Backdrop fallback

The Great War

The Great War

Share

The Great War

"The great battle spectacle of our time!"

1959

2h 17m

8.1(379 votes)

Comedy

War

Drama

Overview

Italy, 1916. Oreste Jacovacci and Giovanni Busacca are called, as all the Italian youths, to serve the army in the WWI. They both try in every way to avoid serving the army.

Links & Resources

Social & External

Production Companies

gray-film

The people behind it

Cast & crew

10 featured cast members

Starring

Vittorio Gassman

Vittorio Gassman

Giovanni Busacca

Alberto Sordi

Alberto Sordi

Oreste Jacovacci

Silvana Mangano

Silvana Mangano

Costantina

Folco Lulli

Folco Lulli

Bordin

Bernard Blier

Bernard Blier

Capitano Castelli

Romolo Valli

Romolo Valli

Tenente Gallina

Vittorio Sanipoli

Vittorio Sanipoli

Maggiore Venturi

Nicola Arigliano

Nicola Arigliano

Giardino

Mario Valdemarin

Mario Valdemarin

Sottotenente Lorenzi

Tiberio Mitri

Tiberio Mitri

Mandich

Creative team

Directed by: Mario Monicelli
Written by: Luciano Vincenzoni
Agenore Incrocci
Produced by: Dino De Laurentiis

Similar Movies

Jules and Jim

Jules and Jim

In the carefree days before World War I, introverted Austrian author Jules strikes up a friendship with the exuberant Frenchman Jim and both men fall for the impulsive and beautiful Catherine.

Trench 11

Trench 11

In the final days of WWI a shell-shocked soldier must lead a mission deep beneath the trenches to stop a German plot that could turn the tide of the war.

Failing to Save Private Brody

Failing to Save Private Brody

A short film based on World War I that was posted on the YouTube channel, "The Adam Show" (@theadamshow123)

The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain

The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain

When an English cartographer arrives in Wales to tell the residents of the Welsh village of Ffynnon Garw that their 'mountain' is only a hill, the offended community sets out to remedy the situation.

Sonny

Sonny

Two men who bear a striking resemblance to each befriend each other while stationed in France during WWI. One is fatally fatally wounded and requests makes a dying request to his doppelganger to take on his identity.

We Were Soldiers

We Were Soldiers

The year is 1965 and America is at war with North Vietnam. Commanding the air cavalry is Lt. Col. Hal Moore (Gibson), a born leader committed to his troops. His target: the Ia Drang Valley, called "The Valley of Death." As Moore prepares for one of the most violent battles in U.S. history, he delivers a stirring promise to his soldiers and their families: "I will leave no man behind...dead or alive. We will all come home together."

Družina černého pera

Družina černého pera

A group of children from a working-class neighbourhood in Pilsen search for a way to effectively protest against the rampage of the First World War and the oppressive state power...

A Night to Remember

A Night to Remember

The sinking of the Titanic is presented in a highly realistic fashion in this tense British drama. The disaster is portrayed largely from the perspective of the ocean liner's second officer, Charles Lightoller. Despite numerous warnings about ice, the ship sails on, with Capt. Edward John Smith keeping it going at a steady clip. When the doomed vessel finally hits an iceberg, the crew and passengers discover that they lack enough lifeboats, and tragedy follows.

Titanic

Titanic

In 1912, the Titanic embarks on its inevitable collision course with history. In the wake of the over-spending required to build the largest luxury ship in the world, White Star Line executive Sir Bruce Ismay schemes to reverse the direction of his company's plummeting stock value. Onboard the Titanic, brave German 1st Officer Petersen struggles to convince his self-important British superiors not to overexert the ship's engines.

February, Seven Days

February, Seven Days

After years of estrangement, single parent Arkadiy gets a visit from brother Igor and his son from Odesa. According to Jewish custom, they mourn their recently deceased mother while digging up old conflicts. As the war breaks out in Ukraine, the family is thrown into turmoil, and the brothers must take a closer look at their relationship to their homeland.

All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front

At the start of World War I, Paul Baumer is a young German patriot, eager to fight. Indoctrinated with propaganda at school, he and his friends eagerly sign up for the army soon after graduation. But when the horrors of war soon become too much to bear, and as his friends die or become gravely wounded, Paul questions the sanity of fighting over a few hundreds yards of war-torn countryside.

Anggulo

Anggulo

Victim of collateral damage to the Marawi Siege, Ahmad, a 17-year-old boy, is forced to leave his hometown and finds himself relocated to another city, under the care of his aunt. With past horrors and trauma, Ahmad is left struggling as he adjusts to the new environment that he is in.

Sarajevo

Sarajevo

The events in Sarajevo in June 1914 are the backdrop for a thriller directed by Andreas Prochaska and written by Martin Ambrosch, focusing on the examining magistrate Dr. Leo Pfeffer (Florian Teichtmeister) investigating the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Trying to do his job in a time of lawlessness and violence, intrigues and betrayal, Leo struggles to maintain his integrity and save his love, Marija, and her father, prominent Serbian merchant. But the events of Sarajevo have set into motion an inescapable course of events that will escalate to become … the Great War.

WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko

WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko

Set in an alternate WWI reality where a senseless war rages on, two soldiers on opposite sides of the conflict play a joyful game of chess. A heroic carrier pigeon delivers the soldiers' chess moves over the battlefield as the fighting escalates. Neither soldier knows his opponent as the game and the war builds to its climatic final move. Whoever wins the game, one thing is for certain: there are no winners in war.

Fiume o morte!

Fiume o morte!

Through dramatic reconstruction and documentary asides, the spirit of Italian poet, playwright, journalist, aristocrat and army officer Gabriele D’Annunzio is captured, presenting the nascent fascism in his attempts to forge a new state in the aftermath of the First World War.

Casablanca

Casablanca

In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.

Life Is Beautiful

Life Is Beautiful

A touching story of an Italian book seller of Jewish ancestry who lives in his own little fairy tale. His creative and happy life would come to an abrupt halt when his entire family is deported to a concentration camp during World War II. While locked up he tries to convince his son that the whole thing is just a game.

The African Queen

The African Queen

At the start of the First World War, in the middle of Africa’s nowhere, a gin soaked riverboat captain is persuaded by a strong-willed missionary to go down river and face-off a German warship.

Sisa

Sisa

The Philippines, 1902. The land is raw, wounded, occupied. Smoke clings to the trees. Blood soaks the soil. The war is over – but the violence lingers. Widows fill the villages. Mothers vanish into silence. Among them walks Sisa, barefoot and broken, dismissed as mad by those who fear what they don't understand. But madness is only the surface.

Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins

In turn of the century London, a magical nanny employs music and adventure to help two neglected children become closer to their father.

Recommended Movies

The Secret of Santa Vittoria

The Secret of Santa Vittoria

During World War II, Italian villagers hide their wine from the German army.

The Last Rifleman

The Last Rifleman

A WWII veteran escapes his care home in Northern Ireland and embarks on an arduous but inspirational journey to France to attend the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, finding the courage to face the ghosts of his past.

What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?

What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?

A by-the-book Captain is ordered to capture a strategic village in Italy. The Italian soldiers are willing to surrender, if they can have a festival first. The lieutenant convinces the Captain this is the only way. Because of aerial reconnaissance, they must look like they are fighting. To sort this out an intelligence officer is sent in. Meanwhile the festival gets complicated with the Mayors daughter.

Battlefield

Battlefield

These are the years of the First World War and Dr. Stefano Zorzi spends his days in the Exemption Clinic in a large city of Northern Italy, where he not only takes care of soldiers who arrive from the massacre of the front, but also he fights simulation and self-harm of those who hope to be dispensed, by sending them before the Military Court. If Stefano, in fact, does his utmost to heal soldiers and send them back to fight, Dr. Giulio Farradio makes them ill, or helps them to self-injure seriously enough to be exonerated. The two doctors, who went to university together and were great friends, they not only (secretly) challenge each other on a professional level, but also on the sentimental one: they are both linked to Anna, a courageous nurse with a strong character. But when the great ‘Spanish’ fever epidemic arrived in 1918, the time for love, politics and science ends up getting confused dangerously...

The Scarlet and the Black

The Scarlet and the Black

Fr. Hugh O'Flaherty is a Vatican official in 1943-45 who has been hiding downed pilots, escaped prisoners of war, and Italian resistance families. His activities become so large that the Nazis decide to assassinate him the next time he leaves the Vatican.

Waiting for Anya

Waiting for Anya

During the harrows of WWII, Jo, a young shepherd along with the help of the widow Horcada, helps to smuggle Jewish children across the border from southern France into Spain.

The One That Got Away

The One That Got Away

Based on the true story of Oberleutnant Franz von Werra, the only German prisoner of war captured in Britain to escape back to Germany during the Second World War.

Oh! What a Lovely War

Oh! What a Lovely War

The working-class Smiths change their initially sunny views on World War I after the five boys of the family witness the harsh reality of trench warfare.

Many Wars Ago

Many Wars Ago

Time after time, soldiers of the Italian Army are forced to leave their mountain trenches in attempts to storm an enemy fortress, always with the same disastrous results. As casualties mount, indignation spreads among the rank and file. Disturbed by his superiors' decisions, Lieutenant Sassu is led to question the purpose of war and reconsider where his real duties lie.

The War Below

The War Below

During World War I, a group of British miners are recruited to tunnel underneath no man's land and set bombs from below the German front in hopes of breaking the deadly stalemate of the Battle of Messines.

Flyboys

Flyboys

The adventures of the Lafayette Escadrille, young Americans who volunteered for the French military before the U.S. entered World War I, and became the country's first fighter pilots.

The Second Civil War

The Second Civil War

When a planeload of Pakistani orphans are shipped to his state for permanent relocation, the governor of Idaho defies the president and closes the state's border. News Net Television, a cable news program that makes hay by reporting on political scandals, quickly spins the racist act into an overnight media sensation, creating a divide in national opinion over the issue.

Journey's End

Journey's End

Set in a dugout in Aisne in 1918, a group of British officers, led by the mentally disintegrating young officer Stanhope, variously await their fate.

Paths of Glory

Paths of Glory

A commanding officer defends three scapegoats on trial for a failed offensive that occurred within the French Army in 1916.

Rainbow: A Private Affair

Rainbow: A Private Affair

Summer 1943, Piedmont, Italy. Milton loves Fulvia who plays with his love: she only likes the depth of his thought and the letters he writes to her. One year later, Milton has joined the Resistance and fights beside other partisans. He learns during a conversation that Fulvia was secretly in love with his best friend Giorgio, a partisan like him. Milton decides to go find Giorgio in the Langhe region of Italy with all its misty hills...But Giorgio has just been arrested by the Fascists.

The Lost Battalion

The Lost Battalion

Fact-based war drama about an American battalion of over 500 men which gets trapped behind enemy lines in the Argonne Forest in October 1918 France during the closing weeks of World War I.

Benediction

Benediction

Poet Siegfried Sassoon survived the horrors of fighting in the First World War and was decorated for his bravery, but became a vocal critic of the government's continuation of the war when he returned from service. Adored by members of the aristocracy as well as stars of London's literary and stage world, he embarked on affairs with several men as he attempted to come to terms with his homosexuality.

Cast a Giant Shadow

Cast a Giant Shadow

An American Army officer is recruited by the yet to exist Israel to help them form an army. He is disturbed by this sudden appeal to his Jewish heritage. Each of Israel's Arab neighbors has vowed to invade the poorly prepared country as soon as partition is granted. He is made commander of the Israeli forces just before the war begins.

The Devil's Brigade

The Devil's Brigade

At the onset of World War II, American Lt. Col. Robert Frederick is put in charge of a unit called the 1st Special Service Force, composed of elite Canadian commandos and undisciplined American soldiers. With Maj. Alan Crown leading the Canadians and Maj. Cliff Bricker the acting head of the American contingent, there is initial tension -- but the team comes together when given a daunting mission that few would dare to attempt.

The Skin

The Skin

Based on the memoirs of author Curzio Malaparte, diplomatic liaison between the Allied and Italian forces after the defeat of the Nazis in Italy, The Skin follows the collapse of Italian society under the US occupation and the desperate measures required for survival.