Ending/ Overcoming The Odds

Perhaps the most interesting part of the movie is the ending where only 14 Rangers survive and Sgt. Sol Rosen ( Jack Warden) points out " The Rangers were given medals, disbanded and shipped home." That is how bloody The Battle of Anzio was, the fact they were shipped home ( instead of having to fight again with a different unit), and survival defied the odds. This goes back to the scene in the car where Hank Bishop ( Stuart Whitman) says to Wendy Hollister ( Joan Elan) "The odds are just too high against marriage" and she says " You will come back to me because you will not find a better woman then I am." Which is absolutely true. Bishop indeed survives and ends up with a woman far above his Social Class ( being a card shark and gambler), and is accepted by her Upper Class parents because he proved himself on the Field Of Battle and genuinely loves and cares about Wendy instead of seeing her as a " Stepping Stone" to getting ahead in life. Another of the survivors was Arnold Dittmann ( Edd Byrnes) who ends up marrying Angelina ( Angie) De Lotta to save her life ( she needed penicillin to survive). She got pregnant with someone else who was killed by the Germans and that person was someone she loved. He also defied the odds, by surviving and ending up with a woman who actually was in love with him ( You see that in the end when she is happy to see him and gives him a huge kiss. You could tell she was not simply grateful and in debt to him for saving her life). In both cases the odds were defied by surviving and ending up with the right woman that under any other circumstance ( except war) they have no chance with.