["San Pietro"] is a grim pulse-pounding illustration of the cold, relentless violence of war….

[It] is a fine piece of camera reporting and an eloquent document of the face of war….

But it is also a splendid little drama of the human side of the Italian campaign, for it closes with some heart-stirring pictures of the people of the liberated town. And it relates these baffled, battered people to the soldiers who set their town free in tender and juxtaposed glimpses of their faces and the moves toward their new life…. In "San Pietro" there is war's harsh reality and there is the soothing aftermath of hope.

Bosley Crowther, "'San Pietro'," in The New York Times (© 1945 by The New York Times Company; reprinted by permission), July 12, 1945 (and reprinted in The New York Times Film Reviews: 1939–1948, The New York Times Company & Arno Press, 1970, p. 2072).