Before helming action flicks like Rambo III and Tombstone, George P. Cosmatos debuted with this sober historical drama. Massacre in Rome (1973) depicts an infamous atrocity during the Nazi occupation of Italy, also told in The Scarlet and the Black (1983). It's a compelling story whose presentation, sadly, remains stolidly competent.
On March 23rd, 1943, Italian partisans ambush an SS battalion in Rome, killing 33. German General Malzer (Leo McKern) demands immediate retaliation, but SS Colonel Kappler urges restraint. After Hitler himself orders a reprisal, Kappler's tasked with choosing 320 random victims for execution. Vatican officials, namely the idealistic Father Antonelli (Marcello Mastroianni), try to stop the massacre. But Kappler refuses to renege, leading to a tragic denouement in the Ardeatine caves.
Massacre in Rome gets by on the intriguing story. After a pokey start, Cosmatos brings Rome to life in his efficient second half. The movie works best focusing on the Germans, as generals debate how savage their reprisals can be. Malzer wants cold-blooded revenge; his subordinates fear committing a war crime with Allied troops so nearby; others don't want to risk a full-scale rising. Kappler gets a shaded characterization, an efficient policeman interested in order rather than ideology. The Italian characters feel comparatively colorless, with Antonelli negotiating fruitlessly and Fascist officials trying to save face.
Rome conveys this central story competently while feeling overstuffed. The script by Cosmatos and historian Robert Katz covers a lot of ground without providing real understanding. Rome explores Vatican complicity in Fascism, maneuverings of Mussolini's Salo government, the conscience of German soldiers who realize the war's lost. All interesting subjects given cursory treatment here. The partisans are thumbnail sketches, while the randomly-selected victims prevent audience investment. Even the central relationship between Kappler and Antonelli bogs down in clunky speeches about art and morality.
Visually the film's not overly distinguished. Cosmatos borrows liberally from Rossellini's Rome: Open City while employing cutesy montage work: especially an opera performance contrasted with a Gestapo interrogation, so crassly handled it's almost funny. Still, the central set pieces register well-enough, with the final massacre scene given the right cinema verite touch. Cosmatos does yeoman's work, but a surer directorial hand could have made a classic.
Richard Burton gets a reasonably complex character, mixing cynicism with fatalistic devotion to duty. Marcello Mastroianni (8 1/2) redeems his weaker role with passionate conviction. Leo McKern (A Man for All Seasons) plays a Nazi cartoon, barking at subordinates and drooling over his mistress. Cosmatos fills supporting roles with veteran character talent: John Steiner, Anthony Dawson and Peter Vaughan as German officers, Duilio Del Prete (The Assassination of Trotsky) and Delia Boccardo as partisans.
Massacre in Rome feels underwhelming. It's not bad, but Cosmatos' lack of finesse ruins its chances of being more than a passable war movie