THE GIRL AND THE GENERAL
Italy, 1967, 103 minutes, Colour.
Rod Steiger, Virna Lisi, Umberto Orsini.
Directed by Pasquale Festa Campanile.
The Girl and the General is an unusual war story. It is an Italian production and stars has Virna Lisi. However Rod Steiger came from America to appear in many Italian films and here he is a German General encountering two Italians. They fight, but they have to survive as they flee through the Italian countryside and the mountains. The potential for interesting drama is present but the film does not rise fully to the occasion. It is interesting, but not memorable.
1. How enjoyable and interesting a war film, human document, anti-war film? The overall final impact?
2. Colour, European locations, music?
3. Involvement in the structure: the Italian situation, the capture of the General, imprisonment, the picaresque adventures, the human contact, the fatality of the ending? Build-up of suspense and interest? Audience identification with the main characters?
4. The atmosphere of war and the way it was communicated: World War I, the Italian/Austrian situation, the styles of World War I, old styles, the people involved, soldiers and innocent peasants, blood, ways of death?
5. How vivid was the bloodshed of the war, shooting planes, mines? War and anti-war?
6. Rod Steiger's characterization of the General: his situation, Austrian, one arm? Sympathy for him as a person? The values that he stood for, as seen by the Italians? Personalizing the enemy? A human being and growing in contact with two other human beings? His hostility, attempt to escape, humiliation? His capacity for survival, his wiles? Bribery? The growing bond of affection especially with Ada? His standing by them at the end?
7. Ada as an Italian peasant woman involved in World War I, her understanding of the war, suffering and her family? Her work? The fascination of the money, her participation in guiding, the adventures? Her attitude to the General's escape, her getting him back? The donkey, shooting the plane, sleeping in the crater? What happened to her during these adventures? The bond when returned? Love-making and the building of a future? The build-up to success? the mine field and the impact of death? Futility?
8. His friend, the Italians and what they stood for, their position in the war? As soldiers? Capture? The General and the hold over him, Ada and her help? The bond, the clashes? His return and the love-making, the hopes for the future, the futility of his death?
9. A humane war film?
