Rotten Tomatoes

Movies / TV

    Celebrity

      No Results Found

       View All       Movies Tv shows Shop News Showtimes

      Hornet's Nest

      R 1970 1h 50m War Drama List
      Reviews 32% Audience Score 50+ Ratings Italian boys and a German doctor (Sylva Koscina) help a U.S. captain (Rock Hudson) blow up a dam held by the Nazis. Read More Read Less Watch on Fandango at Home Premiered Oct 17 Buy Now

      Where to Watch

      Hornet's Nest

      Fandango at Home Prime Video

      Watch Hornet's Nest with a subscription on Prime Video, rent on Fandango at Home, or buy on Fandango at Home.

      Critics Reviews

      View All (1) Critics Reviews
      Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Overlong, tedious and strident offbeat action-packed World War II drama. Rated: C Oct 9, 2006 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

      View All (6) audience reviews
      Audience Member I loved this movie! It was a good action flick and Rock Hudson was awesome. The children actors were amazing. The plot was intriguing and the ending was touching and sad. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/15/23 Full Review Audience Member A great film, great kids, great Sylva and Rock Hudson! Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Audience Member Directed by Phil Karlson. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review Audience Member It's kind of interesting at first, But starts to get a little drawn out. Plus, rock hudson rapes a woman in this film for no particular reason. Then the woman he rapes seems to trust him and becomes allies with him after he rapes her! Go figure... Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Audience Member "The Bad News Bears" meets "The Dirty Dozen." Rock Hudson is a WWII commando in Italy who, without his unit, teams up with a group of orphaned children to take on the local occupying Nazi forces to blow up a dam. The film is done with all seriousness, though it seems too silly and pulpy to be taken seriously. However, it's reasonably entertaining and you also get a fine Ennio Morricone score. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Big Hollywood studio movies about World War II grew increasingly cynical during the 197os. WALKING TALL director Phil Karlson made HORNETS NEST, in Italy with Rock Hudson, Sylva Koscina, and Sergio Fantoni, showed what could happen when orphaned juvenile delinquents entered the fray with machine guns and an attitude. Hudson starred as an Army Captain sent to destroy a dam, but the Germans ambush his men after they parachute into enemy territory and wipe them out, so only the Hudson character survives. Meanwhile, the Germans wipe out an entire village of men and women, more specifically fathers and mothers as the partisans and the sons and daughters watch the massacre from afar. The children swear vengeance and rescue an unconscious Army officer before the Germans can take him prisoner. They abducted a female German surgeon to supervise his recovery because they want him to teach them how to use a cache of weapons and pay the Germans back with interest for slaughtering their sires. Initially reluctant, the Army officer realizes that he must accommodate these revenge-bent juveniles if he is going to use them to complete his mission. HORNETS NEST beat the John Wayne western THE COWBOYS to the punch. Since Wayne cannot find any adult cowpunchers to herd his cattle to market, he has to settle for school-age youngsters, literally cowboys, to drive his steers to market. Along the trail, these youngsters grow up and get handy with six-guns, eventually tangling with a gang of rustlers that kill Wayne. Clearly, cynicism is at work in both films as children are indoctrinated into a culture of violence and bloodshed. The amoral quality of the storyline can be measured in the reluctance of the protagonist to train children in the ways of violence, so much so that by the end, he smashes all the weapons that they used against the enemy. The Ennio Morricone theme music with its whistling motif is brilliant. Fantoni is the German officer who knows what the kids are going to destroy and he has to shoot one of his own officers to try to stop the pint-sized raiders. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

      Cast & Crew

      Show Less Cast & Crew Show More Cast & Crew

      Photos

      View All Hornet's Nest photos

      Hornet's Nest

      Hornet's Nest (1970) Hornet's Nest (1970) View more photos

      Movie Info

      Synopsis Italian boys and a German doctor (Sylva Koscina) help a U.S. captain (Rock Hudson) blow up a dam held by the Nazis.
      Director
      Phil Karlson
      Screenwriter
      S.S. Schweitzer
      Production Co
      Produzioni Associate Delphos, Triangle Productions
      Rating
      R (Some War Violence)
      Genre
      War, Drama
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Oct 1, 2016
      Box Office (Gross USA)
      $255.8K
      Runtime
      1h 50m
      Most Popular at Home Now