The Young Lions (1958)

Thanks for the memories!

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

For a war film, perhaps the most compelling element of the picture has to do with the three protagonists remaining true to their personal codes of honor and integrity. That they were presented doing so with the backdrop of World War II was probably immaterial, though for Marlon Brando's character, the senselessness of war was repeatedly underscored by way of confrontations with his superiors and behavior on the battlefield. An anti-war sentiment resonates throughout but doesn't get in the way of patriotism. Perhaps to emphasize the futile nature of war on it's combatants, the picture occasionally meanders along disjointedly as well, scenes changing abruptly between the battlefields of Europe and North Africa with images and street scenes of New York and Brooklyn.You know, I often marvel at the way continuity in a movie is sometimes completely overlooked when the finished product is released. This one had a couple of examples that seemed glaring to me. When Noah (Montgomery Clift) meets Hope (Hope Lange) at Michael Whiteacre's (Dean Martin) party she's wearing a low cut evening gown, but when they step out for a walk along the river, she's wearing a dress with a collar. A similar scene occurs later on the first time Lt. Diestl (Marlon Brando) visits Gretchen Hardenberg (May Britt) at her Berlin apartment. Leaving her apartment for a prior engagement, Gretchen leaves wearing only her evening dress, but returns with a coat on. How is it no one caught those errors? Regarding the principal players, Marlon Brando stands out as the disaffected Nazi soldier, unable to reconcile his personal feelings about war with the mentality of the Nazi machine as personified by his commanding officer Hardenberg (Maximillian Schell). With no room for individualism, Diestl's loyalty to the Nazi cause erodes over the course of the War, and results in outright refusal to follow orders when he fails to shoot an opposing soldier upon Hardenberg's command. I thought more would come of that scene relative to his disobeying a commanding officer, so that left me a little puzzled.With Montgomery Clift's character, you had a Jewish retail clerk fighting bigotry both on the home front and among his fellow soldiers. The scene with Hope's father was done quite effectively to change the older man's feelings of prejudice, just as the overall tenor of the picture attempts to present every day Americans and Germans as people simply trying to make their way in life dissociated from the ideological extremes that make their countries war with each other.As for Dean Martin, this was the second movie I've seen him in within a short period of time in which he basically portrays himself; the other was 1960's "Ocean's Eleven". He comes across as a relatively happy-go-lucky kind of character, a singer and performer who likes to have a good time and with little regard for responsibility or authority. To his character's credit, he was a stand up guy for sticking by Noah against the barracks bullies who beat him to a pulp. One thing I hadn't seen before, Dino goes for a beefcake shot during the induction physical. I don't recall seeing him in anything similar in any other picture.The picture's finale offers contrasting scenarios - Brando's character comes to an untimely and inglorious end at the hands of Private Whiteacre, while the movie closes on Noah Ackerman's joyous return home to his wife and new baby. One wonders whether Mrs. Ackerman's name was written specifically for the intended effect of having a battle hardened soldier return to a new life filled with Hope.

Highest rating to this 1958 film with an all-star cast once again proving their mettle.Didn't Montgomery Clift remind you of his brilliant Pruitt five years before in "From Here to Eternity?" Dean Martin had a fabulous 1958 year proving his worth in dramatic acting with this film along with "Some Came Running."This is definitely a film of moral conviction with Marlon Brando outstanding as a German, caught by the Hitler lies and promises to the German people only to see the hell of war. In America, Dean Martin is an entertainer, a pacifist, who will use any means possible to evade military service. Montgomery Clift as Ackerman views for himself religious prejudice in the military.

Edward Dmytryk directs this film version of Irwin Shaw's novel and it's not particularly good. That's a shame because at nearly 3-hours long, one would expect something beyond a well polished soap opera. It's the story of WWII told from both the American & German perspective. On the American side, there's Broadway entertainer Dean Martin and lost soul Montgomery Clift. On the German side, there's Marlon Brando as a disillusioned army captain. The film follows their trials and tribulations as well as their love lives. Brando plays his part like an actor afraid to go all out. His German is made into an idealistic saint. Clift, however, is a complete disaster. He's woefully miscast and about 10 years too old for his part. He's also clearly infirm, this being some of his first acting following his near catastrophic car accident in 1957. Martin comes off best, as he's playing a less comic version of his own persona. Dmytryk does a dis-service to the entire proceedings by relying heavily on war-time stock footage. The supporting cast is large and includes Lee Van Cleef, Hope Lange, Barbara Rush, Dora Doll (as Simone), and French chanteuse Liliane Montevecchi as Brando's strong-willed love interest. Maximilian Schell gives a fine performance as Brando's commanding officer. Hugo Friedhofer contributes a rousing score, but it's largely lost on this snail-paced epic.

I saw The Young Lions when I was 18 years old, the year it came out. I went into the theater a college kid from Texas who totally bought the swagger of American war heroes. I came out of the film absolutely devastated -- and decided I was now a pacifist and would dedicate my life as an artist to living up to the high standards of this film.All the acting is extraordinary -- Cliff is at his very best, Dean Martin is a surprising revelation playing a dissolute Broadway star he was perfect for. Maximilian Schell is amazing -- I don't know how he wasn't given an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Barbara Rush, Hope Lange and May Britt are all indelible portraits of the three faces of 40's women.The cinematography is black and white at its best, sharp elements of chiaroscuro unmatched by color films. The musical score is on a level with Holst's The Planets, unrelenting and devastating.But the outstanding feature of the film is the incandescent performance by Marlon Brando at the peak of power as an actor. I don't think I had ever tried to imagine how the Third Reich came to be and how it might have affected a normal German citizen until Brando's brilliant work illuminated it for me. He is at his most handsome, obviously in great shape inside that tailored uniform, and truly epitomizes the "Golden God of War" who is enlightened by the horror he is expected to deliver, and is transformed into a tragic figure.This is as good as Saving Private Ryan or Schindler's List -- one of the most neglected masterpieces of American cinema: a Greek tragedy of our own era.