The Silent Mountain (2014) - Overlooked Excellent WW1 Movie 

Music: Captain speaking: Prelude, Rigoletto - Verdi Offensive: O Don Fatale (last verse repeated multiple times), Don Carlo - Verdi

"Do you hate the Austrians?" "Yes, Captain!" "Do you hate the Hungarians?" "Yes, Captain!" "Do you hate the Czechs?" "Yes, Captain!" "Do you hate the Slovakians?" "Yes, Captain!" "Do you hate the Slovenians?" "Yes, Captain!" "Do you hate the Croats?" "Yes, Captain!" "Do you hate the Moravians?" "Yes, Captain!" "Do you hate the Bohemians?" "Yes, Captain!" "Do you hate the Montenegrans?" "Yes, Captain!" "Got you, they're on our side!" "How long are we going to do this, Captain?" "A while. The Austro-Hungarian Empire is a remarkably diverse country. Now, do you hate the Galacians?"

Their officers acts like a Warhammer 40k commissar.

Don't trust anyone who puts epic music soundtrack when addressing his men.

I live in Austria, near the Ploeckenpass/Italian boarder, along the Karnische Alpen where part of the front was. I´ve been up in the mountains and have seen what the Austrian and Italian soldiers built into and onto these mountains. If any of you ever get to Kaernten or South Tirol, make sure to get up in the mountains. There are some fine pieces of art up there, considering the situation at that time.

If I remember the plot, the Captain knew that an attack was pointless, but needed a certain number of his men get killed to convince his superiors.

I am originally from Trentino-Süd Tirol, the region where the city of Trento is located. Not many know that the soldiers enlisted from Trentino (that was Austria until the end of WW1) were sent to fight in Galicia because the Austro-Hungarian high command believed the soldiers from Trentino could desert on the Italian side. My mother's grandfather fought in Galicia (nowdays Ukraine) as a Kaiserjager during the same period of the russian revolution and was captured by the Russians, after been shot in the left arm. Thanks to the Italian government, he and his brothers in arms (a couple hundred soldiers, all from Trentino), were ceded to the Italians and imprisoned in China (inside the Italian concession of Tientsin) between 1917 and 1918. He became an Italian citizen in China and he was very proud to say that he saw the Beijing's band playing for him and the other soldiers during the ceremony. He returned to Italy on a freight train with his brothers in arms and raised his family, only to see his only male child die in Russia, at the age of 18 (during WW2), in the same place where he fought just 25 years earlier. He wrote a diary about his incredible story, which is now a book, thaks to my uncle.

"If you don't win this war, it means you hate your country." Such an intense line. Really strikes me. Edit: I know many of you have been looking for someone to take your anger out on, but can you please not do it on me? I don't support what happened. I just said it's a very impactful line.

I was a very young paratrooper in the US Army in the early 80's in the 1-509th in Vicenza. We did our winter training in the Dolomites. I recall spending a few nights out in the elements and we held up in an old defensive position. It was a step back in time. Fascinating, and the Alpini ...hard men.

That officer really seems like an extension of Luigi Cadorna - outdated and incompetent, treating his own soldiers with utter contempt, as sub-human because they are lower in a rigid social hierarchy where nobility exists. That ilk of officer was the main reason why Mussolini came into power.

1:26 When a battle cry looks more like insanity than bravery. This scene is beautiful.

Da italiano posso dire solo una cosa. Onore ai Caduti. Sia Italiani che i fratelli Austriaci.

I never thought this was a good movie to Portray the Italians in WW1, it shows stuff that just doesn't make any sense for both sides, such as an Austrian soldier screaming for no reason even though they are defending, and the horror of the Alpine wars but never truly shows the true horrors of the Mountains, that being frostbite, non-entrenched warfare, and the thin mountain air. Some soldiers who scaled the mountains should be so numb from the cold they would cut their hands open on jagged rocks and not even feel it.

The officer asks the private, where are you from, he answers, "Trento". That (Italian) town was then under Austrian rule, so that boy must be a volounteer, he risked death by hanging if taken prisoner with an Italian uniform and recognized as an Austrian citizen. And some of them actually were hanged or fired for high treson.

Erwin Rommel made his fame in WWI was a lieutenant of German Alpine Shock Troops fighting against Romanians and Italians. His unit was frequently sent to places where the Austrians failed or to fill gaps in the Austrian lines. His book "Infantry Attacks" is about his WWI experiences in these same mountains and is a great textbook for small unit tactics. In case you want to do your own research. The Italians campaigns of WWI are a lesson in senseless slaughter. The culture of both the Austrian and the Italian officer corps in WWI put a premium on "honor" and very little thought into less lofty leadership qualities such as tactical proficiency. This scene is right to be criticized for its historical inaccuracies but it nails the problem of weak leadership on both sides in the Italian Front.

Visited Kobarid (former Caporetto, now in Slovenia), its WW1 Museum and surroundings, back in 2007. While doing a rafting descend in the nearby river, one of the instructors pointed to a high mountain, crisscrossed by a very noticeable series of roads in zig zag, carved on sheer rocks. "Made by the Italians during the Great War", he said. I was in awe. He later said the local population still avoids to go up in the mountains during Summer storms, because, apart of the obvious, lightnings are still highly attracted to the ground due to the many steel fragments of every kind left during the war. Played BF1 some time ago, and the Italian campaign further enlighted me over the conditions in which this high altitude war was fought. No scenario is good to fight a war I guess, but this theatre of operations must have been indeed absolutely horrifying... Kobarid/Caporetto also strikes me with two other thoughts: the brilliant and decisive role that Rommel - yes, that Rommel - played here over the absolute disastrous Battle of Caporetto - for the Italians, that is; and the somewhat innocent mistake that museum of WW1 made, by not displaying the Portuguese flag amongst the other country's flags at the entrance - those who fought in the Great War. "Oh, here it's displayed the countries that fought here", an employee there told me; "But why is there the flag of Belgium then?...", I asked. No reply to that. Honor to all those poor souls.

I love how after the action has focused on the horrors experienced by the Italians it suddenly flips to the nightmare being experienced by the equally sympathetic men on the other side. Really highlights the senseless brutality of it.

Alessandro Barbero, a notorious italian historian, said about WW1 in the Alps "the hapsburgs were impressed on how the italians went on to get murdered, to the point to ask to those same people to stop advancing. It was horrible for both sides". With that quote, you really understand a lot. The generals didn't care about the men, but other men of another jacket cared about those men. It's absurd and heroic at the same time.

The Great War was just so overwhelmingly, uniformly, blisteringly insane. Those Isanzo campaigns are just nauseating to even read about.

In 1915, no Italian[or anyone for that matter]wore steel helmets. It wasn't until late 1916 that steel helmets were general issue for Italian troops, and the supply was woefully scant until well into 1917. Some engineers and sappers wore steel skullcaps under their cloth caps, but that was about it. Far too many Italian officers led their men in suicidal charges uphill into Austrian defenses and were butchered along with most of their men.

Isonzo's latest update is looking sick

The movie really captures the madness of the whole war.

This is very unhistorical. Sure, there were sucidal mass charges. But officers led from the front, not from the back (only high command was way behind the front line). The ratio of casualties among the offcers of the Italian Royal Army is staggering. They were picked straight from military academy so young and undertrained but they fought and die with their own men.

ww1 was a slaughter, 2 of my gran grandfathers fought in the same platoon during the war. One day a mortar shot hit the position they were defending, their comrades died, their commander died, they fell into the void for several meters. Mountain warfare is a nightmare, you never know what could kill you, like 2 Italians too pissed to die that keep shooting even though they are deadly wounded. If you're wondering yes, they survived.

World War 1 was the most pointless waste of blood and treasure in the history of the world.

the whole front is largely overlooked

I dread seeing officers instill fear into their men by having their own soldiers fire upon another for "cowardice." Really freaking outdated and idiotic.

I'm italian, i live in Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG) in the north-eastern part of italy, where the Isonzo river, Gorizia and the carnic alps are. My generation still hears about the battles and atrocities that roamed here a century ago...

During the First World War, the average lifespan of an Italian and Austrian lieutenant at the front was three weeks...it is absurd to think so!

some days ago I visited one of the theatre of the "white war" on the Alps at 2400 m of altitude, although it was a sunny afternoon I felt a little cold with my light jacket and the people around me covered themselves as much they could, I can't figure how those young soldiers with their crappy uniforms could sleep there in winter! it's crazy, r.i.p.

Unfortunately many Officers came from "noble" families. This made them think that the simple soldier (enlisted /troopers), who came from working class and mostly didn't even speak italian but only dialects, were eligible to be sacrificed for thee superior good of winning the war. Their life had simply no value.

Brutal. The Italian-Austrian front is not portrayed very often in American popular culture, but it was probably at least as brutal as the Western Front. I wonder whether the memory of that carnage led to the famous (and fortunate) ineptitude of the Italian Army in World War Two. My paternal grandfather ws (fortunately) a recent immigrant working in a factory in Buffalo, New York when the First World War broke out. If he had still been in Italy he could have easily been killed. (For some reason he was never drafted when the U.S. entered the war three years later.)

Can’t wait until Isonzo comes out I’ll play the music while charging into enemy lines as the Italians

Fun fact there’s going to be a new realistic video game coming out for the Italian front WW1 it’s called Isonzo

My great-grandfather fought in the Alps during the Great War, He a member of the Alpine regiments.

Thank you for sharing this clip.

Was stationed in Veneto for a while. Visited many of these sites. Most amazing was Monte Pasubio, Monte Grappa and Monte Ortigara to name a few. Gets wilder the higher up in the Dolomites. Anyone visiting Venice should take the 1-2 hour detour to check those places out. Can't imagine what the fighting was like. As a result, I'm fascinated with these armies and the time period.

Many Poles fought for Austria in WW1 hoping to reclaim Poland from Russia, like my young grandad. All they had on the alpine front was tinned fish& he refused to eat them again. He then joined the Polish airforce& was a Polish RAF squadron leader in WW2.

Austro-Hungarian officers: Hold here as long as you can! Italian officers: IF YOU DON'T WIN YOU FUCKING HATE THIS NATION AS A WHOLE

1:43 a very peculiar gun, having the bolt handle on the left side. 2:40 a bolt action gun, suddenly is a semi automatic.

I live near the Ortlerfront another section of the alpine frontline. I was on the Ortler and near the Königspitze and you can still see were the positions were. The thing about this frontline at least the Ortlerfront was that more people died because of the weather then the actual fighting. My great grandpa who was 16 at the time of the war declaration and as he joined the Standschützen (Tirolian Militia) was the smallest in his company, he was so small that he was the one who was roped down into the glacier cracks to pull out the man who fell down there. He told my grandpa that falling into glacier crack and getting stuck is a death you don't wish upon your worse enemy.

Honour to all the men who fought there of both sides, the lucky ones like my greatgrandparents who came back home safe and sound and all the others who died or got injured during the fight.

_Uomini Contro_ is the excellent movie you want to see. This is an abominable caricature.

There’s a big difference in sending men into battle and leading your men into battle!

"DO YOU HATE AUSTRIANS?" "Well, I'm not overly keen".

The fact that those soldiers who did not want to charge, scared of being cut down by massive Austro-Hungarian fire, were ordered to be shot by their own comrades. They knew their lifes were over, and with the officer becoming more serious with "I said shoot them!", the machine gun fire began. As all those soldiers who got penetrated by that fire, the other soldiers learned lesson from that, as their comrades were lying on the ground for treason. Traumatising and very well interpreted.

3:00 dude thinks he’s Ronaldo

Hopefully my country will never every by in war with Italy again...

Never take peace for granted. None of us would do this today, absolutely NOT.

I'm having a mental image of an alternative reality where all Italian soldiers are equipped with Vespas

Hate does not win wars, it starts them, but sooner indifference, as no one really ever wins a war, not if there is less in common good, than there is in common ground

Very underrated movie. Worth it to find and watch.

The record player in the background while giving his speech... yeah, he ate.

Damn, battles in the mountains must of had been brutal

Thank you from Italy ❤️🇮🇹

Thank you for this recommendation! :D

No more brother wars.

When I read about the "Eleven" Battles of the Izonso I really wondered about alpine front of WW1...

0:52 small correction, he said this Company will make history. That's one level above platoon

He had the grit and the patriotic fervor- if only he wasn’t a wreckless monster that had absolutely zero care for his soldiers, or how war worked at the time. Very few did- but he took narcissistic idiocy to a new level

And now,we play ISONZO with verdi as Soundtrack

"You have no enemies."

Sudtirol today: "I can't believe we were made to choose this..."

Knowing italian makes this even better

Gonna watch this right before Isonzo launches, can’t wait! :D

Man i was in the Isonzo front (Soška fronta) in Slovenia yestrday in the front and saw what Austrian (Slovene) solders neded to put trough just to fight for some generals monarch itd.. I live in the City of Maribor (Marburg U.D) that didnt see the fighting but it stil saw the boombings of ww2 and above all Adolf Hitler was here. Hello from Slovenia🇸🇮🇸🇮🇸🇮🇸🇮

This looks insanely good.

For a second I thought the music in the background was the actual soundtrack…lol

Bro this is just a match of Operations in Battlefield 1. It is completely authentic to shoot your own teammates.

Now I get why the italians got rekted. Shooting own side, making them lose morale, then making them charge.

Carabinieri shooting at Italian soldiers, the darkest and most disappointing time in the history of the Arma Dei Carabinieri

This war was absolutely pointless, all those young Europeans killing eachother and for what?

Madness to fight on those slopes.

so very crazy

0:00 verdi's music?

Another movie about the alpin front of ww1, i can recommend, is "Uomini Contro / Many Wars ago", german title "Batallion der Verlorenen". It shows the madness the common italian soldiers had to face under their officers.

There's a very good movie called "Uomini contro" that really showed how careless the italian commanders were towards the army. They called for executions at every occasion to boost morale and sent waves after waves of soldiers againt Austrian machine-gun emplacements, with the enemy screaming "Stop, go back! No more! There's no point in dying this way". All while the general was hiding behind cover, in the trench.

During WW1, seeing all the explosions from the sky, birds must have been wondering: « What the fuck is going on down here? ». And some bird may have answered: « Don’t worry, just another human issue… »

2:39 When you got that semi-automatic extendo clip attachment.

Holy shit, they made that operation from Battlefield 1 into a real thing

I admire both my ancestral fatherland of Italy and Austria. It is sad to see Catholic brethren senselessly murder each other for seemingly dubious reasons. World War One achieved nothing but further destabilize Europe.

One should read Mark Helprin' s ' A Soldier of the Great War' to gain some context of this battle front.

Luigi Cardona's favorite battle

Really overlooked but the Alps front was brutal

Good old *_BLAM_* always works. Squad morale restored

Can't wait for the Isonzo game to come out later this year

Beautiful

if this is how the italian front was like, then it was just as nuts as i have read about it

1:42 weird that the bolt is to the left instead of the right. The Gun in real life has the bolt to the right.

I was here before Isonzo game

All of a sudden, making a risky, amphibious landing in Dalmatia looks like an excellent idea.

Repeats to run into the enemy for the 286th time and ends up almost defeated.

Just to avoid any misconception, people from Trento don't have that accent, that sounds more a South Tyrolean one

I love this movie and I want to see it

As a man from North Tyrol i fucking loved this movie when I saw it in cinema during my army service

Man this gives me some haunted memories in isonzo

Isonzo gameplay looks lit and dope

Pray Europa never has another suicidal war.

Rumor has it that there’s another Battle of the Isonzo River coming soon.

The italian soldiers worst enemy is his officer! ;)