The Fifth Day of Peace

The Fifth Day of Peace

English version DVD cover
Directed by Giuliano Montaldo
Written by Andrea Barbato
Lucio Battistrada
Ottavio Jemma
Giuliano Montaldo
Starring Richard Johnson
Franco Nero
Michael Goodliffe
Bud Spencer
Helmuth Schneider
Music by Ennio Morricone
Production
company
Clesi Cinematografica
Jadran Film
Distributed by USA Scotia International
France Les Films Jacques Leitienne
Release dates
  • 1970 (1970)
Running time
 English 103 minutes
Italian 110 minutes
Country Italy and Yugoslavia

The Fifth day of Peace, Italian title: Gott mit uns (written in German), is an Italo-Yugoslavian movie from 1970 about the 13 May 1945 German deserter execution in a Canadian-run POW camp in Amsterdam.

Synopsis

Two German deserters, Ensign Bruno Grauber (Franco Nero) and Corporal Reiner Schultz (Larry Aubrey) are captured by the Canadians at the end of World War II. They are interned in a Canadian-run POW camp where the senior German officer, Colonel Von Bleicher, is a career officer. Their fellow German prisoners of war, led by Von Bleicher, discover that they are deserters. They are put through a formal military court martial organised by Von Bleicher and charged with cowardice. They are sentenced to death and are to be executed on the "fifth day of peace". Von Bleicher pressures the Canadian camp commandant to allow the execution to be carried out and requests rifles and ammunition to carry out the sentence.

A Canadian general, Snow, persuades (but does not order) the Canadian camp commandant, Captain Miller, to allow the execution to be carried out for the higher purpose of preserving military discipline. He also motivates Miller with a promotion to major.

This movie is based on the true story of two German sailors, leading seaman Bruno Dorfer and machinist's mate Rainer Beck, both executed for desertion on May 13, 1945, after being found guilty of cowardice by fellow POWs. The sentence was carried out by German POWs who were under Canadian command.

Casting


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