Massacre in Rome (1973) (2Disc/ Special Edition) - DVD  E-mail this product to a friend

Torn from the pages of history comes the true account of one of the most devastating massacres in the chronicles of modern warfare. March 1944. With the fortunes of war turning against the Third Reich, Nazi-occupied Rome is a hotbed of dissent and reaction from the growing resistance movement. When the Roman underground ambushes a column of SS military police, killing 33, the German High Command orders the execution of 10 Roman citizens for each of its fallen soldiers. MASSACRE IN ROME unites two of the greatest cinema icons of the 1960s. Marcello Mastroianni (LA DOLCE VITA, 8«) stars as Roman priest Pietro Antonelli, ordered by the Pope to collaborate with Nazi Lt. Colonel Herbert Kappler (Richard Burton, of WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? and EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC), charged by Hitler with the duty of rounding up 330 civilians for execution. Dedicated to pacifism, Antonelli must choose whether to defy the Pope's orders and aid the resistance or remain true to his vows and watch his countrymen slaughtered by the SS. This Carlo Ponti production was the second film by director George Pan Cosmatos (THE CASSANDRA CROSSING, RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II) and benefits from a tense, searing score from Ennio Morricone. MASSACRE IN ROME was filmed by veteran Italian cameraman Marcello Gatti (BURN!, BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA, THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS) on location at the site of one of history's most heinous war crimes.