The Naked and the Dead (1958)

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The novel "The naked and the Dead" is often considered impossible to adapt to a movie, and it certainly was in the 50s, when every other sentence spoken in the book had to be censored, and it was desirable to alter the ending, not just by killing "the bad guy" and allowing "the good guy" to survive, but also by changing the meaning of the ending from Meaninglessness to Heroism.But this is not even the main reason why I dislike the movie. The main reason is that it completely destroyed the characters. In the book there are NO good guys and bad guys; you may hate Croft but you are aware that many characters are still alive just because of him; and Hearn is by no means such a perfect guy, just an ordinary one.Many events from the book happen in the movie too, but without giving them any meaning or any accompanying emotions. For example, Gallagher receives the letter saying that his wife died. And - nothing of it; we don't even get to see his reaction. But in the book he keeps receiving letters from her, tormenting him into believing that she is still alive. Another example: we never get to feel the hardships of going through the thick jungle for a whole day, which occupy much of the book; it is much easier to include a snake bite instead to show us how the jungle is brutal.Let us hope that once we will see a movie that will capture this great book more honestly...

This movie seems like one made because of a much hailed and overrated author, in which the director has the nerve to actually make changes to give a novel look at war and life.The book is exactly like a Hollywood movie. Bullets cannot find bad guys, and if you're evil enough, you live forever. We get this from 99% of films. No wonder Americans bend over backwards to be sadistic. In short, that's about all the book is. Very Hollywood.This movie gives a fresh look for the viewer. Instead of the mass depression we're used to, we get an intelligent look at war. The hero is caught between two equally vicious men, one higher in rank, and one lower. Much of the rest of the movie deals with the characters, like in the older war movies.Not to give away the ending, but you will be shocked and surprised. The film still shows the horror and depravity of war without getting preachy, as many later films did.

From Norman Mailer's celebrated book about kill-happy Army sergeant in the Pacific, 1943. In the lead, handsome Aldo Ray gets a chance to show his swagger portraying a man doing battle with the enemy as well as with himself and his own men; otherwise, this glum effort is War-is-Hell routine. Bernard Herrmann's score sounds suspiciously like the one he turned in for "Taxi Driver" in 1976. Hmmm....

I have not read Mailer's book but I did see some Walsh Movies ("pursued" "white heat" "Colorado territory") and those movies feature touches of madness -the end of "white heat" is memorable-,this madness which emerges again in this war movie.The key of the movie is given by the sarge telling his men that they are not part of the Army.He's arguably a lunatic but he did understand:the enemy is not the Japs -whom we barely see anyway-,but as Pottier wrote in "l'Internationale" our own generals.Cummings ' s attitude echoes to that:see him playing chess -an obvious metaphor- or "waging war" in front of a model.Cummings 's madness (which is true , the cigarette scene is revealing )matches the sarge's one.Walsh,though his film is very harsh ,shows compassion,notably for the soldier whose wife died in child-birth . The final lines of the lieutenant ,saved by his men,are:they did not do it out of fear but out of pity.