The Biggest Battle

The Biggest Battle (Il Grande Attacco) (1978)

Runtime: 104 minutes

Directed by: Umberto Lenzi

Starring: Stacy Keach, Guiliano Gemma, Samantha Eggar, Ray Lovelock, Helmut Berger

From: A few European companies

I discovered why a movie with such a cast is quite obscure.

In the past I've discussed director Umberto Lenzi and how his sleazy genre efforts have entertained me, whether they be horror or poliziotteschi. For awhile now I've known that he did a serious World War II picture featuring a great cast yet it is not well known among even film fans; as I haven't seen anything from Lenzi in like a year, it was time... note that while there's a print on Prime, that wasn't streamed as it's fullscreen and looks terrible. Nevermind how but I found a widescreen copy.

How could I not view a movie that had as its main players Stacy Keach, Henry Fonda, John Huston, Helmut Berger, Samantha Eggar, Giuliano Gemma, Ray Lovelock, and Edwige Fenech? Hell, I understand that in the American cut-which I did not view-there was narration from Orson Welles! Yet judging by IMDb and Letterboxd, it is unknown to most nerds like us. I heard bad things but to me, at least it wasn't total dreck like Inchon-now there is something dire. Of course, this still looks bad compared to such all-star war pictures like The Longest Day, A Bridge Too Far & Battle of Britain.

The biggest problem is that this is in essence a bunch of different vignettes involving various people in WWII... even some Germans are followed. It does not really connect together even if some of them end up in Tunisia at the Battle of the Mareth Line. Much of it is just average... the performances, the action (which I hear includes some copious usage of stock footage), and overall filmmaking. The movie is not a drag at 104 minutes-at the same time there wasn't enough time to care about everyone, which was one of its issues.

As funny as it was that the guy who gave us Nightmare City and Cannibal Ferox also directed a European war picture with such a cast, this was not bad enough to be funny (or at least irritating enough to get me fired up due to anger) but wasn't good enough for me to ever recommend the film.