I have no idea why this cliché ridden war film was such a great success. Was it the use of Cinemascope ( excellent ), the prestigious cast ( nothing exceptional in the performances ) or the fact that it is nearly three hours long ? It looks big, so it must be big !!!! It would have been good to have seen Montgomery Clift with Marlon Brando in scenes of quality, and that was in my opinion a great loss for the cinema. Scenario and director should have thought of this, but instead we have Clift with Dean Martin and there is no chemistry there. All the women are underused especially Barbara Rush, Hope Lange and Dora Doll. As for May Britt she is there for sexy glamour only. The overall feeling was of a world of total masculinity and the occasional scenes of atrocities are there because, well they had to be shown. Men fight men in barracks as well as in war, but then that is the male destiny to fight each other, and Brando refers to the horrors that he is a part of and is always dismissed by other men for doing so. Accepting the passivity of women and the brutality of men was normal in the 1950's but compared to Wajda's ' Kanal ', the original German ' All Quiet on the Western Front ' and the sadly forgotten ' The Victors ' this is a mediocre and disjointed film. It is also heavily studio bound with the exception of fairly brief war footage. I cannot praise this film as others have done here.
Review of The Young Lions
