ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Wyatt There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

bkoganbing 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.

Rudimir Bombardinovic 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.

ktang_rph very good movie for world war 2 fans. there is pretty good comparison about the expression of emotions between german and the slavic people. as the previous comments, if there is a partizan get killed, the whole world is bleeding. when german colonel kranzer called host and suddently he realised that host is killed. he just supressed his emotion. this is a international movie. there are two german tiger tanks, some ex-cccp t34 tanks and us made sherman tanks. of course, the german tiger tanks are too expensive to be destroyed. most of the destroyed tanks are us made sherman tanks(cheap).

von-13 Hmm....don't like this Yugoslav warflick all that much. Story + acting is hard to feel interested in and it's too gloryfying of the Yugoslavian resistance battling Chechtnics + Germans. Ok...some of the battlescenes are well staged with good explosions and bullits whipping up dirt, etc...Rather chaotic and a little intense. But whenever a partizan is killed or wounded, we are forced to feel ooohh sooooo sad...like if the whole wide world is bleeding/crying.. Irritating as h...!! Orson Welles gets a few bullets in his (f..) belly and tumbles to the ground. Great stunt !!!! Also there's a fine little homage to Sergio Corbucci's DJANGO. We see Franco Nero clutching to a cross with bloodied hands and a "sick" expression on his face. Danish tape runs 126.45 mins...letterboxed about 1:1.70