According to Time magazine, "San Pietro is in every respect as good a war film as any that has been made; in some respects it is the best. A record of one of the tense and bloody battles for the Liri Valley in Italy in late 1943, it is a story told chiefly in terms of the experiences of one infantry regiment -- the 143rd of the 36th Division. San Pietro's record of combat, its eye for terrain and for weather, its recognition of war as a science both wonderful and tragically inexact, is at least equal to any seen in films so far".
