Line #16 Film/ElAlameinTheLineOfFire


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/max1143307513_front_cover.png]]
2
3	''El Alamein: The Line of Fire'' (2002) is an Italian film directed by Enzo Monteleone, set during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and starring Paolo Briguglia, Emilio Solfrizzi and Pierfrancesco Favino. It takes place during the [[WorldWarII/WarInEuropeAndAfrica Battle of El Alamein]], and follows a group of Italian soldiers from the Pavia division, which is deployed in the south sector of the line, close to the Qattara Depression. A new soldier, Private Serra, arrives on the front line full of enthusiasm. He soon finds out that life on the front line is much more horrible than he had learned.
4
5	----
6	!!This film provides examples of:
7
8	* BadassArmy: Both the Italians and the British are shown to be this. British troops can [[spoiler: go in places not even the Bedouins dare to go]], and their artillery is formidable. The Italians, on the other hand, not only are still fighting against such a superior enemy, but ''repelled their initial attack''.
9	** {{Subverted\|Trope}} by the Afrika Korps, of all people: not only they barely show up, but the only things we know for certain about them in the film is that some of them still have trucks to retreat with, the British broke through ''them'', and they're ''still'' blaming the Italians for the defeat.
10	* BookEnds: The film starts and ends with Serra riding a bike in the desert.
11	* ColonelBadass: Averted. The one colonel we see during the retreat had ordered his guards to keep people outside of a bomb shelter (resulting in at least one guard staying exposed to a bombing raid and getting trampled by Fiore's platoon, who ignores his orders), and later acts callously to Fiore and his men, leaving them to fend for themselves in the desert.
12	* CrossingTheDesert: The soldiers have to retreat after the Allies have broken through the entire El Alamein line. Unfortunately, [[spoiler:there's no vehicles to drive them off. The ones which are driving away have no space for Fiore's platoon. They actually manage to get a truck at a medic post, but when they enter a shelter because of an airstrike, the truck itself is destroyed.]]
13	** Rizzo and Serra are sent by Lieutenant Fiore to the Qattara Depression to check what happened to an outpost which stopped responding to the command. Rizzo comments that the patrol doesn't make sense because nobody would head for the Depression, not even Bedouins. When they arrive, [[spoiler:they find out that the outpost's garrison is dead, maybe killed by the English, who Rizzo says are "more bedouin than the Bedouins"]].
14	* DeathFromAbove: British artillery and bomber aircrafts.
15	* DesertWarfare: The film takes place during the North African campaign, one of the most famous examples of this trope.
16	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Serra, Rizzo and Fiore find a working bike, but Fiore is completely exhausted and tells Rizzo to go with Serra. But Rizzo decides to [[StayWithMeUntilIDie stay with Fiore]], and tells Serra to just go and find some transport to get them, but it's obvious they're not going to make it.]]
17	* DrivenToSuicide: The unnamed general Fiore and his men encounter during the retreat kills himself after burying his aide.
18	* EyeScream: One of the soldiers during the British attack is hit in the eye.
19	* ForegoneConclusion: The Second Battle of El-Alamein notoriously ended with a defeat of the Axis forces. So, everybody can guess that the Italians are not going to win the day. [[spoiler: History buffs of the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII's Desert Campaign would also probably know that the Pavia division was completely destroyed during the subsequent retreat and can therefore figure out that the film is not going to end well for its protagonists]].
20	* HollywoodMirage: Averted. When Rizzo and Serra enter the Qattara Depression for the aforementioned patrol, they only see a 'Fata Morgana' mirage in the distance.
21	* InfiniteSupplies: {{Averted\|Trope}}: the Italian troops have little food, fuel munitions, medicines, and water (and what water they get is polluted). The British tend to give this impression with their casual artillery salvoes and every single soldier being loaded with food, but the soldiers realize it's just because they're near their supply bases, so their supplies have a much shorter way to the front.
22	** To better drive home the point, lieutenant Fiore ''shouts'' this to the unfortunate driver of a truck as he's confiscating him ''[[WhiteStallion Mussolini's horse]]'' to ''eat it'' (they were hungry).
23	* MolotovCocktail: Mentioned to have been used to stop the British first attack during the battle.
24	* MoodWhiplash: Thrice:
25	** the first is when Serra and his squadmates are enjoying a pause on a beach and a patrol inform them they're lying in a ''minefield'';
26	** the platoon is eating some roasted camel, thanks to the camel stumbling on Serra's guard post, when Fiore sees what they're eating, [[ExplainExplainOhCrap has Serra tell him exactly where he found it, and realizes the British sent it to check if there was a passage in the minefield, and the fact it arrived to Serra's guard post means there's one]];
27	** a night, Rizzo and Serra are returning from a scouting mission in the Qattara Depression and enjoying the beautiful night sky when the British ruin it with the artillery barrage that opened the Second Battle of El Alamein.
28	* NaiveNewcomer: Serra is this when he arrives at El Alamein. He soon changes his view upon what war is.
29	* ProperlyParanoid: According to Rizzo, [[spoiler: crossing the Qattara Depression is impossible]], and he says just that when he gets sent to check on an outpost there due the high command fearing an infiltration from there. Turns out that [[spoiler: a British patrol ''did'' cross the Depression]], reached the outpost and killed the garrison.
30	* RuleNumberOne: On Serra's arrival, Rizzo explains him a few rules of survival. Among them are 'don't complain about dysentery', 'one ration per evening ([[EatDirtCheap sand and rice]])' and 'cigarettes, [[InfiniteSupplies as many as you want]]'.
31	* ShellShockedVeteran: When Rizzo and Serra return from their patrol, they find out Private De Vita has becomed this because of the massive Allied preemptive bombing on the Axis lines, for the ground troops. De Vita says that "everything is broken" and starts literally hammering on boxes to fix them. [[spoiler:He finally snaps during the British attack, where he steps out of his foxhole and walks away into the dust and smoke and into certain death.]]
32	* SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler:The platoon which had formed during the retreat is captured by the British while they were sleeping at a graveyard. Only Pvt. Serra, Sgt. Rizzo and Lt. Fiore remain, because they were sleeping outside of the graveyard, and Rizzo's moral code was 'rather die than be captured'.]]
33	* TanksButNoTanks: [[http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/El_Alamein_-_The_Line_of_Fire#Gun_Platformes Very much so]].
34	* ThirstyDesert: Of course, it's set in the North African front. Especially invoked by Serra after the big Allied attack. There's no life or anything, according to Serra even the troops themselves are almost forsaken by their own command.
35	* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The protagonists are from the Pavia division, but they are stationed at Naqb Rala (the most southern section of the line before the Qattara Depression), while in reality the Folgore paratroopers were stationed there, while Pavia was higher up.
36	** The director actually made a documentary called (''I Ragazzi Di El Alamein'') (The Boys Of El Alamein), where several Italian veterans of the Battle of El Alamein are interviewed. The film itself, before the credits, has a summary of the battle, with the numbers of dead, wounded and captured, and also explains that three Italian divisions where completely wiped out during the retreat.
37	* WarIsGlorious: Serra joins the army because he believes this. He's disabused of this notion before the fifth minute of the movie, well before the actual battle.
38	* WarIsHell: The film manages to drive this point home ''before anyone in the cast dies'', by showing the ''Bersagliere'' happy for successfully scavenging a quarter litre of fuel, the sight of Fiore's command post, the insistence on Serra's canteen of pure water (extremely rare on the frontlines) and the corporal so used to artillery he can tell when the shells are coming down on him. ''Then'' the corporal shouts at Serra to take cover because an artillery salvo is about to hit them, and gets [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill disintegrated when a shell hits his head]].
39	** About one hour in the movie, we are shown a small part of the Battle of El Alamein. The scene is absolutely terrifying.
40	** The scene at the field hospital.
41	* WhiteStallion: Mussolini's horse, that the soldiers almost ''eat''.
42	* WithThisHerring: In one scene the troops receive two trucks of supplies (which were heading for the coast, but took a completely wrong direction), one full of shoe polish, and the other carrying Mussolini's [[WhiteStallion personal horse]], for the great parade of [[GeneralFailure the arrival to Alexandria]]. Apparently Mussolini [[ArmchairMilitary doesn't understand]] that they're never going to arrive to Alexandria.

Context Film / ElAlameinTheLineOfFire