The Men (1950) User Reviews

surprisingly good

[rupie · 8/10 · 26 July 2000]

This little-known film surprised me with the depth of its emotional involvement with its characters. Conflict, pain, tragedy, suffering, doubt, and triumph are all present in generous and convincing doses, as we witness the travails of wartime paraplegics. Marlon Brando is excellent in a very auspicious beginning to his film career. We are really drawn into Ken and Ellen's tortuously conflicted relationship. Jack Webb is also very good here, which surprised me in light of his storied woodenness as Joe Friday (I guess that was just part of his characterization of the detective). Another round of kudos to American Movie Classics for bringing us this gem.

World adjusting

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 7 August 2020]

So much of me truly admired what 'The Men' set out to do when seeing for the first time, having loved a lot of other films of lead actor Marlon Brando ('The Godfather', 'On the Waterfront', 'Apocalypse Now') and director Fred Zinnemann ('High Noon', 'From Here to Eternity', 'The Day of the Jackal'). Its intentions are truly admirable and that cannot really be denied. The subject really resonated with me too, being disabled myself. Not paraplegic though, my problems are neurological and psychological, but it still resonated.

Having also paraplegic friends and seeing how much of an everyday struggle it is for them, like with me with my struggles, but admiring how it doesn't stop them living life to the full. The subject was very daring at the time to portray on film and in a way still is, and it actually within the context of the time does a great job with it. Some will say it has dated, but taking into account that portrayals of disabilities and attitudes towards them on film has changed significantly overtime (with more awareness now) and the timing 'The Men' does incredibly well here.

'The Men' is not perfect sure. Usually am an admirer of Dmitri Tiomkin, but am going to have to concur with those that found his score too intrusive, both too loud and used too much.

Also found that it started off a little on the slow side.

On the other hand, Brando, here in his film debut, is pretty mesmerising throughout in an intensely moving turn. Jack Webb also excels in a role atypical to the type of roles he is better known for. Teresa Wright is suitably alluring and sympathetic. The characters may not be complex but are too stereotypical either and are interesting, did root for them. The film is also confidently directed by Zinnemann and sensitively scripted by Carl Foreman (had no problem with the opening address).

Furthermore, 'The Men' is beautifully shot, without being heavy in spectacle. The editing didn't seem rough to me. The subject was very daring to portray at the time and at the time even the portrayal of paraplegia here was ground-breaking. Really admired the film's unflinching take on the daring subject, it certainly does not sugarcoat and parts are quite moving. Some may find it outdated if in my view taking it out of context, to me actually the subject and themes and the bold approach the film takes to them are still very daring and relevant today.

All in all, very good. 8/10

"She Looked At Me Like I Was A Bug"

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 3 February 2007]

Marlon Brando's feature film debut was in this small budget independently produced film The Men about paralyzed World War II veterans and their adjustments. The Men also came out at around the same time as Warner Brothers Bright Victory about blind veterans and their adjustment to society.

The Men did not have the strong support of a major studio, but it had Marlon Brando who was winning raves at this time for his portrayal of Stanley Kowalski in Streetcar Named Desire. Many a time Broadway stars before and since did not recreate their career roles on film because Hollywood wanted box office insurance.

Stanley Kramer's independently produced film, risked no money for a major studio and proved Marlon Brando could both be a screen presence and a box office draw. So Brando and the entire Broadway cast with the exception of Jessica Tandy got to preserve A Streetcar Named Desire as it was first seen on stage on the strength of his good notices for The Men.

Brando dominates the film with combination of charm and bitterness not too many other actors could achieve. He's condemned to a wheelchair, not sure what if any of the functions of his lower body he will be able to use and control. His bitterness nearly drives away Teresa Wright who loves him in spite of all.

Look for good performances by Howard St. John and Dorothy Tree as Wright's parents, Everett Sloane as the doctor treating spinal cord injuries like Brando's and Richard Erdman as Brando's horse playing veteran friend. You might remember Erdman from Stalag 17 as barracks chief Hoffman. He's just as good here in The Men.

The wars change, but the injuries to life and limb to our armed services remain the same as do the problems therein. In that sense The Men is a timeless classic and the debut of a legend.

Brando's first (and one of his best?)

[didi-5 · 25 March 2002]

"The Men" probably seemed very daring at the time of its release, and indeed Brando's performance and some of the supporting ones have lasted well and hardly dated at all. The film gives some idea of the horrific aftermath of war and its effects on the 'heroes' it disfigures. Teresa Wright plays Brando's girlfriend with some sensitivity and Everett Sloane gives a good performance as the doctor. Of the other actors playing paraplegics, Jack Webb deserves a mention. This is an interesting film which raises a lot of issues not previously faced that much on screen.

Thought-provoking story with fascinating acting and excellent direction

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 22 March 2011]

This magnificent film begins with a written prologue as : ¨In all wars , since the beginning of history , there have been men who fought twice . The first time they battled with club , sword or machine gun . The second time they had none of these weapons. Yes , this by far was the greatest battle. It was fought with abiding faith and raw courage and in the end victory was achieved . This is the story of such a group of men . To them this film is dedicated¨ . It deals with an ex-GI named Ken (Marlon Brando who follows the Stalislawski method from Actors' Studio) who as a result of a war wound suffers paralysis and is wheel-bound. In the hospital back home, he is depressed and the isolation young thanks the approval and help of the good Dr. Brock (Everett Sloane) and his former sweetheart Ellen (Teresa Wright) who manage to bring him out of it , as ken gets redeem himself . Ken's depression caused for his paralyzed below the waist is also overcome with the witty friendship of his fellow patients, especially the sly Norm (Jack Webb), the sympathetic Leo (Richard Erdman) and hunk young Angel (Jurado). Soon Ken throws himself into the job rehabilitation and later a long period of physical therapy even suspects he may regain the utilization of his feet. After that , he and Ellen marry, but on their wedding night both have sadness, misgivings and grief about their future , then bitter Ken reverts to self-pity. Ken drives nutty a car and takes place a crash accident . The newspapers publicize : ¨Paraplegics cited for drunk driving¨. Then he goes back to the hospital.. .

This is a thoughtful flick with interesting storyline by Carl Foreman relies on wonderful interpretations and slick realization . Subtle performance from Marlon Brando in his screen debut as depressed paralysed young who pass through an initial period of bitterness and sorrow to spontaneous blazed anger and splendid Teresa Wright as his faithful fiancée . Everett Sloane steals the show as intelligent and realist doctor . Marvelous relationship among the main players , both of whom must attempt to build their new life full of difficulties and problems . Furthermore , special mention to ¨ Forty five of the men veterans of Birmingham Administration Hospital ¨. Though the characters and events depicted in this Photoplay are fictitious and similarity to persons , living or dead is purely coincidental. Atmospheric cinematography in black and white by Robert De Grasse A.S.C . Sensible musical score composed and conducted by the classic musician Dimitri Tiomkin. Atmospheric production design by Edward Boyle though is mostly set at a Hospìtal .

The motion picture well produced by Stanley Kramer - National Film Release- and is stunningly directed by Fred Zinnemann who had a lot of experience from his formers classic films as ¨Act of violence , Seventh cross , Eyes in the night , The search ¨, among them. Rating : Above average . Well worth watching.

Brilliant acting by a young Marlon Brando

[sol- · 6/10 · 2 July 2006]

This was the film that boosted Marlon Brando's career - his first screen role as a paraplegic war veteran who refuses to come to terms with his condition. Brando plays it out as well as one might expect: he shows his emotions more often than he says them, and even when he does say out loud what he is feeling, it is the tone of his voice rather than his words that convey what his character feels. Brando's performance is even more commendable when what he is working with is considered. The film's screenplay is not really great. Too much is explained to us by the characters talking (such as Sloane's lecture to the family members). The film has the atmosphere of a propaganda piece - the dialogue is generally hammy, with wooden delivery from the supporting actors and the style of having everything literal rather than subtle is very typical of wartime propaganda. There is a distance therefore to the film, however Brando does manage to overcome it and still bring in some sense of realism.

It is a melodramatic film, and probably too melodramatic to be really effective. The style of acting by the supporting cast - which for lack of a better word can be described as "unsubtle" - really doesn't suit the film. The music score does not help much either, nor does the lighting design, in which darkness often surrounds one or two aspects of the frame which are shot to stand out with bright white light. Zinnemann does not do a fantastic job directing, but that said, the opening sequence to the film is excellent - the camera pans across to see Brando who then signals and rises out of frame, behind him other men approach that before could not be seen... right up to the point when Brando is shot in a surprise attack. Zinnemann's style is evidently noir based, with a lot of shadows and the beginning narration by Brando is exactly the type one expects in noir. And there are good camera angles too. It is an adequately directed film, but not masterful in that regard. Overall it is certainly a worthwhile film. While the script might be wooden at times, it does address a lot of issues well, particularly the struggle to keep one's manhood, plus Brando's excellent performance is certainly worth seeing.

without Brando, who would even remember it?

[mjneu59 · 6/10 · 5 December 2010]

Several paraplegics in a veteran's hospital learn to cope with the physical and emotional scars of war, but if one of them wasn't a young Marlon Brando the film wouldn't be half as interesting. His typically vital performance greatly improves what would otherwise be just another earnest but melodramatic civics lesson, presented in the manner of an Armed Forces instructional movie: How To Treat Our Homecoming Heroes. To its credit the film was considered quite daring when first released, for its forthright depiction of an unpleasant (and thus generally ignored) reality. And with a running time of only eighty odd minutes it fairly zips along at an unflagging pace. The film was produced (you might have guessed) by a young Stanley Kramer.

A very powerful drama

[Varlaam · 10/10 · 8 January 1999]

Marlon Brando, Jack Webb, and Richard Erdman play three paraplegic war veterans in a VA hospital, where they are mired in cynicism and self-pity. Brando marries Teresa Wright with agonizing results.

The emotions in this drama are all really strong -- rage, frustration, anguish. The ending is a hopeful one, but the characters and the viewer have to undergo some torment to get there.

Brando must have been a revelation in 1950. He's explosive. Only his crippled legs keep him confined to his chair. Jack Webb -- Sgt. Joe Friday -- is far, far better than one would expect. (Actually, he did quite a good job with his small part in "Sunset Boulevard" too, before he was forever typecast.) Everett Sloane -- memorable in "Citizen Kane", "Lady From Shanghai", "The Enforcer" -- is their doctor who has to be cruel to be kind. The cast is filled out by "the men of the Birmingham VA hospital".

Stanley Kramer liked to produce "message" dramas. He tended to overdo it late in his career, but this is still early on. Fred Zinnemann directed a script by Carl Foreman, and these two would team up again on "High Noon". Foreman was then blacklisted by HUAC, getting no screen credit for his screenplay for "The Bridge on the River Kwai".

Not for the faint-hearted, but a fine film which deserves to be better known.

"We're not like other people"

[Steffi_P · 6/10 · 4 May 2009]

In the cinema of the late 40s and 50s, you can see Hollywood in conflict between old and new. You still had the crusty old producers who had been around since the beginning and directors who cut their teeth in the silent days, but you also had up-and-comers who wanted to tear up the rulebook and do things their way. Although they sometimes had to give ground to the new generation out of practicality, the studios weren't yet ready to give these young sprouts free reign, and to be fair few of these young filmmakers weren't yet ready to take it.

The Men was the first collaboration between writer Carl Foreman, producer Stanley Kramer and director Fred Zinnemann. The production does have the feel of a new and relatively young team, being idealistic, earnest and a little naïve. Foreman's screenplay is sensitive, poignant and tightly structured, but it falls short when it comes to convincing dialogue and deep characterisation. It's a best-intentions story, one that probably came a little too late for the zeitgeist of post-war adjustment pictures. After all, it doesn't really say much that hadn't already been said more eloquently in Best Years of Our Lives.

The strongest link of the creative team is Zinnemann, who was also the most experienced. People often make reference with these pictures to Zinnemann's background in the documentary unit at MGM, but for the wrong reasons. In spite of his seemingly getting pigeonholed as a director of topical pictures, he didn't take the rough, journalistic approach of the neo-realists. Those MGM miniatures he used to make were largely made up of reconstructions, and relied upon the director's ability to fake real events. And, perhaps surprisingly the aim was not always to be totally realistic – it was more important to give an impression of a real place and situation. Consequently, Zinnemann always takes care over background detail and extras – for example the earliest shots in the hospital ward bustle with activity and are cluttered with medical paraphernalia.

But Zinnemann was also developing as a dramatic director. Zinnemann's earliest pictures were sometimes spoiled by their being overly technical; he would use space and lighting to saturate a scene in a particular mood, which again is a documentary technique. Now however he does the same thing to help define the story. Those very busy shot compositions in the hospital are great for setting the scene, but at key moments Zinnemann carefully chooses his angles so that characters are framed against simpler backgrounds. As the story begins to develop he increasingly uses low-level lighting and keeps fewer people in the shot at a time, to literally bring the characters out of the mass.

By far the best thing though about The Men is the presence of Marlon Brando in the lead role. Yes, his acting is very modern, arguably groundbreaking, but what is most astonishing is how confident, how seamless his performance is for such a young and inexperienced player. What is great about it is that he is playing the kind of man who does not like expressing his emotions, yet is going through a heart-wrenching ordeal, and in line with that he conveys depths of emotion with incredible subtlety and restraint. Unfortunately Brando is in constant competition with the musical score, which is overly emotive and annoyingly conspicuous, even by the standards of the day.

Brando may have begun his film career with a first-class performance, but the weakness of the script and the general uncertainty of the whole production meant he didn't get the attention and Oscar nods until his appearance in A Streetcar Named Desire the following year. The Men has many great elements, but overall has the feeling of a student production, made by people who need to spend a few more years studying.

A CLASSIC!!!!!!

[diegosantti · 9/10 · 11 December 2001]

Fred Zinnemann finally came up with a script that Marlon Brando liked enough to leave the stage and head for Hollywood. And the rest is history. That script turned out to be The Men. Brando is Bud, a paraplegic shot in WWII and recovering in a veterans hospital. Unfortunately there is no hope for Bud ever walking again, a fact he refuses to accept. This movie is an interesting character study. Brando shows here why he would become the most influential actor of the last century. He brilliantly depicts a man at tremendous odds with himself. The supporting cast of characters, Teresa Wright(Bud's love interest), the doctors, and the men in the hospital, are well cast. Fans of character driven dramas and Brando fans should get a kick out of this film.

A strong debut for Brando, an okay film

[jem132 · 6/10 · 4 January 2009]

Best known today as Marlon Brando's film debut, this is a decent, solid film dealing with the touchy subject of paralysed WW2 veterans and their attempts to recover, both physically and emotionally. Brando is one of these veterans and he pushes his fiancé Ellen (Teresa Wright) away, thinking she only pities his situation, and does not truly love and care for him. Brando's debut is strong; it's no "Streetcar" or "Waterfront", but it is a good performance. Fred Zinnemann directed this film, which means the visual style is very flat and uninteresting. His direction is just boring. The more I see of Zinnemman, the more I dislike. I love "From Here To Eternity", but that's because the performances are excellent and the Pearl Harbour plot (taken from the novel) is an example of how to do soapy melodrama well. But I hated "High Noon". Teresa Wright also turns in decent work as Brando's loyal fiancé, although she already looks mousy. Jack Webb is also fine in support but Everett Sloane's performance as the doctor is pushy and overdone. I liked the film best in it's quieter, less "dramatic" moments, where the screeching score didn't take over.

Powerful movie more relevant than ever

[aromatic-2 · 10/10 · 8 October 2001]

I recently re-watched Zinneman's classic ode to paralyzed veterans. In the wake of the recent bombings here in New York, this excellently crafted and realistically acted film made me cry more than ever before. Jack Webb is astonishingly good as a cynical vet who puts aside his cynicism for love only to get kicked in the teeth.

Brando and Wright are excellent as the couple who find they are meant neither to be saints nor martyrs nor villains, merely human beings. The rehab scenes are grittily performed and sincerely executed. I probably suffer from post-traumatic syndrome even more than other New Yorkers, and watching the veterans cope with their mental, emotional, AND PHYSICAL post-traumatic distress made me realize just how fortunate I am to be among the survivors.

It is Carl Foreman's film more than any one else's

[JuguAbraham · 7/10 · 15 April 2020]

Though the initial scenes are below par, the film moves into top gear because of Carl Foreman's script. It is Foreman's film more than Zinnemann's. Brando, Everett Sloane and Jack Webb give convincing performances.

A dud

[zetes · 5/10 · 22 November 2004]

I've rarely experienced so much schmaltz in one setting. The film is about WWII veterans who are paraplegics, in particular one man (Marlon Brando, in his film debut), who is very embittered. He can't deal with life as a man who cannot walk. He especially wants his girlfriend (Teresa Wright) to leave him be and continue on with his life, but nothing doing. I suppose the film does contain plenty of truthful insights into the lives of Brando and the other men in the hospital, but the pathos is pushed on the audience with such force that it becomes hard to care about the clearly painful lives these men lead. Worst is Dmitri Tiomkin's musical score. This is easily the most overscored film I can think of offhand. Brando is good in his debut, but, I must say, the more I see of him the less I like him as an actor. It becomes rather easy to see through his acting tricks. I no longer think of him as one of the best. Besides, his character is kind of a jerk, and definitely a whiner. Not that I blamed him too much, but the film takes place over a couple of years. I pretty much gave up on him when he punched that WWI vet. Sure, the guy was a somewhat obnoxious drunk, but what he says to Brando and his friend, about appreciating their sacrifice, did not deserve a punch to the face. Teresa Wright is boring, and, surprisingly, she's gotten a bit homely by 1950. I liked the scene where she confronts her parents about her wish to marry a paraplegic, but she doesn't accomplish anything else near that elsewhere in the film. Jack Webb and Richard Erdman are fine as two of Brando's closest paraplegic companions, but their constant wisecracking, especially in the first ten minutes of the film, bugged me so much that it took most the rest of the movie for them to win me over again. Everett Sloane wasn't especially good as their doctor. Really, if you want to see a movie about men coping after WWII, in particular a wounded man, just stick with Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives. That just about says everything that ever needed to be said about all men who return from a war. 5/10.

Strange Bedfellows

[schappe1 · 7 April 2002]

Marlon Brando's screen debut is a strong one and the film is very hard hitting for 1950's cinema. But the real pleasure is watching Jack Webb, especially in his scenes with Brando. Webb was a much better actor than he is given credit for, (he's in several good movies of the period and is consistently good), before allowing himself to be typecast as the no-nonsense Sgt. Friday. I love watching films from early in actor's careers before their careers took different paths. It's fun seeing "Joe Friday" interact with Hollywood's bad boy. The TV guy more than holds his own.

serious subject done sincerely

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 23 May 2016]

Ken (Marlon Brando) gets shot in the back during the war leaving him paralyzed. It's been a year and he is still struggling to accept it. The blunt Dr. Brock (Everett Sloane) leads the doctors in the hospital. Ken's spirit is slowly lifted by his fellow patients. Ellen (Teresa Wright) is Ken's faithful fiancée.

The subject is admirable and timely for the era. It's also Brando's first theatrical performance. The thing is that he's already a great actor. He's able to project emotions even when he's lying flat on the bed. His capabilities are there for all to see. This is a basic melodrama. It's very solid. I would like fewer patients so the characters have room to spread their wings. The mass of people can be hard to distinguish lacking greater depths to their characters. It also sucks up a lot of time and tension for expositions. Overall, this is a must-see even if it's simply for Brando.

Ray Teal gets thumped again for patronising a war veteran

[howardmorley · 7/10 · 12 June 2009]

In "The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) Harold Russell (a real life war veteran) has lost the lower part of his arms in the US Navy after a fire broke out on his flat top ship whilst he was on active service.His childhood girlfriend, (Cathy O'Donnell) shows that her love for him transcends his physical injury and they marry after much soul-searching by Harold.A similar story is told in "The Men" (1950) this time with Marlon Brando playing the paraplegic soldier with the faithful fiancée played by Teresa Wright (who also appeared in the aforementioned film).

Society's prejudiced attitude to permanently injured members of the armed forces is again examined."They imagine how fragile they are and how it could so easily happen to them.It makes them nervous".In an almost duplicate scene of the 1946 film, the actor Ray Teal is again called on to patronise and express the futility of permanently injured members of the armed forces and he is again punched to the ground, in the 1946 film by Dana Andrews and in this film by a wheelchair bound Marlon Brando.The actor Everett Sloane probably never had such a good part as playing the senior doctor who administers the treatment of the injured veterans at his hospital.His talk to Marlon was prescient about the men trying to visualise the scenario reversed by the men imagining their wife/fiancée/girlfriend confined to a wheelchair and testing their love accordingly.We are all human with all the imperfection that implies.

This film has a powerful director in Fred Zinneman and a script by Carl Foreman.I liked the way that they carefully avoided the use of clichés and portrayed realistic emotions in all the actors.Real life paraplegics at the veterans hospital, played extras and received a credit in the film titles.We must never forget the sacrifice all members of the armed services personnel lay down in accepting permanent life-long physical injuries sustained in action for their country.

Marlon Brando was superb in this well written and very impressive film

[jimbo-53-186511 · 7/10 · 29 November 2014]

The first thing that you need to be aware of when watching The Men is that it is NOT a war film. There are no explosions and outside of the first couple of minutes there are no guns being fired etc. If that's the sort of film that you're looking for then you should look elsewhere.

The Men focuses on the after effects of paralysis on a group of war veterans. The main focus is on Ken (Marlon Brando). Ken struggles to accept his paralysis and seemingly shuns help from anyone - at the start of the film he's effectively a martyr. He even refuses to allow his fiancé to visit him - this may seem cold, but in some ways it's understandable when we learn that he was a very active person, he was a football player, a war hero. I suppose he wants her to remember him like that and he doesn't want her to pity him. However, his fiancé Ellen (Teresa Wright)still loves him even though he's paralysed and that's because she sees that he's still the same person that she fell for before he went to war.

The thing I really liked about this film is the screenplay; it actually challenges the viewers thoughts and pre-conceptions. Ellen loves Ken in spite of his paralysis, but her parents and Ken's doctor try to talk her out of marrying him. The doctor reasons are more rational and relate to the practical cost and time involved in looking after someone with paralysis. However, her parents basically don't want Ellen to be with Ken because they no longer deem him to be the perfect son now that he's paralysed. Ellen defies her parents' wishes which wouldn't seem like much now, but was probably quite brave in 1950. It really was wonderful to see Ellen stick by Ken.

Ken's character was also well-written in the sense that he's never made likable in such a way that we pity him (which is good because I don't think that was the effect that the writers were striving for). However, he's also never so repulsive that we end up hating him. The balance was just about right with his character.

Another strong factor working in the film's favour is the wonderful chemistry between Ken and Ellen. They both put in terrific, heart felt performances which only helped to increase the appreciation that I have for this film.

If you're a fan of moving dramas then this is definitely worth checking out.

The best movie Brando ever made

[ariches-1 · 9/10 · 4 April 2006]

I saw this movie when I was 12 in England. After years of glorious positive movies about WW2 this was quite an eyeopener for me. I thought it was going to be a war combat picture. That ended real fast when Squad-leader Brando gets hit. You see Brando leading his infantry squad through devastated country side of war-torn Europe. Brando moves around the corner of a dilapidated farm house when suddenly a machine gun hits him and down he goes. The story then begins with the wounded soldier joining other bitter vets in a VA hospital. I was very impressed with this story. A great portrayal of what ordinary people who become war heroes have to live through when their minds and bodies are shattered. One scene that stands out in my mind is the one where Jack Webb quotes from Shakespeare's "perchance to dream" speech.

Spoiled identities.

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 1 May 2007]

It's a pretty schematic plot. Brando spends a couple of resentful years in a VA hospital as a paraplegic. His mates in the ward illustrate the variety of fortunes available to a veteran stuck in a wheelchair with no feeling in the lower part of his body. Richard Erdmann, the wise guy, supports his weakling father. The educated Jim Webb gets taken for a ride by a bimbo just out for his money. Angel, the good patient who works hard and is both realistic and optimistic, dies when a piece of shrapnel buried in his spine shifts. Brando is the vet who learns from the others to overcome his self disgust, his shame, and marries his long-time girlfriend, Theresa Wright. No more shame, no more illusions either.

The movie depends largely on Brando's performance in this, his first film. He does alright, but not much more than that. He's different from what any other contemporary actor might have been, but not necessarily better.

By 1950 Brando was already an established Broadway star, and he was shortly to give some of the most startling and magnetic performances ever put on celluloid in films like "Streetcar Named Desire" and "On the Waterfront," among a handful of others. In "The Men" we can see the mannerisms -- the beetling of the brows, the biting of the lip, the glances flickering out of the corners of his eyes. But it isn't a subtle or nuanced performance. If he is supposed to look thoughtful, he doesn't embody confusion and anguish the way Terry Malloy would. He looks like an actor who has been told to look thoughtful. The substance is missing.

He gets professional support from the other players, except for the patients who were obviously recruited into their parts from the real VA hospital in the San Fernando Valley. The script is not a big help though -- no big tag lines. No "contendahs" or -- my God -- no speeches about coming to bury Caesar not to praise him, which he was to deliver in another year or two in the most peerless fashion. I don't mean to suggest that this is a clumsy film or that it's poorly written. Witness the scene in which Wright's parents discourage her from going through with the marriage. Her mother and father might easily have been written as cheap stereotypes but instead they come across as caring for her.

It's a worthwhile subject, though, paraplegia. It was a common problem in the post-war years. My uncle was in that boat. What do you do when you have an accident with your bowels and you're in the middle of Port Authority in New York? You try to look casual, sit down quietly, and without making a fuss you try to clean up with your handkerchief or your coat whatever little mess you have created. That's what you do. And of course the problem addressed goes far beyond the limits of paraplegia. How about visible scars from bad burns? An amputated limb? A deforming skin disorder? Anyone interested ought to read Erving Goffman's "Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity."

A Straightforward Film About a Very Difficult Subject

[mrb1980 · 8/10 · 16 March 2008]

Marlon Brando and Teresa Wright give fine performances as a disabled veteran and his girlfriend/wife. After Brando's character is paralyzed from the chest down in WWII, he goes through anger and denial before deciding to rebuild his life. After marrying his old girlfriend (Wright), he begins to question their life together and flees back to his old pals at the paralyzed veterans' center. All is forgiven as the two reconcile, resigned to a future they never could have planned.

Brando and Wright are good, of course. However, the film belongs to the supporting cast, primarily Jack Webb and Richard Erdman as Brando's paralyzed buddies at the veterans' center, and to Everett Sloane, who towers over everyone as a wise and brutally honest physician. It's not a feel-good movie, but one that gives valuable insight into the challenges faced by many men returning from war. It's also pretty daring for 1950, with its frank treatment of some pretty heavy subject matter.

Brilliant performance, not so brilliant film.

[MightyAlz · 6/10 · 11 November 2005]

This is the film which launched the movie career of the late, great Marlon Brando. Brando's performance as a disabled fighter pilot is terrific and ground breaking.

The trouble is that he is very out of place in the rest of the film.

The film is melodramatic OTT nonsense, all the other characters are clichés and the music is horribly dated. Brando's performance is the only thing that prevented the film descending into obscurity.

Definitely watch this film for Marlon Brando's heartbreaking and tremendously believable performance, but it's certainly no masterpiece and without Brando it wouldn't even be a good film.

A brave little film

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 2 May 2007]

THE MEN is not the sort of film most people want to see--after all, most of us would rather not think about spinal cord injuries or long-term injuries on soldiers fighting for our country. Because of this, Stanley Kramer was a brave man to make such a film and everyone involved must be commended for NOT making it sappy, clichéd or manipulative. Instead of a film that overly romanticizes the disabled, it shows both the best and worst of human nature--wrinkles and all. I appreciate this a lot, as the characters in the film are, above all things, men--not noble one-dimensional caricatures.

Marlon Brando is the star of this film and his performance was realistic and simple. This was his first film and when the film debuted, none of the actors involved (except for Theresa Wright) were big-name stars. In addition, he was supported by several good but relatively small-time actors and included Jack Webb before his career took off with DRAGNET. I really thought these were excellent casting decisions, as "big name" actors would have made the film seem more polished and "Hollywood-ized". Sure, we all are familiar with Brando now, but at the time he was a newcomer--and a good representation of an average guy.

Because the film involves paralyzed veterans and takes place mostly at a VA hospital (with actual paralyzed vets playing the non-starring roles), the film is very realistic and will most likely elicit a few tears. Bring a hankie and be prepared to see some excellent writing, acting and drama.

What is life after war for an injured GI?

[michaelRokeefe · 7/10 · 26 June 2002]

Fred Zimmerman directs this mood moving and thought provoking movie about a crude, bitter ex-GI Ken(Marlon Brando)and his attempts to re-adjust to life, knowing he will spend it in a wheelchair. Very intense material for Brando to sink his teeth into in his big screen debut. A sympathetic Dr. Brock(Everette Sloan) does his best to inspire him. He seems to relish laying in his VA hospital ward letting his attitude and feelings fester. In his depression, Ken even turns his back on his girlfriend Ellen(Teresa Wright), who is more than willing to stay by his side no matter what. This film is pretty strong, harsh and frank in its study of wounded war veterans. A definite eye opener for the 1950s. Also of note in the cast: Richard Erdman, Virginia Farmer, Jack Webb and Arthur Jurado. An intense beginning to an iconic movie career for Brando.

A very good example of Stanley Kramer's art.

[the red duchess · 1/10 · 19 July 2001]

'The Men' has impeccable liberal credentials. Produced, written and directed by the men who would go on to created 'High Noon', that Western riposte to McCarthy, it takes an uncomfortable issue rarely spoken about in the public sphere, and certainly not in Hollywood: paraplegic veterans of the Second World War. Although its focus is on these men, their struggles with their condition, and their attempts to accomodate some sort of normality, the film manages to make some wider points, puncturing the military triumphalism still prevalent in the US: exposing the hypocrisies and intolerance of society, and especially the family; questioning the assumptions of a science that would take the place of religion (we are first introduced to the doctor giving a lecture on paraplegia in the hospital chapel).

'The Men' would have us believe that it is a realistic work because it deals, in a straightforward, downbeat fashion, with a difficult theme simply denied by the artifice of mainstream Hollywood. We are told, firmly and early on, that there will be no miracle cure for these men; we will therefore be denied any sugary uplift at the end, any reconciliation being provisional and fraught. The cast is low-key, and character-actor-driven (this was Marlon Brando's first movie role, and he is frequently subordinated in screen time to the group dynamic of the veterans in the hospital). There will be as much tough talking, strong language and violence as the censors will allow.

So, 'The Men' has its heart in the right place. The road to cinematic hell is paved with good intentions. 'The Men' is a prime example of the cinema of Stanley Kramer, where narrative and entertainment is sacrificed in favour of didactic preaching. The film begins with a nightmare war sequence, borrowed/influenced/pilfered by/from King Vidor's harrowing 'The Big Parade', as a platoon of soldiers slowly populate an eerily empty desertscape. There is no natural sound, just ominous martial music and stylised movements. After this moderate inventiveness, and the shooting that prompts the narrative proper, we go into voiceover, as Ken Wilozek (Brando) gives vent to his self-pityingly bleak feelings about his paraplegia. If this suggests a demoting of the visual in favour of the verbal, at least we're getting the experience from the victim's own viewpoint.

But no. The filmmakers don't trust us enough to empathise and understand, and so we're given a cinematically inert lecture and question-and-answer session from Dr. Brock explaining the tenets and consequences of paraplegia. The audience is not being asked to share a traumatic experience, but is being given a stern lecture about a pertinent issue of the day. You could argue that this scene functions like the end of 'Psycho', where the inane psychobabble is satirised, but there is no such distance here - the doctor is clearly a good man behind his gruff exterior, trying to do his best for these men, without giving them any false hopes. As the film continues, so does the lesson, with facts, examples, statistics, experiments dutifully expounded.

One of the men says he feels like a freak. And this is the way the film presents the men. Their plight is presented from the outside to the outside, an explanation of something unusual to a 'normal' audience. The few attempts at expressionism only serve to make men seem ridiculous, such as the intrusive Rachmaninoff pastiche during Ken and Ellen's reunion, or the preposterous Wagnerian blast that greets Ken's first effort to move.

Brando does his best, but his eruptions of violence here should be compared to his seminal performance in the next year's 'Streetcar named desire'. In that film, violence was an inevitable product of a fully worked out character; here it is forced by violent music and horror-film style into something grotesque, Boris Karloff-like, the horror genre's obsession with the body taken out of context, turning realism into kitsch ('The Men' is, in any case, impossible to take seriously if you've seen Brando's wonderful parody of his performance here in 'Bedtime Story').

Zinnemann's camera rarely moves - movement arises from montage, from editing different camera angles between two over-composed shots. This has none of the dynamics of Eisenstein, resulting in a static aesthetic perfect for the film's intellectual reach.