SnoReptilePlenty
Memorable, crazy movie
Smartorhypo
Highly Overrated But Still Good
Kaelan Mccaffrey
Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
rbrb
Superb war film!A company of soldiers in the fore front of the American civil war are facing head-on combat battles with their enemy. One youthful soldier is terrified of his situation and the question is: how -if at all- will he handle his fears?Excellent atmospheric battle scenes. The viewer can taste and feel the blood and the dirt and the fear. Brilliant direction and camera work with a very intelligent script to match. Great in black and white but I wonder if this picture could be colorized. The cynical viewer might see in this movie lambs being manipulated and sent to the slaughter, but that said:More than 60 years old, why can't they make films like this nowadays???8/10
robertguttman
This is the best movie ever made about the American Civil War, and also ranks among the best ever made about war in general. That is all the more surprising since, as has been mentioned before, the studio didn't want this movie to be made at all, and the final version was drastically cut.As in "All Quiet on the Western Front", "The Red Badge of Courage" presents the viewer with a worm's-eye view of war. Almost nothing is mentioned about the "Big Picture", the reasons and aims of the war, or of the strategies pursued by the military commanders. Instead, The viewer is confronted with the war of the common infantrymen, the men who know nothing about what is happening beyond their own immediate surroundings, and even those are often obscured by the smoke and confusion of battle."The Red Badge of Courage" (a euphemism for a war wound) is the story of one such infantryman. After months of tedious drilling, he suddenly learns that he is finally about to be committed to actual combat, and wrestles with the problem of whether or not he will have the courage to cope with it. It is a very personal story and, since the dialogue is quite terse, requires an actor who really understands such feelings and can get them across without the aid of a lot of talk.John Huston's surprising choice to play that role was Audie Murphy who, at that time, may not have had much experience as an actor, but who undoubtedly knew plenty about how it felt to be a very young man going into battle for the first time. Young as he looks in this movie, Murphy already had extensive combat experience as an infantryman in World War II, during which he earned a battlefield commission and just about every decoration for valor.As "The Loud Soldier", the second lead in the film, Huston picked another famous WW-II veteran, Bill Mauldin, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the memorable cartoons he drew for the military newspaper, "Stars and Stripes". Mauldin did a surprising good job in the film, considering he was not a professional actor.There are many small but memorable moments in this film it is almost impossible to enumerate them all. There is the Loud Soldier hearing a rumor about how the army is about to break camp and go into action - and then immediately disregarding his informant's strict injunction to keep the information to himself by telling everybody in earshot! There is the soldier who, while marching into battle, says to himself, "I wonder what the name of this battle is going to be?" (It is an odd fact that the soldiers who participate in such memorable battles such as Waterloo, Gettysburg or The Marne never actually know that they have done so until afterwards, when the historians have written about them) There are the looks on the faces of the soldiers at the moment when, on the way to the battle, they encounter the first dead man lying in the road. There is the young Lieutenant's habit of twisting the end of this mustache, either out of vanity or nervousness (or possibly a bit of both?). Those are all exactly the sort of things one would expect to see real people to do under such circumstances, and they are the little touches that make "The Red badge of Courage" stand out.
evening1
I rarely vote above a 7 but this movie definitely merits it.Nor had I ever seen Audie Murphy in a film, and I was thoroughly impressed with what he brought to the central character. Reading about him on Wikipedia, and learning that he was the second most-decorated US soldier in WWII, I better understood the believability he brought to the fearful, anxious, and, later, far more courageous protagonist.I haven't read the book so I wasn't prepared for the intimacy of the portrait of Murphy's soldier, who begins by admitting his fear of dying to himself, and later is able to be more authentic with others. His transformation from runaway to leader seems authentic. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the soldiers who surround Murphy. I particularly liked the cameo of the down-to-earth "Cheery Soldier" who is so effective in helping Murphy to pick himself up and fight another day.I was really drawn in to the camaraderie in the drumbeat-propelled Union regiment, and found the smoky battle scenes, punctuated by so many rebel yells, to be wholly convincing.This a sad and powerful story -- definitely one of the best anti-war films I've seen.
zetes
Civil War film based on the famed novel by Stephen Crane. It gets short shrift among John Huston's films because it's well known that Louis B. Mayer cut 26 minutes out of the film while Huston was away filming The African Queen. Still, what's left is hardly incoherent and works beautifully. It may have been a masterpiece in its 95 minute incarnation, but it's still great and one of Huston's best films in its 69 minute form. Audie Murphy stars as a young private facing his first fighting. The real value of this film is how it really feels like it's right there on the front lines of Civil War battles. It's vivid and frightening, and also quite gorgeously directed and shot. I perhaps would have liked to hear no narration, which comes directly from Crane's novel (and may or may not have been wanted by Huston). It's mostly unnecessary. It may have been confusing without it, but only as confusing as it is for the characters on screen.
