The production values and the plot are atrocious ! Imagine a company of troops of any army holding a defensive position at the bottom of a hill with the enemy free to dominate them from the high ground ! The tanks (Chafees) and the APCs (M113s) are post-WW 2 equipment.
sharewell it's still the definitive account of the title battle. The recent film "EL ALAMEIN" has better production values but lacks the scope and excitement. It's a lower-key experience all around.
Big, exciting, large-scale action war films like this are really hard to pull off... and I think they did an admirable job when one considers the budget of under 200 million lira. That's like 250 grand... barely enough to even buy one out-of-date tank these days.
To be honest, this movie had even a bit more stuff than usual.
Yes, most "moving" tanks are chafee, M47 or M113, and firing weapon were out of italian army stocks, too.
But here and there they found some "right" tank.
Montgomery's HQ had around Shermans, M10 tank destroyer, 25lbs cannons.
And in the last attack, when "Ariete" tanks charged forward, you may see a running M13 and a self propelled 75mm assault gun: both rare italian army riveted plates armoered vehicles.
Italian army uniforms were right up to the parachutist helmets, insignas: also german and british soldiers had good uniforms - not exact, but quite close.
Al this is unusual for a cheap italian film.
Of course, it's hundred of miles from a Spielberg's production with its neat uniforms and vehicles rebuilt from scratch.
But, still, for a very cheap movie they tried harder than usual.
Well you have to go in with toned-down expectations, considering it's a low-budget Italian B-movie without the production values of something like The Longest Day or A Bridge Too Far.
my movie review website: http://www.jestersreviews.com
This film is BETTER than ALL Hollywood war movies.
No politics.
No exaggerations and lies about so called evil Italian and German people.
Remember England and France declared war on Germany and USA was tricked into it.