A fitting conclusion to Rossellini’s neorealist War Trilogy that shifts away from a recent past-tense focus on the war itself and instead depicts the immediate present-tense aftermath of the war, both physically in terms of the hollow, bombed-out skeleton of Berlin that haunts the film’s images and psychologically in terms of the story’s emotionally torn and desperate characters, especially its protagonist, a ruined 12-year-old boy. Even if the final moments don’t quite work, they do little to lessen the power and profundity of the film’s overall message about what a world at war does to those caught in the crossfire. (DVD)