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Funding Proposal for a feature length television broadcast documentary -

Contact Production Company - Grand Island Films, NYC

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	Narrative Section Target Audience Web Site Project  Research//Evaluation Key Personnel Support Letters	Justification for the project Brief history of the battles Visual Treatment

Narrative Section

Justification for the Project

Monte Cassino is a ninety-minute documentary utilizing archival film and photos, interviews and scenics, shot on 16mm film and digital video. 

Monte Cassino will present the experiences of the participants in one of the fiercest, most costly battles of WWII. Soldiers from dozens of cultures and nations struggled to control the high ground above the medieval town of Cassino. And though each group fought a common enemy, it did so for its own reasons and goals; coming from different cultures each experienced the killing fields in its own way. This conflict though was more than the number or variety of men killed and maimed.

The Monte Cassino battlefield was like no other in modern warfare. After months of slogging steadily up the boot of Italy, through a monotonous string of mountains, the Allied soldiers were stopped for six months beneath the extraordinary and mesmerizing "gaze" of an immense fortress-like building, the Abbey of Monte Cassino. It had overlooked the Liri/Rapido Valley for one and a half millennia. Out of it had sprung the Benedictine movement, a major force in the Catholic Church and Western Civilization. It housed world class art and rare documents. As the soldiers of the world marched into the Rapido Valley, the ancient Abbey hung in the clouds above them and captured their imaginations…and for six months it fed their deepest fears.

The Abbey of Monte Cassino occupies a profound position in the history of European civilization: Since before the Roman Empire and into the present, it has been considered a "holy" ground. St. Benedict built his monastery there; Monte Cassino was the foundation from which the Benedictine movement "civilized" Europe in the medieval times. For 1500 years this high ground and its Abbey were the key to military control of Rome; sections of the monastery survived the might of armies and natural disasters. It is a living symbol of our past.

In the winter of 1944 the world debated the fate of the Abbey. Hitler had ordered his army to stop the Allies at Cassino. Allied soldiers were convinced that German guns were killing them from within the Abbey’s fortress-like walls. Their fear and hatred of this building, the single undestroyed object in a totally destroyed battlefield, resembled mass psychosis. On February 15, 1944, the Abbey was obliterated by the most intensive bombardment of a single building in all of W.W.II.

More than a documentary about a war a half-century ago, Monte Cassino will reveal the spiritual need for reconciliation among many who fought at Cassino. We will document a worldwide gathering of WWII veterans as they pilgrimage to the Abbey to redeem what historian John Ellis calls the "hollow victory" of their youth. Monte Cassino will highlight a British veterans group which has organized an international effort to rebuild the Abbey they helped to destroy, as well as Polish and Welsh veterans who regularly return to Monte Cassino with young people to share their experiences. In so doing, these men hope to transform their horrendous experiences of war into a positive action for world peace. Contact with nearly a hundred veterans has been facilitated via a web site, which the producers intend to expand in order to enhance the documentary and make an educational component available to high school teachers and students.

Viewers will consider opposing points of view on these battles (Allied, German, Italian, etc.) and measure these perspectives against their own world views. Audiences will be exposed to the experiences of people from diverse parts of the globe who continue to live the horrors of what happened on the ancient and holy ground of Monte Cassino 55 years ago. These old men can overstep the boundaries of time and nationality; their stories can link us directly to both this dark aspect of the human psyche and their hope for a brighter future. Our audience will see that they are not separated from these men by years or geography, by culture or religion. Rather they should recognize that humankind is universally bound by mortality and a common destiny.

The director and producer have worked on this labor of love, part time, for over a year. To date, approximately $100,000 has gone into pre-production and research and on the production of a preview video [an updated promo will soon be available]. The video reveals key concepts and aesthetic approaches to the film. Those who have viewed the preview tape, both veterans of the battle and broadcast professionals, including Ward Chamberlin, Vice President of WNET, and George Stoney, well-renowned documentarian and professor at NYU, agree that it demonstrates the project’s magnitude and viability.

History of the Abbey and Battles

The Abbey of Monte Cassino. The Abbey was built early in the 6th century over a heathen temple to Apollo. Its founder St. Benedict established a monastic order based on his simple and humane Rule of Order which spiritualized the Church and civilized medieval Europe. Throughout the Middle Ages Benedictine monks were a political force, as well as an educational and humanizing influence. The Monastery has been the home to a world-famous library and invaluable religious and secular art.

The Four Battles of Monte Cassino. Late in 1943, Allied troops continued their protracted fight up the mountainous spine of southern Italy. The focus of Allied strategy, however, had shifted from Italy, as preparations were being completed for the invasion of Normandy. Nevertheless, Allied commanders were convinced they could win Rome before their forces were shipped off to fight in France. Germany, though, had had three months to construct an impregnable defensive line that bisected Italy at the southern entrance to the Liri Valley with the Abbey of Monte Cassino at its center (see map on the next page).

Dozens of Allied divisions were jammed along the narrow entrance to the Liri Valley beneath the fortress-like walls of the Abbey of Monte Cassino. This multi-national force consisted of soldiers from over 30 nations. Allied generals ordered their troops to attack the very center of the German line and were convinced that the battle for Monte Cassino would last only a few weeks. But it would take over five months to break through Germany’s Gustav Line. They fought over open ground, much of it flooded and deep in mud, against well defended river lines and up mountain ridges controlled by an entrenched enemy which could see all their movements.

The First Battle. In January and February, 1944, British and American Divisions attacked the Gustav Line with few successes. The U.S. 36^th (Texas) Division was nearly annihilated on the Rapido River. The U.S. 34^th (Red Bull) Division fought to the Abbey walls but was beaten back. The French Expeditionary Force had some successes in the mountains north of the Abbey but was ordered by Gen. Mark Clark to turn south and aid in the American attack on Monte Cassino.

The Second and Third Battles. In March, responsibility for winning Monte Cassino was turned over to the New Zealand Corps made up of New Zealanders (including Maoris), British, and Indians (Sikhs, Punjabis, Mahrattas, Rajputs and Gurkhas of Nepal). Allied soldiers were convinced that the Germans were using the Abbey as an observation post for their deadly accurate shelling. After months of fighting, the soldiers' ebbing morale demanded its eradication .

The world debated the Abbey's fate. Overwhelming consensus held that soldiers' lives were more precious than stone and brick, regardless of religious, scholarly or aesthetic significance. Unfortunately, bombing accomplished little or nothing: Most first-hand accounts and historians of the war agree that probably there were no combat German soldiers within the Abbey.

Inside the Abbey another story was unfolding. The last German general to visit the Abbey warned Abbot Diamare of the approaching disaster and urged immediate evacuation. But panicked parents and their children who had taken refuge beside and within its walls remained, trusting that no one would touch the famous and most holy monastery. In mid-February, the bombardment was carried out by over 200 U.S. large and medium bombers killing hundreds of civilians who had been trapped inside. No Germans were killed. Directly following the bombing, German 1^st Paratroopers occupied the Abbey ruins and held it for three more months.

The Fourth Battle. By May, the Allied command decided on a new approach--a broad offensive along the entire Gustav Line: The Americans attacked on the coast to the west; the French moved through the Arunchi Mountains; the British advanced across the Rapido River and into the Liri Valley and then turned towards the Monte Cassino high ground; the Poles stormed the Germans in their Abbey stronghold, suffering enormous losses.

Aftermath of the War. The re-building of the Abbey, paid for by the Italian state, began soon after the war and took a decade to complete. Since then thousands of Cassino battle veterans and civilians have returned to the Abbey. Two British veterans groups with opposing points of view on war have grown out of these experiences: The Monte Cassino Veterans Association reviles German atrocities and celebrates Allied victories and heroism. In contrast, The Monte Cassino Federation for Remembrance and Reconciliation (MCFRR) has worked since the mid 1980s for world peace through a policy of forgiveness and global unification. In May, 1997, the MCFRR organized the installation of the seventh of a set of richly designed stained glass "peace" windows in the Abbey's ancient Chapel of the Prophets, in honor of the Jewish Brigade which fought in Italy. Previous windows were sponsored by veterans' organizations whose members fought at Monte Cassino, including Americans, Poles, British, New Zealanders, Indians, Frenchmen, Italians, and Germans. The eighth and final "peace" window planned for 1999 will be sponsored by Brazil. Ceremonies for this event will attract worldwide coverage and will include over a thousand young people from all over the world. Due to the advanced age of these former soldiers, May, 1999, will probably be the last major gathering of veterans at Monte Cassino.

Visual Approach

Monte Cassino will present the vivid human experiences of the infantrymen and Italian civilians whose lives were linked during those fateful months at the ancient Abbey. Their stories will be presented in interviews and with archival photos and film, as well as with diaries, memoirs and private photos. At times, the action being described by the testifiers will be re-created utilizing a subjective camera and actor voiceovers.

The various episodes of the world's soldiers will be unified via the recurrent images of a LONE VETERAN seen in the distance. He has left his tour group of fellow veterans and wives who are visiting the Abbey and local war cemeteries. He climbs toward a height overlooking the battlefield. For fifty years he has been reading and thinking about what had happened on this spot. As he ascends, sound effects from the battle intrude on his thoughts. The Abbey of Monte Cassino emerges from the fog. He sits down wearily on a rocky ridge, and in his imagination he "sees" the decades old battles unfolding below him. He is an Everyman soldier whose memories connect the varied experiences of the world’s infantrymen featured in Monte Cassino.

The LONE VETERAN "relives" his experiences and what he's heard and read of these battles. This device gives the producers the opportunity to link and expand the battle stories beyond a straight chronology. For example, in the beginning of the film as the LONE VETERAN climbs toward his perch we segue to the Cassino war cemeteries (Commonwealth, Polish, German and Italian), to the Rapido River as flowers representing Americans who died there are dropped into the flowing waters, and then up to the Abbey filled with Italian tourists and aged WWII veterans from all over the world. We move into the most ancient section of the Abbey for the unveiling ceremonies of the final MCFRR stained glass "peace" window (sponsored by Monte Cassino veterans from Brazil). The old soldiers are overheard talking about the Abbey’s amazing renewal, as we segue to documentation of its reconstruction after the war.

We then return to the veterans exiting the Abbey's great gates and busing down the mountain; finally, its great medieval cloisters, gardens and grand Basilica are empty and quiet except for the pure white doves flying between its marbled colonnades; it's springtime; there is new life in the Liri Valley. The historical significance of the 1500-year-old Abbey is explained by Professor Herbert Bloch of Harvard University.

We then segue to the solitary rock promontory of the LONE VETERAN as his thoughts turn to WWII—the Abbey, now seen in the swirling mists of winter, gives way to archival footage, photos and personal testimonies revealing the Axis forces constructing their greatest defensive line up to the Abbey walls and below it in the Rapido Valley. At the same time one German officer tries to save the Abbey’s great art treasures from the approaching conflagration, while another chooses paintings for Hermann Goering's war booty.

* * *

To provide a more complete idea of our story-telling, included in the following pages is a plot treatment of one key segment of the script:

Bombing the Monastery. Hitler's decision to hold the Allied army at the opening to the Liri Valley guaranteed that the war would envelope the Abbey. Nevertheless, German high command assured the British minister at the Vatican, D'Arcy Osborne, that the Abbey "will not be occupied by regular German troops."

Some argue that the Nazi tactic of using the Abbey as the centerpiece of their Gustav Line was designed to draw Allied fire onto the Abbey. The Germans could thus demonstrate to the world the Allies' "barbarity" and prove that Germany was the true protector of Western Civilization.

After months of constructing their awesome defenses around Monte Cassino, German Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, instructed that "the building itself must be spared." And indeed, by December 12^th German Supreme Command had pulled its forces 300 meters back from the Abbey walls and closed all roads leading to it. They advised the civilians who had been bombed out of their homes that it was safe to return to the monastery sanctuary.

January 8^th - The Vatican Secretary complained to the Germans about their army's activity near the Abbey. The German Embassy assured the Vatican that "the Abbey of Monte Cassino was not occupied by German troops nor would it be used for military purposes"; nonetheless, the Germans continued to build their defenses right up to its walls. The Vatican avoided further involvement and made no further appeals on behalf of the Benedictine monastery.

Leaving the Abbey was impossible for only yards from its walls were the killing fields. Three students carrying a white sheet were turned back by German machine guns. The Abbot told those milling in the Abbey's marble columned courtyard that each should do what he thought best. The few remaining monks continued to pray for deliverance.

Monte Cassino will be organized into episodes, each of which will feature an international fighting unit which participated in the battles. Among the stories that are likely to be included are the following:

• The U.S. 36^th Division was virtually destroyed trying to cross the Rapido River, half-a-mile beneath the Abbey's watchful eye. Ward Chamberlin describes their demoralized, zombie-like state coming off the line.
• The US 34^th Division were mortared and machine gunned as theystruggled up the torturously narrow mule trails early in the battles and fought their way right up the Abbey walls. The hand-sized rocks they piled up for protection were re-used by the Indians and the Poles in the months that followed.
• Surrounded by German paratroopers, the 4^th Indian Division the most professional soldiers of the Allied Army defended and eventually lost Castle Hill, the ancient Roman ruins perched between the Abbey and the town of Cassino .
• Despite withering Allied bombings of the Abbey and the town of Cassino, the New Zealand tank and Maori infantry were unable to expel the highly motivated German paratroopers
• After trekking thousands of miles across Asia and Europe, the soldiers of the Polish Corp joined the Allied forces. These Poles sacrificed their lives at the Abbey's ramparts for the futile dream of an independent Poland.
• The French Expeditionary Forces, from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, and commanded by French nationals, fought for their national honor. They did what both the Germans and Allies thought was impossible: Working their way through the trackless wilderness of the Arunchi Mountains they cut off German supply routes and broke the Gustav Line (this is an untold story). The Allied and German soldiers alike feared the North African Goums; one British soldier described them as "incredibly frightening" with their "turbans and big cutlasses." 

Target Audience

We are developing a multifaceted marketing approach in order to reach both American and international television audiences. Monte Cassino will attract a worldwide audience of veterans and their families. But perhaps more importantly, this project is designed to pull in young audiences by promoting directly to schools and teachers interested in peace issues, as well as American and European history and social studies.

First, we seek a prime-time PBS broadcast—we have begun discussions with WNET to secure its participation with the project. Ward Chamberlin, Vice President of Programming at WNET, is a veteran of Monte Cassino and has offered his assistance. WNET would serve as the entry station for a national PBS broadcast. See Mr. Chamberlin's letter of support in the Appendix.

In addition, because it is an multi-national subject, Monte Cassino will appeal to international television markets, especially France, England, Poland, Germany, Italy, Northern Africa, New Zealand and Japan. International interest in the battles of Monte Cassino reflects potential for worldwide broadcast and video sales. We have initiated contact with South African Broadcasting Corp., RAI, Granada TV, and the "Timewatch" strand at BBC.

The broadcast of Monte Cassino will also raise interest in the themes of the documentary among veterans of WWII, their families, military professionals and historians. Indeed, contact has already been established with portions of our target audience: For almost two years Grand Island Films has used a web site to attract potential testifiers. Veterans and students of the battle from all over the world have logged onto the site and many have expressed their desire to see the completed documentary. In addition, we have established relationships through correspondence and face to face meetings with almost twenty major veterans organizations all over the world involved with the Monte Cassino battles. Broadcast dates will be posted on the web site and potential viewers will be contacted via e-mail. International audiences will be built up through local promotions arranged with broadcasters in the countries involved with the battles, some of whom have already expressed interest in presenting Monte Cassino.

Reaching a younger audience is also an important goal of the producers, who will tie their efforts to ongoing educational activities at the combat site. In May 1999 students from several countries will accompany Monte Cassino veterans to the Abbey, to the war cemeteries, and to the killing fields; annual memorial celebrations will give way to intergenerational events in which former soldiers share the horrors of war. Thus, Monte Cassino will be promoted as not only a story of combat, but as a report on the attempts of old men to enlighten youth about war.

Web Site Project

The Monte Cassino documentary cannot encompass the enormity of this conflict; many fascinating stories, as well as pivotal historical aspects must be left out. Expanding the site will allow us to complete our presentation of the Monte Cassino event and to expand its influence beyond a television broadcast. See the web site maps in the Appendix.

Monte Cassino audiences will be able to log onto the web site to explore the complete and unedited text and see brief film sequences of the film's testifiers and historians. Furthermore, the web site will continue to expand its interview base by including testimony previously gathered by Monte Cassino historians. Finally, Cassino veterans will be invited to add their thoughts, memoirs, war diaries and photos to the site. As funding allows, we hope to compile an extensive oral history of the battle and explore its long-term effects on veterans along the line of the Shoah Institute project.

In its final form the Monte Cassino web site will be organized in several ways: By nation and army group, by battle events, and by geography. Testimonies relating to a particular area of battle will be called up by pointing and clicking on a map of the Liri and Rapido Valleys. A screen will then present a synopsis of the battle event, archival photos and a film clip of the particular area, and display weather and ground conditions during pivotal moments in the conflict. The viewer will be directed to choose from a list of testimonies of soldiers who fought over the selected piece of ground.

The site will include a complete Monte Cassino bibliography, a worldwide list of Cassino battle collections, and hot buttons to the many related Cassino and world peace www sites. A Classroom Activities section will be aimed at Junior and High School students to elicit classroom discussions which deal not only with Cassino but questions of WWII and war in general. Schools will be encouraged to use the site (and Classroom Activities pages) as a jumping off point for Veteran's Day and end of millenium classroom discussions of not only WWII history but of the necessity and outcome of world war.

The web site will also give users the opportunity to discuss the controversies surrounding Monte Cassino. Online communication could take the form of bulletin boards or a free-wheeling interaction or scheduled debates. For example, an online debate might be arranged between two British veterans seen in the documentary and who profess opposing attitudes toward their former enemy—one argues for remembering German atrocities, while the other calls for forgiveness and European unity. Such a debate would inevitably lead to larger issues, such as the necessity of war along with the desire for world peace or the importance of national identity in a single economy world.

The Monte Cassino documentary and web site will provide a comprehensive overview of a single WWII battle and the international reconciliation process taking place in Cassino. The collection of testimonials and other historical materials will be catalogued and downloaded onto a searchable CDROM or DVD and made available to academic and research libraries, war museums, college and graduate school history departments, and veteran association collections.

Research and Evaluation

The power of the internet, as well as more traditional rating sources will be utilized to measure the success of the Monte Cassino project. Promotion for the documentary will be linked with the creation of the Monte Cassino web site. Online audience feedback will be solicited during the broadcast, as well as viewer participation with the Monte Cassino web site bulletin board. Armed with this information, along with viewer comments collected from the bulletin board and e-mail, we will be able to determine the impact of the film and the web site. In addition, the project impact will be measured via T.V. ratings and reviews in magazines, newspapers and veterans' journals. We will also elicit teacher/student responses from select NYC high schools.

Key Personnel

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

DANIEL B. POLIN is a documentarian who won the 1994 Emmy for "Outstanding Historical Program" for his film George Marshall and the American Century. Mr. Polin co-produced the 1997 PBS presentation of The Trial of Adolf Eichmann andis currently working on a major PBS documentary, Crucible of Empire: The U.S. and the Spanish-American War. He was the executive producer for Essay on Matisse (PBS, 1996) which was nominated for an Academy Award. Mr. Polin was executive producer of Michelangelo, Restored (PBS, 1998) and Picasso Paints Picasso (PBS, 1998). For The Discovery Channel, Mr. Polin produced The Empire State Building (January 6, 1999) and He Conquered Space (Discovery, 1996), the biography of rocket scientist Wernher von Braun.

DIRECTOR/CO-PRODUCER

ALAN WINSON is an Associate Professor of Theatre and Film at John Jay College where he recently won the Best Teacher Award. He directed and produced the half-hour preview videotape for Monte Cassino this past summer, after nearly a year of research and development. The preview consists of location interviews and scenics in Cassino, as well as archival materials from museums around the world. Professor Winson teaches courses in film studies, theater history, writing, and intercultural communication. He has been a director at the Leysin American School in Switzerland. Several of Mr. Winson's screenplays and T.V. scripts have been represented by both the William Morris Agency and The Literarium Agency in New York City. He has published articles in the drama journal Western European Stages and is currently working on a book about English stage and film director Tony Richardson. Mr. Winson has worked as writer and co-producer with partner Rebecca McKean on short subject films, including a film about New York City's Goldwater Hospital, which specializes in permanently injured gun-shot victims.

PRODUCER

REBECCA McKEAN recently graduated from the New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, Film Department. A Trustee Scholar, she was the recipient of the Lew Wasserman Award and the Academic Award from the Jewish Foundation For the Education of Woman. In addition, she received several awards for short subject films which she wrote and directed during this period. Since graduating with honors, Ms. McKean has established her own film company, Grand Island Films. Ms. McKean was the producer of the Monte Cassino preview videotape. She recently completed production on a film that examines the psychological effects of suicide on surviving relatives--The Locked Room. Ms. McKean has written two feature-length screenplays with her writing partner, Alan Winson: Death in Soho and Real Life. Their scripts are represented by The Literarium Agency in New York City. They have also collaborated on industrial film projects. Recently, the Tisch School invited Ms. McKean to apply for The Richard Vague Film Production Fund Award ($100,000).

CREATIVE CONSULTANTS

LORA HAYES has both edited and consulted on many important documentaries; a short list includes: Harlan County, U.S.A. (B. Kopple), You Are There (CBS), Not One of the Boys (WGBH), Montgomery to Memphis (Landau/Kaplan), World War One Series (CBS), All The Way Home (Susskind), and Twentieth Century Series (CBS)--including, World War, Paris in the '20s, The Dust Bowl, and Black Like Me (Lerner).

GEORGE C. STONEY is a renowned documentary filmmaker most famous for his feature documentaries on American race relationships and life in the rural south. His filmography includes his influential All My Babies (1953) and Wasn’t That a Time! (1982).

RANDA KIRSHBAUM is a classical/jazz composer who has contributed orchestrations to John Singleton's feature-length film Rosewood (Warner Bros., 1997) and was music consultant for Merchant Ivory's Jefferson in Paris (1995) and Monkey Trouble (1994).

WEB SITE ADVISOR/DESIGNER

BENJAMIN F. DeCLUE III is the founder of Verge On Screen Presentations, which creates two and three dimensional On-Screen Presentations, animation and software simulations for Mac and IBM compatibles. Mr. DeClue consulted for Digital Equipment Corp. and the Digital StorageWorks Internet and Safety Insurance Intranet web sites.

HISTORICAL CONSULTANTS

HERBERT BLOCH is the Pope Professor of the Latin Language and Literature, Emeritus at Harvard University. Professor Bloch is a Medieval scholar who wrote the multi-volume Monte Cassino in the Middle Ages (Harvard Univ. Press, 1986) and the incisive study, The Bombardment of Monte Cassino, (1976).

FREDERICO LAMBERTI is an expert on the battles of Monte Cassino. He has edited and published many books on the subject, including Cassino 1944: Before, During and After (1989), and co-authored Nowhere to Hide: A Story of Cassino with New Zealander, Tom Aitken. His hands-on knowledge of the battlefields is extensive, and he is the foremost expert on the activities of veterans returning to Monte Cassino.

DAVID HAPGOOD is a freelance writer and co-author of Monte Cassino (Congdon & Weed, Inc., 1984) considered by many veterans of the battles as the best rendition of the events leading up to the bombing of the Abbey.

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