I’m not sure it really helps a film very much to win an award that it really didn’t deserve. Every film critic then feels obliged to point out how undeserving the film was. That’s pretty much the case for this 1991 Academy Award winning film in the Best Foreign-Language Film category. It is no better than a mediocre film – entertaining, not annoying especially, but just plan lacking in good narrative technique, originality, or message. That it beat out a far more deserving film, Raise the Red Lantern, will forever condemn Mediterraneo to be labeled “overrated.” What was the Academy thinking?

The story for this film was loosely based on a real life story and a book by an Italian ex-Sergeant. It is 1941, and a group of eight misfit Italian soldier are deposited on an island in the Aegean Sea. Their assignment is to observe and capture. When their boat is sunk and their radio damaged, these men are soon isolated from the outside world. At first, the island appears to be entirely deserted, but the soldiers soon discover a small community comprised of women, a few old men, a priest, and lots of children. Their men folk were taken prisoner by the Germans and deported. Soon, this squad of Italian soldiers have become integrated into the community of locals and are leading the high life of sun, sex, drugs, sports, and leisure.

The officer in charge is Lieutenant Raffaele Montini (Claudio Bigagli). He had been a Greek classics teacher before the war and is enthralled by his opportunity to study Greek culture firsthand, even if its only on a remote Greek island. Something of an amateur painter and philosopher, he is enlisted by the priest (Luigi Montini), to refurbish the frescos in the town’s church. The top ranking noncommissioned officer is the manly Sergeant Nicola Lorusso (Diego Abatantuono). He’s the only real soldier among them but bores his associates when he attempts to regale them with his stories of past battle glories. Luciano Colasanti (Ugo Conti) comes out of the closet part way through the film, announcing his love for the Sergeant, much to the latter’s discomfort. Eliseo Strazzabosco (Gigio Alberti) has something akin to a romance going with his donkey. When his donkey is shot by his trigger-happy messmates, he destroys the squad’s radio in a fit of despair. Corrado Noventa (Claudio Bisio) is a bald guy who has a wife and a newborn child back in Italy who he has yet to see. He wants nothing more than to get back home by hook or by crook. Antonio Farina (Giuseppe Cederna) is the youngster of the group and a virgin. Naturally, he falls head-over-heels in love with the gorgeous and well-endowed town prostitute, Vassilissa (Vanna Barba). While the other men of the company are enjoying her favors on a rotating schedule, Farina holds out for love. Then there are the two brothers, Libero and Felice Munaron (Memo Dini and Vasco Mirandola). They are assigned a lookout post on the highpoint of the island and are rewarded by the appearance of a comely and nubile shepherdess.

There is some good humor in all of this. An Italian solo plane sets done at one point for repairs in the midst of a soccer game and a dispute over a penalty, with the pilot (Antonio Catania) declaring that he saw the whole thing from the air and there was no foul. In another scene, the Italians get their first news of how the war is going three years after first stepping foot onto the island. They are understandably baffled that the former enemies are now the allies and the former allies the enemy. When a couple of prim and proper British ensigns show up near the end of the film to “rescue” them, the Italians are uncertain whether to shoot or cheer. All in all, however, what we mostly get is one cliché after another. There’s the bare shouldered virgin shepherdess, the prostitute saved by love, Mediterranean sunsets, cloying musical laments, bare-breasted native girls, the Lieutenant’s poetic elegies to their idyllic life, etc., etc. No one works, here, or even performs chores, yet food and comfort is aplenty.

Themes: Apparently the intended theme is disillusionment with postwar Italy and the inability of reformists to bring about real change. A dedication at the opening of the film indicates that the film was for “all those who are running away.” Yet, all it really delivers is evidence that given their druthers, most men will choose an idyllic life on a sunny paradise island with buxom babes of Miss Greece caliber (Vanna Barba was a former Miss Greece) and nothing to do but relax and recreate over war.

Production Values: Naturally, there are some beautiful shots of the sea, cliffs, and the island village. I particularly liked a couple of gorgeous shots of the Munaron brothers silhouetted against a sunset. And I’m not adverse to frolicking naked nymphets as a general rule. All of the performances were believable and entertaining. Claudio Bigagli’s previous credits included The Night of the Shooting Stars (1981). I give top performance credit to Diego Abantantuono as Sergeant Lorusso, since his character underwent the most development over the course of the film and Abantantuono made in convincingly gradual.

This films dwells somewhat deeply in the abyss of stereotypes. There’s the incompetent soldiering skill of the Italians, the shifty-eyed Turkish thief and opium purveyor, and the buxom and easy island women. Not belonging to any of these groups, I have no way of knowing how such clichés register on the psyches of the respective parties. I think a major factor determining the competence of any nation’s soldier (apart from the obvious issue of training) is level of commitment to the cause. I think there’s probably some truth to the notion that the Italians fought less energetically in World War II than troops from some other countries, but I attribute most of that to mixed sentiment and lack of full commitment to their Fascist state’s ill-advised war effort.

Bottom-Line: This is a pleasant enough film depicting a dream of serenity and the simple life in an unspoiled paradise. The characters are interesting, varied, sometimes humorous, and sometimes erotic. On the other hand, there’s no character development, an overly predictable storyline (at least in the broad contours), some weakness in narrative flow, and no meaningful point. This is about as close as one can get to mediocrity. Mediterraneo is unrated but would undoubtedly require an “R” if it were, for nudity, sexual situations, and profanity. It is in Italian with English subtitles and has a running time of 90 minutes.

Recommended:
No

Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age