Search - The Night of the Shooting Stars on DVD

One of the Greatest of All Foreign Films

Randy Buck | Brooklyn, NY USA | 04/03/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I loved this picture in its initial American release, returned to see it three times theatrically, have watched it six or seven times in the subsequent years, and gave the old MGM dvd to many people, all of whom shared my enthusiasm for such a magical film. The Taviani brothers mix realism and poetry to shattering effect; there are scenes and images, both comic and tragic, that I'll wager will stick with you a lifetime. They certainly have for me. Essential (and immensely pleasurable) viewing."

25 years ago...

MAPs | Los Angeles, CA | 05/15/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was 13 in a small town in the heart of the Tuscan-Emilian Appennines (where I grew up) when this movie held me riveted to the screen...the noises of the night: crickets, snapped twigs; the air thick with heat and the stars shooting heavily through the August night when local lore would make us believe that on one particular night after the festivities of Saint Lawrence (San Lorenzo) on the 10th, any wish, any desire, any yearning, would be granted through any shooting star one would witness in the deep, night skies.
My family was rich with stories of the war, both sad and redeeming at once. The elders spun their tales and the adrenaline rush of close calls or accidents would permeate their nervous gestures that would accompany their life sagas.
This movie is exactly that. It's real. The place, the space, the sounds and the people are the exact embodiement of what was.
My family tales came to life in that movie. I was only 13 but I finally understood everything that had been told to me so that I wouldn't forget.
And I haven't, 25 years on.
I cannot wait to watch it again, kleenex-holding and red-eyed, remembering how so many lives were changed and how many more will still be because of ongoing wars around our planet.
May this be your shooting star for wars to stop, forever.
And make it a must in your video library."

Child witnessing end of the war

Reader | Boca Raton, FL | 04/26/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"WWII in Italy was time when polarization was at its greatest. Fascists have lost the power, but their desire for control was still strong. In small village in Tuscany, locals are anxious about arrival of allied forces that will prevent destruction of their homes and secure safety from fascists. Unsure what to do, most villagers have to choose between following the instructions of their local priest vs. following their own heart and intuition.

I loved the relationships portrayed between protagonists in this movie: young mother trying to protect her daughter (a narrator of this story), old couple who missed out on being married 40 years ago due to social norms of the time, virgin empowered with knowing that men of all ages desire her; young man trying to protect his pregnanat bride due to deliver their first child in any moment. All characters are real in their all too human fears, desires and fight for survival.

Story is told by a woman who experienced all this as a 6 year old child, now a mother herself. She tells this story to her young son during the night of the shooting starts in the sky - and the story is no fairy tale or a lullaby. Wonderful movie with beauty of Tuscany that not even war could destroy and determination of the ordinary peasants to preserve their life, families and dignity."

A Child's View of an Atrocity

Nelda S. Mohr | Stafford, VA United States | 03/10/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Seen through the eyes of a six-year-old girl this is the story of a Nazi massacre of an Italian village. All the inhabitants of the Tuscan village are ordered to report to the cathedral at 3 am. One man warns against trusting the Germans and proposes they escape and try to find the approaching American forces. His choice is correct. The Germans throw grenades into the cathedral, killing almost everyone. Many of those who try to escape are killed by Fascist collaborators along the way, but many survive. This is a wonderful film that really shows the internecine nature of World War II in Italy."