Rotten Tomatoes
Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes

San Pietro

Play trailer San Pietro 1945 32m Documentary War Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
Tomatometer 4 Reviews 65% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings
More than 1,100 soldiers from the United States perish while attacking a strategic village in Italy.

Critics Reviews

View More
John McCarten The New Yorker 10/16/2021
The best documentary to come out of the war. Go to Full Review
Dave Kehr Chicago Reader 04/06/2010
A great film, and certainly among Huston's best work. Go to Full Review
James Agee The Nation 06/23/2021
No war film I have seen has been quite so attentive to the heaviness of casualties, and to the number of yards gained or lost, in such an action; none has so levelly watched and implied what it meant, in such full and complex terms. Go to Full Review
Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews 05/02/2010
A
Gritty, realistic, extraordinary World War II documentary. Go to Full Review
Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View More
Leaburn O @RT35452347 01/16/2024 Brilliant short documentary showing the tactics, action and aftermath of just a single battle in the Italian offensive of 1943. When you are told of the casualties and the relentless battles between both sides, you come to realise the scale of loss and the harrowing endless nightmare that was the war. It's an excellent documentary and a timeless reminder of the tragedy of war. Watched this one on YouTube where there are a couple of versions of the picture uploaded, the remastered version having some scenes added back that had been edited for American audiences when first released there. See more 05/25/2022 A short but nice documentary about the battle and it was surprisingly filmed during the actual battle. See more William L @RT77267842 01/24/2021 If you're going to make a fake documentary, you might as well make it with enough quality that people think it's real, and Huston made one that was so realistic that it took half a century for it to be debunked. Yes, the director deserves to be appropriately chastised for presenting San Pietro as something it wasn't - an on-location documentary in the heat of battle - but it was nevertheless a visionary and groundbreaking piece of film in the depiction of a genuine battle, opting for brutality and violence rather than airbrushed photography. The censors wanted Audie Murphy back home selling war bonds, talking about glory and Lugers taken from deserving, dead Nazis; Huston wanted to make something of an entirely new design, depicting real gallantry even if went against the "cowboys and Indians" fighting style the government wanted to portray. One thing though: San Pietro is not anti-war like some contemporary and modern critics seem to claim. The film is relentlessly star-spangled, just in a novel way that accepts a more realistic depiction of battle. (3/5) See more Grant S @grantss 05/10/2018 Okay, but a bit disappointing. John Huston's World War 2 documentary on the taking of the Italian town of San Pietro by US forces in December 1943. Okay, but a bit disappointing. Was interesting as it covers a battle that you never hear about in WW2 documentaries or read about in books. In a way San Pietro was a sample of the type of attritional war fought in Italy. However, like "Report from the Aleutians" the main problem is John Huston's narration. Dull, verbose, flowery, and quite irritating at times. Not as bad here as the aforementioned documentary, but still off-putting enough. See more s r @ScottR 01/15/2018 1001 movies to see before you die. Huston's voice is so powerfully distinct. It gives a support to this informative battle. See more 04/11/2014 A wonderfully rousing propaganda film about american military might during the good war. See more Read all reviews
San Pietro

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Movie Info

Synopsis More than 1,100 soldiers from the United States perish while attacking a strategic village in Italy.
Director
John Huston
Producer
John Huston
Screenwriter
John Huston
Production Co
U.S. Army Pictorial Services [us]
Genre
Documentary, War
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 2, 2017
Runtime
32m