His 1970 film "Many Wars Ago" ("Uomini contro") dealt with the absurdity of war in the context of the Trentino Front of 1916–17 during World War I, where Italian army officers demanded far too much of their men. It was based on the novel "Un anno sull'altopiano" by Emilio Lussu. The lead is played by Mark Frechette and the cost of the film was such that Rosi needed to secure Yugoslavian collaboration. Shipman writes: "The Alpine battlefield has been imaginatively and bloodily re-created, and photographed in steely colours by Pasqualino De Santis, but Rosi's urge to say something important – doubtless intense after the last two films – resulted only in cliché: that military men are fanatics and war is hell."