Battle of Neretva
US film poster
Directed by	Veljko Bulajić
Screenplay by	Ratko Djurović Stevan Bulajić Veljko Bulajić Ugo Pirro English Version: Alfred Hayes
Story by	Stevan Bulajic Ratko Djurovic
Produced by	Steve Previn
Starring	Yul Brynner Sergei Bondarchuk Curd Jürgens Sylva Koscina Hardy Krüger Franco Nero Orson Welles
Cinematography	Tomislav Pinter
Edited by	Vojislav Bjenjas
Music by	Vladimir Kraus-Rajteric English Version: Bernard Herrmann
Color process	Eastmancolor
Production companies	Bosna Film Jadran Film Kinema Sarajevo Radna Zajednica Filma Igor Film Eichberg-Film Commonwealth United Entertainment
Distributed by	Kinema Sarajevo (Yugoslavia) International Film Company (Italy) Columbia Film-Verleih (West Germany) American International Pictures (US)
Release date	7 October 1969 (1969-10-07)
Running time	175 minutes 126 minutes (English Version)
Countries	Yugoslavia Italy West Germany United States[1]
Languages	Serbo-Croatian Italian German English
Budget	$12 million

Battle of Neretva (Serbo-Croatian: Bitka na Neretvi, Битка на Неретви) is a 1969 Yugoslavian epic partisan film. Written by Stevan Bulajić and Veljko Bulajić, and directed by Veljko Bulajić, it is based on the true events of World War II. The Battle of the Neretva was due to a strategic plan for a combined Axis powers attack in 1943 against the Yugoslav Partisans. The plan was also known as the Fourth Enemy Offensive and occurred in the area of the Neretva river in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Battle of Neretva is the most expensive motion picture made in the SFR Yugoslavia.^[2] It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film,^[3] the year after Sergei Bondarchuk (playing the role of Martin in Neretva) won the honour for War and Peace. The score for the English-speaking versions was composed by Bernard Herrmann. Its soundtrack was released by Entr'acte Recording Society in 1974. It was re-released on Southern Cross Records on CD.

One of the original posters for the English version of the movie was made by Pablo Picasso, which, according to Bulajić, the famous painter agreed to do without monetary payment, only requesting a case of the best Yugoslav wines.^[4]

Synopsis

In 1943, Adolf Hitler orders the final destruction of the Yugoslav Partisans. This forces them and thousands of refugees to begin a trek northward through the Bosnian Mountains. Their goal is to reach the bridge at Neretva in order to escape. Their trip is fraught with danger every step of the way and they have to face German tanks, Italian infantry, Chetnik Cavalry, strafing airplanes, disease and natural elements.

Cast

Production

Bridge on the Neretva river, built and twice-destroyed during the shooting of the film.

Battle of Neretva was the first of a series of huge state-sponsored World War II film productions. It had a staggering budget approved by Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito. Different sources put it anywhere between $4.5 million and $12 million. Global stars such as Sergei Bondarchuk, Yul Brynner, Franco Nero, Orson Welles, etc. flocked to communist Yugoslavia attracted by the huge sums of money being offered.

Shot over 16 months with funds put up in largest part by over 58 self-managed companies in Yugoslavia, the movie featured a combined battalion of 10,000 Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) soldiers. Four villages and a fortress were constructed for the film and destroyed. Several JNA-inventory Soviet T-34 tanks, touched up to look like German Panzers, met the same fate. Even used several Yugoslavian planes Soko 522 like germans luftwaffe planes with Balkenkreuz on the wings.

A railway bridge over the Neretva in Jablanica was destroyed.^[5] Director Bulajić's justification for demolishing the bridge rather than getting the shots in studio was that it would become a tourist attraction. The bridge was thus blown but because none of the footage was usable due to the billowing smoke that made it impossible to see anything, it was decided that the bridge should be repaired and destroyed again. The problem with the excessive smoke occurred again and the scenes of the bridge being blown up in the film were shot using a table-size replica at a sound stage in Prague.^[4] The Yugoslav public was updated on the shooting progress via pieces in the country's print media.^[6][7]

Release

The film has been edited in to numerous versions. Runtimes vary by location, the regional prints also change the story due to edits that add or remove scenes:

• North America: 106 minutes
• Spanish: 113 minutes
• European: 127 minutes
• UK/Australia: 127 minutes
• Germany and Croatia: 142 minutes each, although they are not the same print.
• Serbia: 160 minutes

Most of the actors spoke their native language and subtitled in the original release. Afterwards the film was dubbed in English and distributed world-wide with subtitles for some scenes. The English dubbed versions, running between 106 and 127 minutes, were rescored by Bernard Hermann as the original film score by Vladmir Kraus Rajteric had been damaged in the redubbing process. However, the German and Croat-language releases contain the original score.^[8]

Reception

Sergei Bondarchuk and Orson Welles at the premiere in Sarajevo on 29 November 1969.

In 1999, a poll of Croatian film fans found it to be one of the best Yugoslavian films ever made.^[9]

See also

• Force 10 from Navarone, a fictional account of part of the battle
• List of Yugoslav films
• List of most expensive non-English language films
• List of submissions to the 42nd Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Yugoslav submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

References

External links

• Bitka na Neretvi at IMDb
• The Battle of Neretva at AllMovie
• Battle of Neretva at the TCM Movie Database
• Battle of Neretva at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Razgovor s Veljkom Bulajićem (in Croatian)