One of the best films ever made, it is an eloquent anti-war plea. These are the guys fresh from WWII, shell-shocked and shaking or unable to walk or stuttering..not able to sleep and just boys!!!! With our modern-day cynicism, it's easy to say, "Yeah, they're malingering. looking for a Section 8" but that was when we honored our GIs, when they were saving the world indeed!
To go back home under the shame of a mental discharge was not something these young men wanted. The help of the authoritarian doctors and the nurses is eloquently portrayed. Usually rebellious against such domination, you can see how these doctors became fathers to the horror-stricken boys, raised with "Thou shalt not kill" and placed in the position of killing or being killed. What shocked them most into blindness or silence or stuttering (the 'ssssssss's' are the sound of the German V-18 rockets coming into the foxholes), was the loss of their buddines.
I've often wondered how my brother-in-law could so merrily flit through life on one leg. I'm not aware as is he that on the other end of the log from him when that mortar shell hit in Korea, was his best buddy who was obliterated. He knows in his gut that "There but for the grace of God......" and it informs every waking minute.
See this one with "The Red Tent", a Peter Finch movie that seemingly deals with the Arctic exploration and lost lives. Interesting complementation.
The Man of the Century is indeed the American GI. Yes, we waited too long to help England, and we ignored the plight of the Jews but by damn, our plain ordinary Joes saved this world from the darkness of species destruction.
At least, for awhile.......
To go back home under the shame of a mental discharge was not something these young men wanted. The help of the authoritarian doctors and the nurses is eloquently portrayed. Usually rebellious against such domination, you can see how these doctors became fathers to the horror-stricken boys, raised with "Thou shalt not kill" and placed in the position of killing or being killed. What shocked them most into blindness or silence or stuttering (the 'ssssssss's' are the sound of the German V-18 rockets coming into the foxholes), was the loss of their buddines.
I've often wondered how my brother-in-law could so merrily flit through life on one leg. I'm not aware as is he that on the other end of the log from him when that mortar shell hit in Korea, was his best buddy who was obliterated. He knows in his gut that "There but for the grace of God......" and it informs every waking minute.
See this one with "The Red Tent", a Peter Finch movie that seemingly deals with the Arctic exploration and lost lives. Interesting complementation.
The Man of the Century is indeed the American GI. Yes, we waited too long to help England, and we ignored the plight of the Jews but by damn, our plain ordinary Joes saved this world from the darkness of species destruction.
At least, for awhile.......