The Young Lions (1958)

Dear Edward Dmytryk,I have watched noirs like Crossfire and Murder, My Sweet which were directed by you. The Young Lions is unlike both those films. It is a rather long and slightly boring anti-war drama. The film has a huge star cast. Brando is great as a sympathetic and humane Nazi. He is all body language as usual. His German accent was a bit funny. Montgomery Clift and Dean Martin play reluctant American soldiers. Clift looked very old and doomed as a Jewish soldier. Martin's was a towering presence and his acting was effortless. The film explores the three characters love lives in detail. The film is as much about their love lives as their war experiences. I liked the fact that neither side is portrayed in very good light. American war movies tend to be overtly partisan and portray Germans as goofy idiots.May Britt as the frustrated wife of Brando's senior officer made quite an impression on me. The scene where she tries to seduce Brando's character with her sullen face and bovine presence was an interesting erotic interlude in what was otherwise a pretty sleep inducing film.The many discussions on the nature of man and war were rather trite. The film did have some great boxing scenes when Clift's Jewish soldier is bullied by fellow American soldiers. Hugo Friedhofer's score is pretty good. I liked the rambunctious title score and the romantic tunes as well.Best Regards, Pimpin.(6/10)

The best movies are ones that have a message that cannot be conveyed easily in a few words. Such is The Young Lions. And the core of the message is found in the ending, which I do not want to disclose. But it is a relatively quiet scene that is actually a kick to the solar plexus, intellectually.Yes, Brando delivers the more interesting and even sympathetic performance, once he warms up. But Clift's performance is perhaps finer acting, displaying great emotional vulnerability.The message of this movie was daring for 1958. It treats the enemy - the Germans - with objectivity, compassion and even some sympathy, while being critical of American faults and anti-Semitism. I think it is saying that we are all human, regardless of side, and we are all capable of committing evil acts if put in the wrong situation, up to a point. If your inner character is good and strong, you will not participate, though, as we see with Brando's character, Diestl. This is a message that is as important today as it was half a century ago, if not more so, as we see with atrocities such as those committed by American servicemen in Abu Ghraib prison, acts that we might have seen from Nazis. A key difference is that in America such acts are illegal and punished in courts. Yes, the anti-Semitic root of the harassment of Ackerman in the barracks is implied, rather than spelled out, unlike in the book. Why? Hollywood, which was largely controlled by Jewish moguls at the time, was reluctant to make anti-Semitism an issue, fearing a backlash. (The only movie to tackle anti-Semitism was a Gentleman's Agreement, made in 1947, just before Congressional HUAC hearings on Hollywood, and the blacklisting of writers, actors and directors.) I, for one, being Jewish, don't miss the anti-Semitic expletives. And the movie turns Ackerman into a representative of any American minority in the Army who is harassed but eventually accepted. But what has been largely forgotten is that there once was virulent anti-Semitism in America, and active, organized support for the Nazis in areas such as the Midwest during the 1930s run-up to Pearl Harbor. We're talking pro-Nazi meetings in middle class homes. This is the real subtext of Irwin Shaw's story. However, America was not Nazi Germany, in ideals or actions. And one of the key differences is America's objectivity and ultimate honesty. That is what makes The Young Lions great. I am proud that it treats the Germans objectively. Another movie along these lines is "The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel," made, remarkably, in 1951. What many viewers do not understand is that it was illegal for members of the German military to enlist in the Nazi Party or engage in politics, even during the war. So officers such as Diestl were not Nazis, at least technically. They did swear an oath to support Hitler early on. It was the SS, the Schutzstaffel, a paramilitary organization, that was the arm of the Nazis. Nevertheless, plenty of regular German soldiers engaged in war crimes. But The Young Lions is saying do not judge each soldier or citizen by the acts of the group or nation. It is as wrong to engage in such prejudice toward Germans as it is against Jews or any group or nationality. The German people, to their credit, have largely faced up to the wrongs of WWII objectively. I think the tradition of intellectual honesty at the heart of Germany and Europe helped. The result is the modern world of reconciliation of former European enemies, something that is at least partially absent in Asia.The movie Stalingrad - 1993 is a stunning, raw German mea culpa that provides additional background for understanding movies such as this and Rommel. Watching The Young Lions lacks the drama and intensity found in many war movies. But it is a story that makes you think, and that lingers in your memory long after the movie is through. That is what gives it greatness. It is a movie more people should watch.

This is a very good war film. However, at almost three hours in length, it still feels way too short--way too rushed. In many ways, the story seems a lot like "The Winds of War"--and that was a 20+ hour mini-series. That's because the film starts just before WWII and ends in the waning days of the Nazi regime--a much longer time period than you'd find in a normal war film."The Young Lions" is the parallel story of three soldiers. One is a German (Marlon Brando) and two are Americans (Montgomery Clift and Dean Martin) who are friends. Their stories really don't intersect until the final scene and there aren't that many parallels between them. This is very unusual in style but works well enough. The film could have just centered on Brando or Martin and Clift and worked just fine.The German portion of the story is interesting because it presents Brando as just a loyal soldier--not a Nazi. In fact, this is a conflict in the story--between an honorable soldier a dishonorable regime.As for the Americans, the most interesting portion of the story is Clift--who is scapegoated in boot-camp and he is literally fighting mad. As for Martin, his is a struggle with taking the easy way out of the war or working hard to prove something to his girlfriend and ultimately to himself.Overall, a very good film--mostly due to the acting. While I am not a particular fan of Brando (I think he's overrated--at least in his later films), here he seemed very good as the German. Native Germans might blanch at his accent--I don't know. But, he seemed quite good. As for Martin, in his first dramatic role, he was very good and Clift put in a typical performance. As for Clift's character, he was very good because unlike in "From Here to Eternity", Clift's tiny frame was realized and was part of the script--him begin THAT tough in the "From Here to Eternity" always seemed a bit silly and was a HUGE stretch.Parley Baer as a Nazi How good does the German accent sound to Germans? grainy stock footage could have been a lot longer--like WOW FYI--the evil Mayor (John Banner) was actually Jewish

I saw The Young Lions when I was 18 years old, the year it came out. I went into the theater a college kid from Texas who totally bought the swagger of American war heroes. I came out of the film absolutely devastated -- and decided I was now a pacifist and would dedicate my life as an artist to living up to the high standards of this film.All the acting is extraordinary -- Cliff is at his very best, Dean Martin is a surprising revelation playing a dissolute Broadway star he was perfect for. Maximilian Schell is amazing -- I don't know how he wasn't given an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Barbara Rush, Hope Lange and May Britt are all indelible portraits of the three faces of 40's women.The cinematography is black and white at its best, sharp elements of chiaroscuro unmatched by color films. The musical score is on a level with Holst's The Planets, unrelenting and devastating.But the outstanding feature of the film is the incandescent performance by Marlon Brando at the peak of power as an actor. I don't think I had ever tried to imagine how the Third Reich came to be and how it might have affected a normal German citizen until Brando's brilliant work illuminated it for me. He is at his most handsome, obviously in great shape inside that tailored uniform, and truly epitomizes the "Golden God of War" who is enlightened by the horror he is expected to deliver, and is transformed into a tragic figure.This is as good as Saving Private Ryan or Schindler's List -- one of the most neglected masterpieces of American cinema: a Greek tragedy of our own era.