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DVD To Hell and Back
Audie Murphy, the most decorated American soldier in World War II, enjoyed a Hollywood acting career after the fight. In this 1955 autobiographical film, however, he plays himself re-creating his own actions and movements in key battles. As strange as this project might have seemed to him at the time, the results are pretty impressive. The film, despite a flat script, is really a pretty good war drama about Murphy and his buddies making their way from North Africa to Berlin. --Tom Keogh
The Quiet American Hero who never stopped fighting.
Audie Murphy, my first autobiographical read and film by the same name, when put to the cinema never left my consciousness. One of the most factual WWII film bios uniquely played by the actual man, makes this above-average fare. If you follow-up this film with one of Audie's biographies in print, you will realize that this film is ripe for a re-do. Audie had to be tamed and quieted down throughout filming in the Pacific Northwest considerably, while dramatizing in a climate contrary to the actual events. Audie's gun prowess is only suggested throughout, except in the final standoff. By today's standards, the action sequences are interrupted by too many male-bonding yack sessions, introducing up-and-coming stars like David Janssen and Jack Kelly. Very annoying today to see the German Army fighting our forces with our M-48 tanks. If Hollywood would only re-polish this lean script with contemporary special-effects and a new boyish lead, it could again deliver an exciting war biography exceeding "Sergeant York."
Murphy's 'Hell' sanitizes the grisly horrors of war
This fairly standard WWII pic is saved from banality by the presence of Murphy himself, who brings a first-person immediacy to the story that such films are too often missing. The "big picture" is provided by an army general who does voice-overs in present-time (that is, 1955, when the film was made) because, as we are reminded repeatedly, a foot soldier doesn't often know why he's doing what he does - just that he's got to do it. Murphy's performance is spot-on, although the dialogue is often weak, the soundtrack cheesy, and the directing crude by today's standards. In fact the biggest flaw of this film is really that it's rather dated; few films of the era gave a better, more intimate portrait of a fighting man - but many have been made in the decades since.
There's no room for doubt that Murphy was a fine soldier and a great American, and this outing shows him to be at least a competent actor - but on balance this is not all that great a film. Because it's based on a real person's experiences, rather than a fictional concept, there's no real story to tell here. So once you know that Murphy joined the army and didn't get killed, you already know the whole plot. Absent plot, not to mention character development, what we're left with is kind of a documentary, recounting the exploits of a true American hero, but with such limited historical context that it doesn't make much of an educational tool, either. Maybe this work can best be understood as a recruiting film; we see men we've come to know shot dead (as the violin music swells) but we never see the kind of gore that causes even the deaths of enemies to haunt men's dreams for the rest of their lives.
If you really like the WWII movies made during the 1950's, this one is certainly worth seeing, even though it may not be worth owning. On the other hand, if you've grown accustomed to films that portray the "Hell" of war in a more grimly realistic way, then this one may seem puerile and insipid.
As riviting as the first time
I've loved this movie since I was a kid, and am glad to finally have a great copy for anytime I want to see it. Audie Murphy was one of my favorite actors (The "Mirror" scene is great.)
For fans of the genre, without question the worst part of any combat war movie is the first third. Granted, a lot of movies take a while before shifting into gear and getting serious about things. Combat war movies are uniquely hobbled, though. They usually have a large, ensemble cast and their raison d'être is to display men at war. Their large cast has to be introduced and the audience has to identify and bond with them. I suppose. Why we have to waste time warming up to the cast is a little mystifying, though. They could hang cardboard signs over the characters - the Grizzled Vet (James Whitmore), the Short-Timer (George `Pops' Murphy), the Nominal Hero (the one who possesses the skills and guile to survive, Van Johnson), the Greenhorn (the rookie through whose eyes we... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Van Johnson - John Hodiak Director(s): William A. Wellman DVD Release Date: Released the 04 May 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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In The Enemy Below Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens are respectively captains of a U.S. destroyer and a German U-boat whose vessels come into conflict in the South Atlantic. Both are good men with a job to do, the script noting Jurgens' distaste for Hitler and the Nazis and engaging our sympathy with the German sailors almost as much as the Americans. Made at the height of the cold war of the 1950s, the film delivers a liberal message of co-operation wrapped inside some spectacular action scenes and a story which builds to a tense and exciting, moving finale. --Gary S. DalkinMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Robert Mitchum - Curd Jürgens Director(s): Dick Powell DVD Release Date: Released the 25 May 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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As others reviewers have noted, 1959's "No Name on the Bullet" is far from being a typical Audie Murphy western. Under Jack Arnold's expert direction, the focus here is on suspense and tension, rather than action. When gunman John Gant rides into town, most of the local citizens are justifiably nervous. Gant is a hired killer, and he seldom visits a town just to see the sights. Much of the film revolves around the questions--why is he here ? Who is he after ? Which of the town's citizens will die ? Since Gant isn't the talkative type, the suspense keeps building, not to mention the nervous paranoia of the townfolk.
As Gant, Murphy delivers a chilling performance. You never doubt that, behind that baby face and modest build, is a man not to be crossed ( by all accounts, in real life, as... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Jack Arnold DVD Release Date: Released the 01 June 2004 Usually ships within 24 hours
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The German offensive in December 1944 became the basis for this all-star Hollywood take on the Battle of the Bulge. Henry Fonda is an officer who predicts the assault, Robert Ryan and Dana Andrews are Army brass skeptical of his intuitions, and Robert Shaw (his hair dyed yellow and his eyes glinting with malice) is a German officer leading the tank attack. Shaw is certainly the most compelling thing about the film, especially in his philosophical debates with ambivalent underling Hans Christian Blech. Elsewhere, the movie jumps around to sidebar stories (cowardly James MacArthur becomes a leader, wheeler-dealer Telly Savalas falls in love) while messing around with the historical facts of the battle. There are interesting episodes, such as the Malmedy massacre of American POWs and the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Henry Fonda - Robert Shaw - Robert Ryan Director(s): Ken Annakin DVD Release Date: Released the 03 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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