Alberto

Among the films directed by Monicelli in which we see a great Alberto Sordi, there is "La grande guerra" (1959): one of the masterpieces of the history of cinema that tells the exploits of the roman Oreste Jacovacci (Sordi) and the milanese Giovanni Busacca (Gassman), two fearful soldiers who, during the 1915-18 war, try to come home safely to become heroes.

Oreste (Sordi) is a loafer, the usual roman who doesn't want to do anything, a profiteer without any generosity. In the end he has a strange conflict inside him. He’s a coward, and he says it, even in the last attempt to save himself: "But I’m a coward, everyone knows that. If I knew, I’d talk". Even in his heroic act, he doesn't betray his nature.