Review of General Della Rovere

We see characters that are all naturally magnificent, in and of themselves, including most vividly the horse. The Italians each have their own personal power. The horse is at once powerful for its magnificent beauty, and he is able to "play" dead. The little girl, too, is magnificently beautiful, a classic vision of a child. The beautiful high class prostitutes are magnificent in their dress and lovely feminine behavior, naturally powerful: They have always been powerful. And the gentleman - he is not only handsome, intelligent, sexy, friendly, amicable, and very caring, everybody's friend - he has a great personal power that enables him to walk freely through the streets. However, there are now and then jarring Nazi-encounter reminders now and then of how fragile, near illusory his power now actually is become - but it is remarkable that power he has to walk freely, right from the start and even through the Nazi-occupied offices.. Meanwhile we see the Nazis' "power" is not from within, but is entirely dependent upon their higher-ups, their regime; ttheir "magnificence" residing solely in the buttons and boots of their smart uniforms; he Nazis are for the most part immoral, of little inherent virtue in relation to non-Nazi humane humanity, i.e.: they think nothing of shooting Italian citizens as they drive by., So, the gentleman appears as normally a powerful man, who now is in need of money, and thus endeavors to use his power to free people's imprisoned relatives and friends for a living, and is absolutely awesome for what he is able to do, but is repeatedly confronted by his powerlessness, such as in the forms of the Nazi guy at the office, having to try to get the top officer to be friendly, or at similarly human enough to offer a cigarette, etc., but they are just not quite human, exemplified by the bizarre otherworldly hairdo of the turned-friendly young woman at the office who gives him sugar. So many excellent human beings lost their personal power and inherent magnificence to a crazed form of government imposed upon them. The gentleman's power would appear to have been stripped from him when he is imprisoned, but it shines forth, as from the other prisoners as well, in their humanity toward each other. Moreover, the role he must play enables his personal power to shine and grow, despite the prisoner's helplessness. For, in fact, like the horse, he rises back up to his feet to show he has always been powerful, in and of himself. btw - the only version of this movie i could find was in Italian, which i don't know, but the movie itself, i promise you, conveys everything. also, i just love that one kindly guard who grew to love the General, and the gentleman.