Review for Massacre in Rome (Rappresaglia)

It was in January, just after midnight, when I turned on the telly and watched a sequence of film I will never forget.

A young man pushes a rusty kart through the cobbled streets of Rome. He looks at his watch. A woman walks by and nods. She looks at her watch. A group of men behind the corner look at their watches. The street is empty. Two children come by and kick a football. The woman stops them. Nazi soldiers march up the street. The man with the kart lights a fuse. The football rolls past the Nazi soldiers. As they march around the corner, the kart explodes. Blood trickles into the gutter.


The simple piano music by Ennio Morricone compliments the impending doom for the marching soldiers. The montage-style editing creates a crescendo of tension as we cut back and forth from the freedom fighters looking at their watches. The wobbly hand-held camera by Marcello Gatti juxtaposes the more refined steady-cam shots. This 9-minute sequence of film is a classic example of when all the pieces fit together. The impact of watching this sequence out of context on the telly was like watching the build up of tension in Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin (1925).


George P Cosmatos, who would later helm Rambo II, Of Unknown Origin, Cobra, Tombstone, Shadow Conspiracy and Leviathan, directed Massacre in Rome. It stars Richard Burton as the Nazi officer Herbert Kappler, Marcello Mastroianni (Fellini's 8½) as the priest Pietro Antonelli and Leo McKern (Rumpole of the Bailey) as Nazi officer Kurt Maelzer. Robert Katz wrote the screenplay, based on his own 1967 novel Death in Rome that got him into a kafuffle with Pope Pius XII. Katz condemned the Catholic Church and the Pope for not doing anything about the revengeful massacre that followed the bombing of 33 Nazi soldiers. It was one of the most awful atrocities of the Second World War. Hitler ordered his SS army to slaughter 335 innocent Italian civilians.


Disc: Restored and re-mastered widescreen edition that is 4-minutes longer than the previous versions.

Special Features: A collection of 11 trailers from Argent Films that include Keoma, Django, The Battle of Algiers, Attack Force 7 and The Nun & the Devil.

Verdict: The last image of Richard Burton and Marcello Mastroianni should affect you on a deep level. Sacrifice challenges the brutality and coldness of war.