Commandos

The fact that this is an Italian made war movie in which the American-Italian commandos are depicted as ruthless, they have no trouble with killing soldiers in their sleep, and the captive Italian soldiers as more sympathetic, gives this movie a very interesting ambiguity about who we are meant to cheer for actually. With the final big showdown therefor conveying the futility of war.

It contains some good interpersonal tension but the action is flat and static and there's lots of meh between the good bits. Commandos glosses over all the parts that make war so compelling as a story setting. It might still have been watchable if edited down for contemporary pacing but it's a pass as is.

I was ready to write this off as poorly made macaroni combat film, but it soon became clear that many of the faults were due to the shortened version on CodeRed DVD. Beginning is very jumpy, but it slows down and I would guess the latter part is pretty much unchanged. It's a bleak film and doesn't show anyone in especially good light; Lee Van Cleef is quite unsympathetic and traumatized even if he's one of the "good guys"; likewise nazis are portayed as just soldiers, not comic book villains.