important thing is: life.
Ciao
...Love your statement: And the movie reminds us, with real events even in an extreme situation such as combat, what the most important thing is: life, why also I repeatedly watch The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957) & Zulu (1964), Stanley Baker's take on Battle Of Rorke's Drift. The former about misplaced POW cooperation with Japanese so as to retain military pride & rule of law, latter raw survial against overwhelming odds, were simultaneously gripping, emotionally draining well as disgusting in terms of lives lost. Zulu today can't be aired on commercial release without warnings of racially disturbing content, ridiculous given it had full support of Zulu leadership whilst Nelson Mandela was imprisoned by the South African government, to me its the quintessential film on late 19th Century British Army order & diciplne whilst under fire.
I greatly admire David Lean's & Cy Endfield's directing Kwai & Zulu; Endfield's film ending was perfect, Leans deeply unsettling implying wounded & sick British & Commonwealth POWs still in "Camp 16" whose only hope for life was to be rail transported across the Kwai bridge as stated by Guiness (Col. Nicholson) were going to be murdered by camp guards in retaliation after the bridge was blown up. Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot's ending; U-96 bombed & sunk whilst docked & crew machine-gunned, needlessly hammered his anti-militarist, anti-Nazi, anti-war, anti-German nationalist themes they mixed in with the physical & emotional struggles of the sub's crew under relentless Royal Navy & Air Force attacks extremely disturbing. Petersen's directing was magnficant thoughout but flat-out refuse watching the ending beyond when then Vizeadmiral Karl Dönitz boards the sub.
The movie tells the story of the submarine commander Salvatore Todaro, in particular the story of the Belgian cargo ship Kabalo which was sunk by Todaro's submarine who, however, despite the orders received, wanted to save the crew. When Donitz found out about it, he reproached the Italian commanders, reminding them that they were at war and not on a Samaritan crusade. Todaro then replied, a phrase that became famous in the Italian Navy, that "the others had no more than two thousand years of history behind them".
Subsequently, Donitz met Todaro and told him "I always disagree with you but I always wish I could give orders to Men like you". Todaro was awarded the Bronze Medal for military valor.
Thanks for posting this, I encourage it.
I seen ads for the movie in my feeds, about a month ago, but I doubt theaters will carry the movie in NA except those theaters that cater to niche topics - if not I'll order the DVD/BD. Salvatore Todaro's actions remind me of veteran RE troops that served on the Eastern front and their comments about the Soviets, particularly civilians, and to a man they invariably state that they never hated them; contrast this to the Germans and Japanese who often engaged in savagery, in fact the Japanese military would even execute German civilians in 1944(?) - part of an ethnic cleansing in the Pacific ordered by the Japanese high-command (while still allied to the Germans!), and subsequent complaints lodged by German officials after the war regarding the brutality of those executions including German nuns and priests. Another example of the Italian character in WWII were the Italian airmen themselves, there is not one recorded case of Italian airmen shooting at Allied airmen who had parachuted from their aircraft, while the opposite can not be said of the Allies, in particular the British. Or Italian military protecting Italian Jews at gun point (i.e., their guns pointed at SS/Gestapo) from being deported - there was no holocaust in Italy. Of course there are Allied accusations in Yugoslavia and Ethiopia but the brutality and barbarism shown to captive Italians there was unspeakable, so of course reprisals had to be expected and to what extent is still debated - certainly not the same that was shown them, and later in Northern Italy the murder-fest that was going at the hands of the Allies. Ironically, in this context, today the RE/RA are viewed differently than their Axis allies, while the Germans and even the Japanese are held in higher-regard - such are the histories.
One last thing, outside of German U-Boats the highest-scoring Axis and Allied sub, was the Italian submarine Leonardo Da Vinci (120,000 tonnage) and ranks amongst the top U-boats, together with Scire (91,000 tonnage) and Tazzoli (96,000 tonnage). Italian submarines operating in the Atlantic sank 109 allied merchant ships totaling 593,864 tons. To put this into context, the Germans built 1,162 subs in WWII, USA 228, Japan 174, Italy 116 (most were built before WWII). At the Armistice the Italians had about 60 subs left (most lost in the shallow waters of the Mediterranean, that the Allies had trouble operating in also) - not the "grievous losses" as the British claim.
Here's the trailer btw, I think the link above doesn't work in some regions:
Here are two related videos to the movie Comandante, one is an old Luce film and the R.Smg. Tazzoli and its commander, submarine ace Carlo Fecia di Cossato. The second is a video by icunowlibra (Youtube CC), again the R.Smg. Tazzoli - captions are provided in English. The R.Smg. Tazzoli is credited with 96,000 tonnage GRT sunk in the Mediterranean and Atlantic and ranks as one of the highest scoring U-boats, and one of the highest scoring subs of WWII. If you like the content be sure to like and subscribe to these channels.
