Attack and Retreat

1941. The Italian army goes into the Soviet Union alongside the Germans. The film tells that campaign through ordinary soldiers: frozen feet, food running out, units disappearing, the retreat along the Don. The Italian soldiers take themselves for good people and keep saying they are not like the Germans. The film neither confirms nor denies it; it simply shows what the men do. Most of the army that was sent did not come back. Giuseppe De Santis directs; two hours and twenty-eight minutes, an Italian and Soviet co-production, with Arthur Kennedy and Tatyana Samoylova in the cast. The title is a phrase Italians use about themselves: good people. The film puts that phrase on the stand.