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The Sergeant

  • 19681968
  • RR
  • 1h 48m
IMDb RATING
6.5/10
647
YOUR RATING
The Sergeant (1968)
Drama
A story of a brilliant master sergeant with a great career behind him and transferred to yet another post, his attraction to a younger man eventually overrides him, to a point where his late... Read allA story of a brilliant master sergeant with a great career behind him and transferred to yet another post, his attraction to a younger man eventually overrides him, to a point where his latent homosexuality, finally emerges.A story of a brilliant master sergeant with a great career behind him and transferred to yet another post, his attraction to a younger man eventually overrides him, to a point where his latent homosexuality, finally emerges.
IMDb RATING
6.5/10
647
YOUR RATING
    • John Flynn
    • Dennis Murphy(screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Rod Steiger
    • John Phillip Law
    • Ludmila Mikaël
    • John Flynn
    • Dennis Murphy(screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Rod Steiger
    • John Phillip Law
    • Ludmila Mikaël
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 19User reviews
    • 10Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards

    Photos14

    Rod Steiger in The Sergeant (1968)
    Rod Steiger and John Phillip Law in The Sergeant (1968)
    Rod Steiger in The Sergeant (1968)
    Rod Steiger and Ludmila Mikaël in The Sergeant (1968)
    Rod Steiger and John Phillip Law in The Sergeant (1968)
    Rod Steiger and John Phillip Law in The Sergeant (1968)
    Rod Steiger in The Sergeant (1968)
    Rod Steiger in The Sergeant (1968)
    The Sergeant (1968)
    The Sergeant (1968)
    The Sergeant (1968)
    The Sergeant (1968)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Rod Steiger
    Rod Steiger
    • MSgt. Albert Callan
    John Phillip Law
    John Phillip Law
    • Pfc. Tom Swanson
    Ludmila Mikaël
    Ludmila Mikaël
    • Solange Gérard
    Frank Latimore
    Frank Latimore
    • Capt. Loring
    Elliott Sullivan
    • Pop Henneken
    Ronald Rubin
    • Cpl. Cowley
    Philip Roye
    • Aldous Brown
    Jerry Brouer
    • Sgt. Komski
    Memphis Slim
    • Night Club Singer
    Nadine Alari
    Nadine Alari
    • Mrs. Gérard, Solange's Mother
    • (uncredited)
    Gabriel Gascon
    Gabriel Gascon
    • Paul - Solange's Brother-in-Law
    • (uncredited)
    Dan Gregory
    • Young Soldier
    • (uncredited)
      • John Flynn
      • Dennis Murphy(screenplay) (novel "The Sergeant")
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Simon Oakland campaigned hard to play the lead role and even told director John Flynn that he would do it for no salary. However, Rod Steiger was ultimately cast instead because he was a bigger name at the time.
    • Goofs
      The story takes place in 1952, but the desk calendar on the sergeant's desk shows 1967.
    • Connections
      Featured in Homo Promo (1991)

    User reviews19

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    9/10
    The Lonely Closet
    With the current debate over gays and lesbians serving in the military this 1968 film The Sergeant has a relevance undreamed of by the people who made this film a year before the Stonewall Rebellion.

    Rod Steiger gives a brilliant performance as the tortured, self loathing, latently gay non-commissioned officer with whom the psychological bubble finally bursts. Steiger is a master sergeant assigned to a construction battalion in France. He's a professional soldier through and through and does take a rather lax company and whips into some kind of shape. Still there's an uneasiness to him that the men can't figure out. It isn't even on their radar screens, a gay man in the military just didn't compute back then.

    It computes least of all to Private John Philip Law whose company Steiger seems to crave incessantly. The fact that Law is seeing local French girl Ludmila Mikael doesn't make any difference, Steiger intrudes on their relationship even more as it gets more serious between Law and Mikael.

    It all breaks out in a devastating and dramatic climax where Steiger bursts forth from the latent closet. I assure you that you will not forget it once you've Steiger's self destruction.

    In the time Steiger was brought up being gay was the most loathsome thing there was. Brokeback Mountain covered the same things and Steiger did not even have an idyllic summer to look forward to as did Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. Another military film that covered latent homosexuality was Reflections In A Golden Eye where Marlon Brando as an officer was crushing out on a private in his company played by Robert Forster. That however was only one of many issues covered in that film, whereas this is the central and only theme of The Sergeant.

    For those interested in gays in the military I would commend you reading Nigel Hamilton's book on the life of Field Marshal Sir Bernard L. Montgomery. Although it's a small part of the story, Hamilton attributes Monty's well known prickly personality to the fact that he was latently gay and never came to terms with it. Rod Steiger's character would have known exactly what Montgomery was feeling.

    This is one of Rod Steiger's best screen roles, but the timeliness of the topic means this film could use a remake. Try casting this film with some of today's players. I could see Al Pacino or Robert DeNiro in the part of The Sergeant with maybe some teen heartthrob like Zac Efron as the recruit.

    Still it would be extraordinary if it topped this one.
    helpful•12
    4
    • bkoganbing
    • Jan 26, 2010

    Details

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    • Release date
      • December 25, 1968 (United States)
      • United States
      • English
    • Also known as
      • France
    • Production company
      • Robert Wise Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 1 hour 48 minutes
      • Color
      • Mono

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