Fernando Di Leo's directorial debut tells the story of a bunch of allies who land in occupied Belgium during WWII. The allies have to team up with the Belgian resistance to get a top secret allied memorandum back that fell into the hands of the Nazis. But the whole operation doesn't go on as planned at all, because there is a traitor within the resistance. During the quest for the memorandum, allies as well as Belgian resistance fighters and German Nazis are dropping like flies.
Di Leo succeeded in creating a remarkable war drama with an excessive body count (though almost no blood is spilt, because they didn't use any squibs - had they done so, it would have been easily the goriest war movie of its time). Di Leo also manages to show the senselessness of war in general, and the surprise ending shows once more that war only spreads victims and should be avoided at all costs. Still, the movie also delivers good entertainment and never becomes boring or pathetic. And even though there is almost no blood, it has its unpleasantly violent moments that work especially well on an emotional level. Interesting note for Italian film buffs: This movie also marks one of the first credits for Aristide Massacesi aka Joe D'Amato. Rating: 7 out of 10.
Di Leo succeeded in creating a remarkable war drama with an excessive body count (though almost no blood is spilt, because they didn't use any squibs - had they done so, it would have been easily the goriest war movie of its time). Di Leo also manages to show the senselessness of war in general, and the surprise ending shows once more that war only spreads victims and should be avoided at all costs. Still, the movie also delivers good entertainment and never becomes boring or pathetic. And even though there is almost no blood, it has its unpleasantly violent moments that work especially well on an emotional level. Interesting note for Italian film buffs: This movie also marks one of the first credits for Aristide Massacesi aka Joe D'Amato. Rating: 7 out of 10.