WOW!! Now here is a real gem in the rough: A low budget Italian war film from 1969 that has a fantastic script, excellent performances, genuine character development, emotional involvement & payoffs, and a profound sense of the artifice of film that is so convincing that it can even withstand contemporary scrutiny without the usual aplogies associated with cult Euro genre films. This is not just a good movie about war that has the potential to please even the dreaded war movie buff sect who never take this stuff seriously, but a great film, period.
Others have summed up the plot details succinctly already -- misplaced misfit Yankee GI's stumble around Japanese controlled Filipino island after the fall of Manilla, wage guerrilla warfare when they can, and die when they must. This film is a standout in the 1967 - 1971 Euro War cycle, an offshoot of the Italian Spaghetti Western industry cashing in on THE DIRTY DOZEN, GUNS OF NAVARONE, THE GREAT ESCAPE, etc, using pretty much the same performers & crew personnel but with tanks & machine guns rather than horses & six shooters. This one was directed by Giuseppe Vari, who's only other work I have seen is the Spaghetti SHOOT THE LIVING AND PRAY FOR THE DEAD and his proto-Peplum REVENGE OF THE BARBARIANS. My memory of both films is spotty but they were not this well done. Like Bitto Albertini, Umberto Lenzi, Enzo Castellari, Giorgio Ferroni, Tonino Ricci, Alfonso Brescia, Gianfranco Parolini and Leon Klimovsky, here is a director who managed to use the Euro War craze to their advantage, getting a contract to make a film that they then injected with their own particular vision. Some of them work (DESERT COMMANDOS, BATTLE OF EL ALAMEIN) and some are more like twisted, violent cartoons (FIVE FOR HELL, BATTLE OF THE LAST PANZER) but here is one that actually resonates on a personal level that goes beyond what was required of by the genre. I am astonished at how good of a movie it is.
What sets this one apart is not only actual use of the possibilities of film as a medium for expression using some wonderful camera work that is a cut above the usual documentary style used by the Euro War directors, but a Pacific War setting, specifically the Phillipines just after the Japanese invaded Manilla. Since the Euro War films of the classic 1967 - 1971 period were so low budget in nature, most of their directors relied upon European settings out of simple logistical need. As such, one of the most intriguing aspects of A PLACE IN HELL is just where it's location work was done. Most likely in the Philipines itself, where a number of Italian/Filipino productions were made around the same time (1968/1969).
The film has a wonderful, rugged, rough look to it, with adventurously kinetic camera work by Stelvio Massi, sparodic and brutal combat sequences that will please those who love action, and maybe even more importantly another great leading role for Euro War regular Guy Madison, who must have made a dozen of these things inside of a year or two: I'd like to see Brad Pitt keep that kind of a pace. This is easily Madison's finest performance in the genre, and on the subject of acting this film has some of the best aside from SALT IN THE WOUND and DESERT COMMANDOS, appears to have been dubbed by the actual principal leads, and the script actually gives them things to say that are pretty remarkable. Add that to a great musical score by Roberto Pregadio and we are talking about yet another minor cult genre masterpiece waiting to be re-discovered. Here is a Euro War film that even war movie buffs could probably take seriously since it treats the subject a sort of quiet nihilism that borders on sombre at times, but is never boring because it is about the people playing out the drama. Movies should always be about people and maybe that's what sets this one apart from all the others, which usually amount to movies about how cool tanks are, how rotten the Nazis were, and how great Klaus Kinski looks in a uniform. This one goes a bit further examining the people who were involved, and deserves to be seen again for having bothered to amount to more than the sum of it's parts. I'd rank it right up there with "Eagles Over London", SALT IN THE WOUND and DESERT COMMANDOS as the best examples of a much-maligned & misunderstood genre.
9/10; The musical score deserves a CD release, and this film deserves to be restored.
Others have summed up the plot details succinctly already -- misplaced misfit Yankee GI's stumble around Japanese controlled Filipino island after the fall of Manilla, wage guerrilla warfare when they can, and die when they must. This film is a standout in the 1967 - 1971 Euro War cycle, an offshoot of the Italian Spaghetti Western industry cashing in on THE DIRTY DOZEN, GUNS OF NAVARONE, THE GREAT ESCAPE, etc, using pretty much the same performers & crew personnel but with tanks & machine guns rather than horses & six shooters. This one was directed by Giuseppe Vari, who's only other work I have seen is the Spaghetti SHOOT THE LIVING AND PRAY FOR THE DEAD and his proto-Peplum REVENGE OF THE BARBARIANS. My memory of both films is spotty but they were not this well done. Like Bitto Albertini, Umberto Lenzi, Enzo Castellari, Giorgio Ferroni, Tonino Ricci, Alfonso Brescia, Gianfranco Parolini and Leon Klimovsky, here is a director who managed to use the Euro War craze to their advantage, getting a contract to make a film that they then injected with their own particular vision. Some of them work (DESERT COMMANDOS, BATTLE OF EL ALAMEIN) and some are more like twisted, violent cartoons (FIVE FOR HELL, BATTLE OF THE LAST PANZER) but here is one that actually resonates on a personal level that goes beyond what was required of by the genre. I am astonished at how good of a movie it is.
What sets this one apart is not only actual use of the possibilities of film as a medium for expression using some wonderful camera work that is a cut above the usual documentary style used by the Euro War directors, but a Pacific War setting, specifically the Phillipines just after the Japanese invaded Manilla. Since the Euro War films of the classic 1967 - 1971 period were so low budget in nature, most of their directors relied upon European settings out of simple logistical need. As such, one of the most intriguing aspects of A PLACE IN HELL is just where it's location work was done. Most likely in the Philipines itself, where a number of Italian/Filipino productions were made around the same time (1968/1969).
The film has a wonderful, rugged, rough look to it, with adventurously kinetic camera work by Stelvio Massi, sparodic and brutal combat sequences that will please those who love action, and maybe even more importantly another great leading role for Euro War regular Guy Madison, who must have made a dozen of these things inside of a year or two: I'd like to see Brad Pitt keep that kind of a pace. This is easily Madison's finest performance in the genre, and on the subject of acting this film has some of the best aside from SALT IN THE WOUND and DESERT COMMANDOS, appears to have been dubbed by the actual principal leads, and the script actually gives them things to say that are pretty remarkable. Add that to a great musical score by Roberto Pregadio and we are talking about yet another minor cult genre masterpiece waiting to be re-discovered. Here is a Euro War film that even war movie buffs could probably take seriously since it treats the subject a sort of quiet nihilism that borders on sombre at times, but is never boring because it is about the people playing out the drama. Movies should always be about people and maybe that's what sets this one apart from all the others, which usually amount to movies about how cool tanks are, how rotten the Nazis were, and how great Klaus Kinski looks in a uniform. This one goes a bit further examining the people who were involved, and deserves to be seen again for having bothered to amount to more than the sum of it's parts. I'd rank it right up there with "Eagles Over London", SALT IN THE WOUND and DESERT COMMANDOS as the best examples of a much-maligned & misunderstood genre.
9/10; The musical score deserves a CD release, and this film deserves to be restored.