A Walk in the Sun (1945)

the audience applauded

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

A bit of a puzzle how I managed to sit through this, from beginning to end. Presumably I was waiting for something truly exciting to happen, in between all the uninteresting talk carried on by the walking soldiers. An aeroplane flew over and killed one of them. Another had a nervous breakdown. The soldiers were not easy to tell apart, but perhaps that was because of the poor quality of the print on the disc. Every now and then something happened to one or two of the remaining soldiers. An American platoon may consist of up to as many as 50 soldiers.My disc came in a cover which said that this film was "a tense drama in the tradition of High Noon". Highly creative copy-writing. It took a while for it to sink in to my baffled mind that High Noon, involving one solitary sheriff, was made seven years after this film. Must have been a reverse tradition. After almost two hours of walking and talking the platoon formed an incomprehensible plan for attacking the farmhouse, which had been the objective of their 6 mile walk. I could not understand how wading through water and blowing up a bridge in the background was meant to aid the assault. Was it a diversion? In any case, it didn't seem to divert the enemy in the slightest, since they were shown sitting behind their machine guns, perfectly positioned to mow down the Americans, charging at them in a line. Only a few were hit however, and the farmhouse was taken. A strange performance. The photography was the best part of the shooting.

A Walk in the Sun (1945)The first third of this film is amazing. It' remarkably disturbing and dark, about a bunch of soldiers landing at night in Italy, World War II. The sun does eventually rise, but it's an eerie and claustrophobic and surprisingly gentle twenty minutes. The cast is really perfect, without any overly macho guys, just some ordinary men with feelings, feelings for life, for each other little by little, and for a kind of fatalistic fear that turns into acceptance at times, until events force them into action.Once toward halfway, the movie becomes a more conventional, a large rambling group of foot soldiers a bit lost as to what to do as they walk along, in the sun, in Italy. They talk without a lot of open fear, including a bit of chitchat even as they confront enemies of one kind or another. There is an air of ordinary resignation through it all, as if the movie makers knew the audience could only handle a kid gloves kind of truth about the war, which was still raging when it was released. Even though there is an inevitable sense that the Americans were winning (they were landing in Italy, not being pushed off to sea), there is also the sense that these really nice guys might die, suddenly, because of events beyond their control.By the final third a military objective clarifies, a small one, but a potentially deadly one. When it plays out, it's more about war, and winning. The enemy is never shown, and the brutality is limited to the last two minutes, but it's a devastating two minutes, and probably too difficult for audiences to watch at the time while the war was going on. Though filming was finished in January 1945, the film wasn't released officially until December, with six months of peace already healing some of the wounds, and didn't see wide release until the following year, long after war films had stopped being made. Director Milestone did get Army approval for the film in 1945, and it does seem accurate in its awfulness, even now. It's right before the climax that the film returns to it extraordinary, inner conscience, following Dana Andrews crawling though the weeds to the farmhouse they intend to overtake. How long would it take to crawl around the world? A hundred years? A thousand years?For the best this film has, it's essential, a major piece of war filmmaking.

In Italy, a platoon of American GIs must rid a farmhouse of its Nazi occupants. "A Walk in the Sun" is expertly directed by Lewis Milestone, utilizing Russell Harlan's perceptive camera. It's unusually poetic, for the time, courtesy of writers Harry Brown and Robert Rossen. And, certainly, the film should grow in stature, over the years, when compared to the more typical war dramas released during its era. Upon release, the film was no doubt considered noteworthy for its "realism". Presently, this strength is weighted. Still, the film's substance endures...Strong characterizations are provided by the cast of soldiers. Two stand out, and give the film greater emotional depth. Though it begins, necessarily, as a team effort, reluctant Dana Andrews (as Bill Tyne) emerges as the "hero"; and, John Ireland (as Windy Craven) stands out among the other soldiers. Mr. Andrews is the man who takes command, after leader Herbert Rudley cowers under the pressure. Andrews is terrific; especially, note how he fights off the same war fatigue and mental illness that claimed his predecessor.Mr. Ireland's performance, as a poetic minister's son, is award-worthy. Each of the film's characters attempt to grab you: "the farmer", "the prophet"… accompanied by an almost too sentimental, heart-tugging soundtrack. But, however you try to resist, it's impossible not to fall under Ireland's spell, as he explains "G.I. Dirt", and writes letters home "in his head". While Andrews takes explicit control of the mission, it's Ireland who implicitly provides the battle plan. The film does well in portraying a platoon's waiting, talking, teamwork, and action during war. ******** A Walk in the Sun (12/3/45) Lewis Milestone ~ Dana Andrews, John Ireland, Richard Conte, Lloyd Bridges

There were a lot of excellent WWII films made both during the war and after, though I certainly would not consider A WALK IN THE SUN among them. In fact, I had a hard time keeping interested in this film--mostly because the characters talked and talked and talked--practically non-stop! Rarely did they allow scenes to take place without long and distracting conversations between the G.I.s. Starting on the landing craft until they took the farmhouse, it was talk, talk, talk! Sadly, nothing they really said was that profound or even interesting. This made me look forward to the action scenes.By contrast, there have been some amazing films that DID show the servicemen as real human beings and did show their interactions yet still were amazing films. Just off the top of my head, THEY WERE EXPENDABLE and BATTLEGROUND were similar in structure to A WALK IN THE SUN but they managed to be entertaining and inspiring. In other words, ordinary men behaving extraordinarily under the circumstances. Whereas in A WALK IN THE SUN, they just seemed like irritating people whose characters and dialog were poorly written. It sure is hard to see that this film was directed by the same man who directed ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT--one of the finest war films ever made. A few interesting (but mostly uninspired) battle scenes weren't enough to make this anything other than a time-passer.