La battaglia della Neretva

"The Battle of Neretva" is an often confusing, badly edited mess… on American home video, that is. I've seen multiple versions of this film, and combined, they make one fine epic. Unfortunately, it has yet to be released in its entirety domestically on video or DVD, so it's hard for me to piece together a review of 3 entirely different movies.

In 1943, Hitler orders the final destruction of the Yugoslav Partisans. The Partisans begin a trek northward to the relative safety of the Bosnian Mountains – their goal is to cross the treacherous Neretva gorge over one remaining bridge. Along the way, they battle German tanks, Italian infantry, Chetnik Cavalry, strafing airplanes, disease and natural elements.

Yugoslav director Bulajic is telling his story from all points of view, but his sympathies lie with the Partisans. The film has pro-Communist leanings, and tells several interwoven stories stressing the importance of comradeship in wartime. There are many important characters: Yul Brynner ("Morituri") is crack demolition expert Vlado; Sergei Bondarchuk (director of "Waterloo") is short-tempered artillery officer Martin; Franco Nero ("The Mercenary") is an Italian Captain with no faith in Fascism; Hardy Kruger ("A Bridge too Far") is Colonel Kranzer, who fights with dedication which begins to dwindle as he realizes the bitter reality that the partisans are a formidable enemy; Ljubisa Samardzic ("Battle of the Eagles") and Sylva Koscina ("Hornets' Nest") are brother-and-sister, and Koscina is to marry Ivan (Lojze Rozman) after the war; the list goes on and on, and although every character is significant, it's impossible to list them all. There's an interesting twist, too: the legendary Orson Welles plays a Chetnik Senator who battles for concessions with General Lohring (the great Curd Jurgens), a committed Nazi officer who is determined the wipe out the Partisans once and for all. Surprisingly, Welles plays his role with boundless passion and gusto, and Jurgens departs from his usual role as an anti-Nazi realist German officer; here he is a cold-blooded Nazi officer - he may be his usually cool and restrained, yet occasionally explosive self - but he's still a cold-blooded Nazi.

What's important is that, unlike many epics such as "The Longest Day" and "Is Paris Burning?" every subplot is clear and crucial at all times, and Bulajic manages to keep them every character engaging and recognizable at all times. Despite the scope of the battle scenes, the audience has a personal involvement with them because they feature characters we've come to care about.

These battle scenes are the real stars of the show. They involve thousands of extras, dozens of T-34, Tiger and Sherman tank, German fighter planes, huge explosions and stunt horses which get blown in every direction. Bulajic uses wide shots quite often to show just how massive the combat zone is. Battles take place in green valleys, narrow streets and in the snow-covered mountains, and we can see just hazardous and realistic this scenery is. The Yugoslav landscape has never been so beautifully photographed, and the destruction amidst this beauty is quite sad and often depressing. The final scene, in which several of the main characters are killed (ironically enough, the battle takes place amidst an old cemetery) is epic in scope, with thousands of Chetnik horsemen being gunned down and shelled in a valley, but the personal sacrifice of the partisans is felt at the same time. Bernard Hermann's score is appropriately thunderous at times and also has meaningful, mournful cues. (This music was written exclusively for the edited international versions; the original, equally fantastic Klaus Vladimir Ratjeric score retained on longer prints and used only to aid the dramatic scenes).

This is truly a great epic story, with strong character development interwoven with necessary spectacle. Even on home video in the United States, it's a good movie, and simply improves with each longer cut. "The Battle of Neretva" is simple one of the great lost films of the 20th Century.

I have seen most of the Yugoslav Partisan movies and I find "Bitka an Neretvi" in all aspects the best one. I wont describe the movie itself, you must see it yourself, and it is worth it. However, I would like to update some potential "non-Yugoslav" viewers about some important facts about that movie. The movie was made in 1969, in that period Yugoslav socialist/communist (as you like it)regime was running the most open-minded and "liberal" politics in his whole history. At that time some critics about regimes most outstanding icons were possible. The Partisan movement in WWII was one of them. A figure of a "Partisan" was in official ideological interpretation considered as a natural born patriot, ready to sacrifice, fully political aw eared, in two words: A man of steal, almost a mythical figure only possible to be compared with an ancient hero. In "Bitka Na Neretvi" we are faced with quiet another partisan hero. It is still a hero, but the one who knows the fear. One scene is thus so fascinating when you see partisans running off the battle line, screaming: "They are gonna kill us all!" Another scene shows elements of Partisan cruelty in discussion what to do with wounded comrades, one commandant says:"Whats more important, the fate of the revolution or the fate of our wounded comrades?" That kind of scenes would have been in pure propaganda movie impossible, as well as in John Wayne type of war movie. Other details are also very interesting. You would hard to notice the word of communism or communists, completely different as another movie "Bitka Na Sutjesci". The main hero is thus The People itself. Josip Broz Tito is only present in a short military order. Worth of notification is also the representation of the enemies. Germans are of course evil, but described as noble opponents. Italians are sometimes shown almost even more humanly than partisans, with moral doubt (Two Italian defectors even join partisans). The worst characters are collaborationist: Chetniks and Ustashas, shown as cold-blooded murderers.

Allegedly the most expensive film ever undertaken by the Yugoslav film industry, The Battle Of The Neretva is a tribute to the Partisan army that Josip Broz Tito raised to resist the Nazi occupation of his country. Operating in the mountains, the Partisans proved to be tough nut to crack for the occupying Axis armies.

The country of Yugoslavia which was created by the Allied countries at the Versailles Treaty did not long out last the man who saved it. That was once Yugoslavia is several separate states now. It was an unwieldy conglomerate nation composed of several ethnic groups with various religious backgrounds who had a legacy of Balkan hate of centuries. The Chetniks who collaborated with the Nazis just wanted to make sure they came out on top no matter who won the war. The monarchy of Yugoslavia was that of the former Serbia raised to be ruling all of what became Yugoslavia. No one who was Croatian, Montenegran, Macedonian, etc. wanted Serbian primacy. The Marxist Tito was more acceptable to most than a Serbian king.

A lot of the politics is necessary to know in order to understand what was going on while this battle was being fought. The Germans launched an offensive in the winter of 1943 aimed at wiping out Tito's Partisans and they did drive them to the Neretva River where ordered to stand with their backs to said river offering no retreat, the Partisans turned around and instead and kicked Nazi butt.

The Battle Of Neretva is a brutally uncompromising film about ugly guerrilla war and the version I saw is a slimmed down version. I'm betting I would have rated it higher had I seen the original 3 hours the film's release in Yugoslavia was exhibited at.

Such various international players as Yul Brynner, Franco Nero, Orson Welles, Curt Jurgens, and Hardy Kruger all have some interesting cameos. But the stars are the Yugoslav players most of you won't know in this film. I'm sure the Oscar for Best Foreign language film is based on the Academy voters having the original to judge.

This film is a nice tribute to a part of World War II that is not talked about too much in the west.

What is so great about this movie is its near matter-of-fact portray of the reality of the war, namely, the bloody defeats and suffering of the partisan army. This honest portray of what really happened in the past history is often taken for granted in movies made in west, but it is extremely rare in the eastern blocks, including the former-Yugoslavia, that is until this movie was made.

The movie was based on the historical facts of German attack on the Yugoslavian Communist bases, including inflicting great casualties on the partisan army, and in addition, the logistic parts of the partisan army, such as the central hospital, and heavy equipment, such as artillery and vehicles, were completely lost. However, German failed their original objective of eliminating the partisan army once for all in one decisive blow, despite the fact wiping out every partisan base and inflicting significant casualties on partisans:

Tito narrowly escaped the German spear head of the assault, and successfully planned and lead the remaining forces to break out, opening new fronts in Bosnia after escaping, and eventually establishing a new base there. For this reason, this battle was considered a victory by partisans because they escaped the total annihilation, and with the tiny surviving force, they eventually recovered and fight to their final victory.

This movie is an relatively accurate portrait of the extremely difficult breaking out attempts and the eventual success of the partisan army, a technical defeat but a strategic victory. In comparison to other war flicks made in communist countries, such as that of former-USSR, Romania, Vietnam, and North Korea, this movie presented the facts that most communist regime would rather not want to talk about: the heavy casualties of communist army and its cause: the inabilities of the commanders to make the best decision at the right moment at the place.

In the war flicks made in the other communist countries listed above, the heroes never dies, and their commanders never makes mistakes, and the enemy was always stupid and incapable. This movie honestly admits that the enemy is not only better equipped, but is equally capable if not better Tito's commanders. The German war fighting capabilities were given proper credit.

In this sense, this movie is the Yugoslavian equivalent of The Longest Day, made in USA, in which Germans were treated as they were -- human beings and professional soldiers who did their job despite the failure of their high command. Although there are still obvious one-sided scenes due to obvious political reasons, such as the world is bleeding when a partisan was killed, the movie is far better than any others made in the communist countries and for its honest description of the history, it deserves a perfect ten.

There is something special about big films made in commanded economies. Because they had not only artistic but also educational and "raising national spirit" function, they were filmed with big budget and almost national participation (on more or less voluntary base)- forget Hollywood free market film.

This film is not exception - it's one of the biggest Yugoslavian projects made with dream team - most famous and appreciated actors and actresses, respected director and episode roles of famous international stars - Yul Brynner and Orson Wells.

The other side of the story with such films is theirs success. Most of them are to pathetic and politically made to be accepted anywhere beyond the borders of their own country. The Battle of Neretva is different - it became well accepted broad wide, mostly in third world but even is some high developed countries like Italy and even got nominated for Oscar.

So if you got lost and somehow find yourselves on this page and wonder what kind of film this is here's the summary - expensive Yugoslavian epic story with LOT and LOT of action in less explicit but Saving Private Ryan type spiced with Partisans (good guys) vs Nazis (bad guys) story.

Give it a chance - you may find it refreshing, original and interesting compared with Hollywood war films. Spielberg probably learned a lot watching it.