Genre: War movie
Run Time: 1:24
Rating: T (Tutti, Italian for ‘everyone’)

My rating:

I don’t even remember what prompted us to watch this movie. I know my dad came across it while doing an internet search, but I don’t remember why he was looking up Folgore paratroopers . . . pretty sure, though, that it had something to do with the research we were doing on the Italian army for one of our game projects. Also, my brother is super interested in paratroopers, especially the Italian and German ones.

Oh, and did I mention? This movie is entirely in Italian, all except for the 3 or so lines spoken by the British (I think they’re likely New Zealanders, actually). Yes, I watched it without subtitles. I probably would’ve understood a few things better if I’d had subtitles, but I was able to pick things up well enough, despite the rapid-fire dialogue, thanks to the smattering of French I’ve retained.

Plot

Anyway! The movie follows the paratroopers of the Folgore Division in WWII. It starts out in the desert of North Africa, then goes back to their training and preparation for the intended paradrop on British-occupied Malta. Things don’t go as planned, though, and the paracudisti find themselves instead taken to North Africa, unable to use all the cool drop training they got. The climax of the film is the lengthy tank-busting section at El Alamein, where the soldiers are doing Hollywood-worthy but 100% accurate cool stuff, like ducking under driving tanks to stick mines on them (ala the movie poster), jumping on them to blow the turret with dynamite, epic stuff like that. No spoilers here if you know the history, but despite their heroics things don’t go well for the paratroopers, and the last scene is of rows of white crosses out in the desert. (The Italians got destroyed at Alamein – though they inflicted terrible losses on the British – and had to retreat, many of them on foot, across the desert.)

(I love that picture of the paratroopers marching out to their planes before the trip to Africa! It’s one of my favorite desktop backgrounds. #nerd )

Characters

The writers didn’t spend a whole lot of time developing the characters, which is understandable – it’s a history film, not a character-focused one. But there are a few that I liked:

Delavigne, with his unruly hair and his dog Micci This young man is afraid of heights – likely he didn’t realize it when he signed up, but being up on a 70-foot jump tower is enough to make anyone have second thoughts! He almost didn’t make it as a paratrooper, but the Colonello (more on him in a minute) gave him another chance.

Oh, and he does get to keep Micci, even though technically dogs were forbidden . . . she comes with him on jumps and carries a first-aid pack.

Gabriele, a former monk or friar – I’m not sure which. Religion was highly important in the Italian army, and each unit had their own chaplain. Gabriele doesn’t care much for heights either. He frequently helps the medics.

I love his face – he looks so warm and friendly, like the kind of guy I could trust right away.

Colonello Cecchi, the one who gives Delavigne a second chance. And no, this is not just because I like blond guys, though I think that perfect, no-hair-out-of-place style is probably natural. I like him because he looks like a very professional soldier, yet also very understanding. He obviously cares about his men, given all the encouragement he offers Delavigne.

Dislikes

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!

*takes a deep breath*

Okay, I REALLY dislike how they killed off Delavigne in practically the first action in North Africa. Not only is it sad, it’s also not great from a storytelling perspective (and it made me sad for the rest of the movie). He’s pretty much the only character they spent much time developing, only to get rid of him halfway through the movie. You don’t just do that to your kid characters! If he had to die, it should have been something epic at the end, not a stupid machine gun on a stupid night patrol.

It is impactful in a way, though, in that it gets across the complete impartiality and tragedy of war. I wouldn’t have killed him off, but war is not an author; young lives like his can get snuffed out at once, and the world goes on except for a few broken hearts at home. Delavigne represents all those seemingly useless sacrifices made by soldiers whose deaths don’t lead to anything of military value.

(Enough of me being depressing. As usual when I’m mad about stuff like that, I have it as headcanon that he wasn’t killed, just badly wounded and captured by the British, and he survived in the end. )

(Honestly, though – how can you kill off a face like that?!)

Family Friendly?

Depends on your family. It’s black and white, so that always makes things better. And it’s from the 50s, when movies were still kept pretty clean. As far as I know, there’s no language; but then, I don’t speak Italian (yet). There’s nothing gory, and while it’s implied that some nasty fates befall some of the guys in the tank-busting scenes, it’s never shown. Several guys are bandaged, and you can tell when there’s blood, but it’s nothing too bad. So, it’s up to you, but given the intensity of war, I wouldn’t watch it with young kids or sensitive folks (like my mom).

This is the version we watched. Only the first hour-thirty or so is the film; the rest is all scenes from the film that got repeated, for whatever reason? This version doesn’t have subtitles, so if you want to follow what they’re saying, you may want to find another version. I don’t suggest the color one; it was automatically colored and the filter has a lot of issues. Delavigne got a blue ear at one point.

Final Thoughts

Overall, despite my sadness over Delavigne, I really enjoyed this! I found it all fascinating, since I didn’t know anything about the Folgore before. This movie is going to live on in our crazy alternate universe for a while, as we have a few Legos named after the characters, and I wrote a few ridiculous fanfics about them on my typewriter. (It also gave me some *ideas* . . . *cough cough* )

Recommended!