Edward Dmytryk had just directed "the raintree county" another war epic,which also featured Clift-after-the-accident .His best works were already behind him ( "cross -fire" "the caine mutiny" "broken lance" ) and in the works to come ,only "Warlock" is worth watching.
Instead of one lead,Dmytryk 's follow-up to "raintree county" -which features a second lead,but a female one ,Taylor-"young lions " has three main characters ,but mainly focuses on a blond Brando whose part is the most interesting ,but who finally is not credible as a German officer;main problem is language:it's impossible to believe in a story in which everybody speaks English,even the poorest French woman.The two young girls utter one or two words in their first langage,but I hardly heard a German word in the 165 min of the movie.
The characters are sketchy :for instance Martin's one exists only because of the cowardice he's got to fight against -abetted or not by his squeeze Rush-;Clift is too subtle an actor to content himself with this cardboard character :his private resembles "From here to eternity" 's Prewitt,and if he is credible when he reads Joyce,he's definitely not a boxer.Clift is a superior actor but elsewhere ("suddenly last Summer" " Freud" "misfits" "a place in the sun" ...)
This is not a linear story but rather slices of life ,and once more,it's Brando who gets the lion's share (no pun intended).He's one the screen at least twice as long as his two co-stars.
The best scenes are the final ones,when Brando and then the American discover the concentration camp:the rest of the movie fluctuates between valid drama and soap opera ,but these scenes set the record straight and just one shot showing the survivors does more than all the rest of the movie.
Another good scene deals with euthanasia and thus predates "Johnny got his gun" .
It's a good Hollywoodian product ,quite watchable but which lacks depth and strength.
Instead of one lead,Dmytryk 's follow-up to "raintree county" -which features a second lead,but a female one ,Taylor-"young lions " has three main characters ,but mainly focuses on a blond Brando whose part is the most interesting ,but who finally is not credible as a German officer;main problem is language:it's impossible to believe in a story in which everybody speaks English,even the poorest French woman.The two young girls utter one or two words in their first langage,but I hardly heard a German word in the 165 min of the movie.
The characters are sketchy :for instance Martin's one exists only because of the cowardice he's got to fight against -abetted or not by his squeeze Rush-;Clift is too subtle an actor to content himself with this cardboard character :his private resembles "From here to eternity" 's Prewitt,and if he is credible when he reads Joyce,he's definitely not a boxer.Clift is a superior actor but elsewhere ("suddenly last Summer" " Freud" "misfits" "a place in the sun" ...)
This is not a linear story but rather slices of life ,and once more,it's Brando who gets the lion's share (no pun intended).He's one the screen at least twice as long as his two co-stars.
The best scenes are the final ones,when Brando and then the American discover the concentration camp:the rest of the movie fluctuates between valid drama and soap opera ,but these scenes set the record straight and just one shot showing the survivors does more than all the rest of the movie.
Another good scene deals with euthanasia and thus predates "Johnny got his gun" .
It's a good Hollywoodian product ,quite watchable but which lacks depth and strength.