Massacre In Rome depicts one of the worst atrocities of the War which took place in Nazi occupied Rome sparking a searing political outrage: did the Vatican then led by Pope Pius XII (referred to by some as Hitler's Pope) kowtow to Nazism? After Italian Partisans killed 33 German soldiers by exploding a roadside bomb Hitler ordered the immediate execution of 10 Roman citizens for each dead soldier. When the Vatican withdrew from the matter a deadly confrontation ensued between a priest (Mastroianni) and a Nazi Officer Kapler (Burton at his best) who had been ordered... to administer what would become one of the most heinous war crimes: the massacre of 335 civilians. Director Cosmatos and writer Robert Katz crank up the tension in this nerve-wracking dramatisation of Katz's own highly contentious 1967 best-seller Death in Rome in which he blamed Pope Pius XII for the massacre; and for which the author was sued upon the film's release by the Pope's heirs and sentenced to jail. The controversy continues to date as the present Pope Benedict has just declared Pius XII venerable - the first step towards Sainthood. [show more]
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In the final days of the Second World War in Rome, partisans plan an attack on a column of Germans in the city. Fearing that the attack might take place, the Gestapo chief (Richard Burton) advises his commanding officer not to order the column to march the next day. The march goes ahead and 32 Germans are killed. The partisans hide out with a local priest, but orders come in to exact revenge in what was to be known as the 'Massacre in Rome'.
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