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DVD The Long Gray Line
John Ford pours on the sentiment like syrup in The Long Gray Line, a tribute to the traditions of West Point. Tyrone Power ages 50 years to play real-life West Point legend Martin Maher, the scrappy Irish immigrant who rises from "another Mick waiter" to hot-tempered cadet to one of the best-loved instructors of the institution. Power is at his best as the charming rogue with a thick brogue, who ages into a feisty, gray-haired foster father to the cadets he and his fiery Irish wife (Maureen O'Hara) adopt over the years, among them Harry Carey Jr. (as young Dwight D. Eisenhower). Ford claims he didn't care for CinemaScope, but you wouldn't know it from the handsome, lush images that fill the frame. It lolls along at a lazy 140 minutes, balancing the respectful tributes with boisterous humor and boyish pranks but always centered by the generous heart of Maher. --Sean Axmaker
The movie overall is really a great story; the quality of the DVD is what really is what I find as poor quality. It's almost as though some one copied it using a video camera recorder. I already own a copy of the VHS tape and it is a far better version of the film. The actors are classics. I can only say good things about Maureen O'Hara and Tyrone Powers. Ward Bond also. There were others who were in supporting roles who deserve mention; still the story is one that really what is s classic piece of Americana that deserves remembering.
John Ford, West Point and the Irish
Tyrone Power plays Irish immigrant Marty Maher, who joins the Army in 1902 and spends the next fifty years working at West Point. There he takes a part in the formation of America's future military leaders, including Dwight D. Eisenhower (played here as a young man by Harry Carey, Jr.). Maureen O'Hara plays his wife, and the great Donald Crisp his father. Ward Bond has a great role as Maher's mentor, Captain Keeler. This is a mawkishly shameless patriotic celebration of America, the military, the Irish, and Irish America. The last scene where Maher is reviewing the troops is a bit over the top. But if you're a Ford fan, you won't mind it, because you know that even at his most sentimental, he was ten times better than most directors!
Dulce et Decorum...?
"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" -- "Proper and sweet it is to die for the Fatherland." These words from Vergil's "Aeneid" apply in spades to "The Long Grey Line." Beneath the film's overt message of patriotism, honour and glory lies one constant, recurring theme: It's a good, grand and glorious thing for young men to be so filled with dreams of militaristic "glory and honour" that they are ready to die for "The Reich." And it's a good, grand and glorious thing as well for the loved ones they leave behind in mourning.
Am I being a touch judgemental? Darn right. So why did I give it four stars? First, any film with Tyrone Power, Maureen O'Hara, Ward Bond and the score of other fine actors (and an actress or two) is already worth at least three stars in my book. Secondly, the film is so over-the-top in its melodramatic depiction of "fantasy patriotism" that I wonder whether its creators didn't mean to suggest the folly of militaristic utopianism through the expedient use of a near lethal overdose of hyper-pious hands-over-hearts whenever Old Glory passes by, the ultra-dramatic portrayals that "my tragic loss is really my strength and glory," and the continuous flag-waving, death-worshipping and militaristic sentimentalising that saturates this film from start to finish.
On the one hand, the war-sentimentalisers who have always sent and who continue to send young men to early graves for the sake of political and/or corporate interests will undoubtedly see this film in one light. One that appears to validate their own far-from-honourable interests and agendas. On the other, those who despise the fantasy of militaristic glory may well see a brilliant portrayal of the waste of young lives, a waste that brings the hero of the film to sanctimoniously mark the deaths of his former youthful cadets with a black ribbon in the appropriate yearbook. In either case, the message will be in the eye -- and prompted by the true nature of the heart and soul -- of the viewer.
Whatever the case, I recommend that any viewer of this classic film follow up with a sobering shot of "Taps." And that in viewing that rather different presentation of military school cadets special attention be paid to the professional soldier who accuses his own honour-enraptured cadet son of being "in love with death."
I first saw this as a rental, and immediately after watching it I searched Amazon for the authentic Original Soundtrack and found it! - a "Like New" CD from Japan. (Be warned: The CD, "The Eddie Duchin Story" is NOT the soundtrack to this movie. On the real soundtrack, Carmen Cavallaro plays the piano - you can find it by doing a search on the Song, "Dizzy Fingers"). Then, I ordered this DVD!! I KNEW I'd want to watch it again and again through the years! Tyrone Power is GREAT as pianist, Eddie Duchin. Kim Novak is excellent as his first wife. I didn't catch who plays his son, but he's wonderful, in spite of his British accent(!) Filmed on location in NYC in the 1950's, Manhattan is absolutely beautiful. The story has plenty of teary-eyed moments, but the real star of the show,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Tyrone Power - Kim Novak Director(s): George Sidney (II) DVD Release Date: Released the 16 July 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Nineteen thirty-nine is often proposed as the movies' halcyon year, and three reasons why were directed by John Ford: Stagecoach, Young Mr. Lincoln, and Drums Along the Mohawk. In that exalted company Drums... would have to be accounted "merely superb"--even if it's the best film ever made about the American Revolution and, oh, only about eighth-best picture of its year.
Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert play newlyweds in New York's Mohawk Valley at the time of the Revolutionary War. That war is more a distant rumor than a direct concern of people with cabins to raise, crops to harvest, and firstborn on the way. When it comes to their valley, in the form of hitherto-peaceable Indians whipped up by a gaunt Tory with an eyepatch (John Carradine), life changes... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Claudette Colbert - Henry Fonda - Edna May Oliver Director(s): John Ford DVD Release Date: Released the 24 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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James Stewart, at his warmest and most avuncular, plays the bandleader who rocketed to fame during the swing era. The Glenn Miller Story may be a whitewashed version of Miller's life, but it certainly is a pleasant example of the feel-good Hollywood biopic, with the usual conventions: early struggles, loyal wife (June Allyson at her chirpiest), personal sacrifice--Miller joins the Army when war breaks out, although he doesn't have to--and ultimate tragedy. All the Glenn Miller classics filling the soundtrack make the film pretty easy to take, too: "Moonlight Serenade," "A String of Pearls," "Chattanooga Choo-Choo." Miller plays the great "In the Mood" with his military band during a World War II air-raid warning. Pure corn, but it works. Director Anthony Mann, better known for his... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): James Stewart - June Allyson Director(s): Anthony Mann DVD Release Date: Released the 04 March 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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I was thrilled to follow this series on West Point as I have a son in his "plebe" year and I was not from a millitary background. It was excellent to move through the 4 years at WP and know the challenges he will be up against. More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 20 May 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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John Wayne personally produced many of his '50s films, which is why some of them have languished in corporate limbo following his death. The High and the Mighty was one of his most popular vehicles (no pun intended). This long, necessarily sedentary drama aboard an endangered airliner is a CinemaScope bridge between 1932's Grand Hotel and 1970s disaster movies. Despite Wayne's iconic presence as a pilot--now copilot--who survived the plane crash that wiped out his family, it's an ensemble movie with an impressive cast: Robert Stack sharing the cockpit, Oscar® nominees Claire Trevor and Jan Sterling, Laraine Day, Robert Newton, Paul Kelly, John Qualen, Regis Toomey, the ubiquitous Paul Fix, and director William A. Wellman's good-luck character actor Douglas Fowley.... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): John Wayne - Claire Trevor - Laraine Day Director(s): William A. Wellman DVD Release Date: Released the 02 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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