This instance is most pointedly illustrated in one of the last scenes of the film in which Captain Hartmann drunkenly admits to the mass wrongdoing committed by his side (the Nazis).

Throughout the film the characters (both major and minor) are forced to grapple with morality and mortality, as well as self-perseverance, and this plays a significant role in the plot and the character development as well as further stresses that war is a human conflict, and that humans cannot be entirely good or entirely evil. Rome, Open City also displays the intersection of war and faith, hope and hopelessness, love and hatred. Death is a strategic motif utilized throughout the film to further demonstrate the overreaching struggle of everyday Italians and the theme that war is a brutal enterprise with permanent consequences. These consequences can be seen throughout the film in instances such as Pina’s senseless death, Giorgio’s death as a result of brutal torture, and Don Pietro’s death at the hands of a firing squad.

Additionally, Rome, Open City poignantly illustrates the human consequences of war. Rome, Open City illustrates the multi-faceted struggle of Italian citizens living under the oppressive occupation of Nazi forces following the ousting of Mussolini and the declaration of Rome as an “open city.” The film gives insight into the mindset and motivations of those in the Italian resistance and renders an image of a “full” resistance by Italian citizens which includes every kind/type of person in Italian society, from the clergy to the children. The first film assigned in this Fall 2018 version of the course, which focuses on European films about World War II, was Roberto Rossellini’s 1945 neorealist classic, “Rome Open City.” Note: Students in Stephen Norris’s HST/FST 252, History at the Movies, are grading historical films and offering reviews on how assigned films render the past.

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