The Landing at Salerno lasted 21 days...
Added 1/12/2009
When you think of great war movies that depict great battles of World War 2, you think of The Longest Day, or Saving Private Ryan...True Normandy was a great battle. However, the landing at Salerno Beach lasted 21 days...
A Walk in the Sun is the greatest representation of this event so far. Although a lot was going on away from what this film depicts, it never-the-less is one of the best of the War Genre. A true character study of what men, bonded in the brotherhood of war, go through emotionally and mentally. Most films to this time had been made showing just the physical aspects of war. If you have seen The Longest Day or Saving Private Ryan, you will see the influence that A Walk in the Sun has had on the emotional and mental aspect of those films.
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A Movie Remembered: "A Walk in the Sun"
Added 11/3/2008
This is one of the best and most interesting WWII movies ever made. I had not seen it since I was a teenager in the early 1960s, yet the title has staid with me ever since. The juxtaposition of killing and dying with the simple title works better than the Audy Murphy "To Hell and Back" autobiographical film. The mix-ups (getting separated on landing on the beach), the human frailties (the sergeant having a nervous breakdown after having to take command), the tough-talking New York cabbie-machine gunner who did not qualify as a machine gunner but bribed someone to land the job, John Ireland's character writing a letter in his head to his sister back home, . . . you feel as though you know/knew these people and were there with them in Italy 65 years ago. I had forgotten that the film was directed by Lewis Milestone, who also directed the 1930 film version of "All Quiet on the Western Front." The only flaw that I noticed this time is a slight one. The pacing of the film is intentionally slow, leading up to the violent combat at the end. However, in achieving this cinematic effect, Milestone seemingly has some events take place over a much longer period of time that they would have in "real life" (e.g., the landing craft seem to take forever to reach shore). All in all, this is a terrific movie. I own very few movies; I'm glad I own this one.
3 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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A Walk with Death
Added 10/11/2008
Recently I heard that "A Walk in the Sun" was, in fact, an anti-war movie. I did a little research and found that the director, Milestone, was also responsible for the classic, anti-war film of Remarque's wonderful "All Quiet on the Western Front." When looked at from this point of view "A Walk in the Sun" is all the better.
This is a brilliant look at the psychology of soldiers and the brutal facts of combat. It is to a certain extent a propaganda flick but, unlike so many others of the era, including even the great 'Casablanca', the propaganda is held to a bare minimum. I rather suspect that the propaganda that does exist was deliberately placed to pass the censors of the era. The enemy isn't demonized. Instead he is an inevitable and impersonal presence. The closest he gets to being flesh and blood is when the dead arm of a German halftrack crewman flops out to reveal a large jeweled ring on his finger. "I wonder who he stole that one from?" remarks one of the Americans.
Otherwise the enemy is a mechanical presence in the form of an airplane, tank, armored car or especially a peaceful looking Italian farmhouse. Our Americans, at the same time, are entirely real. They gossip, complain, wisecrack, suffer and die. They even crackup, some unable to withstand the strain of leadership and never ending combat. Richard Conte, with his machinegun "Baby", provide a grim and fatalistic backdrop to the story. We recognize him as the citizen soldier, one who fights and fights well without knowing or caring exactly why he fights. He is interchangeable. He can equally well be a German, Italian, Russian or Japanese soldier. He fights because he has been ordered to fight. Simple and inevitable.
Our Americans are ordered to take out an Italian farmhouse where German soldiers may or may not be located. Out of bazooka rockets, they must test the place with their bodies. The Americans screw up by advancing en masse. The Germans screw up by firing too soon. The Americans, taking a few casualties, regroup and in a truly excruciating scene, wait for their watches to strike zero hour before opening up with their machine gun and attacking over open ground. It is a slaughter. German machine gunners fire and butcher the exposed Americans. American survivors make it into the farm house and slaughter the unseen Germans. No prisoners are shown and the American sergeant walks out of the building carving another notch in his rifle stock. War in all its glory and horror. I'm reminded of R.E. Lee's famous statement on viewing the stricken field of Frederichsburg, "It is good that war is so terrible....else...we should love it too much."
Ron Braithwaite, author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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So much promise, but a big dud.
Added 6/26/2008
A laughable attempt to make put realism in a war movie. The soldiers dumbly keep flocking together in middle of enemy terrority , sheepishly walk out in the open while under fire , ask dumb questions , make half dumb attempts at witt , act serious and dumb at the same time , are amazed with each other over dumb things. The only ones dumber are the germans who must of had ear plugs to avoid listening to the dumb music score and that trick let the american soldiers talk loudly as they pleased. The only ones dumber then actors must be the director and producers of this dumb movie.
0 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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One Day in the War
Added 5/11/2008
A Walk in the Sun
This film is adapted from the book by Harry Brown about the experiences of infantrymen. The US Armed Forces provided support for this film. Soldiers are on a landing barge preparing to invade Italy in 1943. The lieutenant looked over the top when a shell burst and wounded him. The sergeant is now in command. The conversations tell about each soldier. They are being sent 6 miles inland to capture a farmhouse. The men grumble and complain when waiting. The sun comes up and they are still waiting. They move into the trees to hide from enemy airplanes. The smoke and explosions signify the action in the background. An airplane strafes the woods and hits some of the men. The men chatter about things to avoid discussing their condition.
Sergeant Porter has a problem and can't go on. An enemy armored car comes down the road. They will use grenades to attack it when it returns. The bazookas are used for tanks. The grenades break the tread of the armored car and disable it. They continue walking towards that farmhouse. They assemble behind the stone wall. The machine gun in the farmhouse fires a burst. "Windy" says they should circle around by the wall and blow-up the bridge and ignore the farmhouse [the indirect approach]. They synchronize their attack on the farmhouse. The charge against the machine guns and take the farmhouse. "It was so easy."
This bowdlerized version may be as realistic as Hollywood could be for a war movie. Very little happens until there is much action. ["A walk in the sun" was a phrase for an easy job.] The film follows the book, except the plane that strafes the woods looks like a P-51, not the ME-110
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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The Landing at Salerno lasted 21 days...
Added 1/12/2009
When you think of great war movies that depict great battles of World War 2, you think of The Longest Day, or Saving Private Ryan...True Normandy was a great battle. However, the landing at Salerno Beach lasted 21 days...
A Walk in the Sun is the greatest representation of this event so far. Although a lot was going on away from what this film depicts, it never-the-less is one of the best of the War Genre. A true character study of what men, bonded in the brotherhood of war, go through emotionally and mentally. Most films to this time had been made showing just the physical aspects of war. If you have seen The Longest Day or Saving Private Ryan, you will see the influence that A Walk in the Sun has had on the emotional and mental aspect of those films.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
A Movie Remembered: "A Walk in the Sun"
Added 11/3/2008
This is one of the best and most interesting WWII movies ever made. I had not seen it since I was a teenager in the early 1960s, yet the title has staid with me ever since. The juxtaposition of killing and dying with the simple title works better than the Audy Murphy "To Hell and Back" autobiographical film. The mix-ups (getting separated on landing on the beach), the human frailties (the sergeant having a nervous breakdown after having to take command), the tough-talking New York cabbie-machine gunner who did not qualify as a machine gunner but bribed someone to land the job, John Ireland's character writing a letter in his head to his sister back home, . . . you feel as though you know/knew these people and were there with them in Italy 65 years ago. I had forgotten that the film was directed by Lewis Milestone, who also directed the 1930 film version of "All Quiet on the Western Front." The only flaw that I noticed this time is a slight one. The pacing of the film is intentionally slow, leading up to the violent combat at the end. However, in achieving this cinematic effect, Milestone seemingly has some events take place over a much longer period of time that they would have in "real life" (e.g., the landing craft seem to take forever to reach shore). All in all, this is a terrific movie. I own very few movies; I'm glad I own this one.
3 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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A Walk with Death
Added 10/11/2008
Recently I heard that "A Walk in the Sun" was, in fact, an anti-war movie. I did a little research and found that the director, Milestone, was also responsible for the classic, anti-war film of Remarque's wonderful "All Quiet on the Western Front." When looked at from this point of view "A Walk in the Sun" is all the better.
This is a brilliant look at the psychology of soldiers and the brutal facts of combat. It is to a certain extent a propaganda flick but, unlike so many others of the era, including even the great 'Casablanca', the propaganda is held to a bare minimum. I rather suspect that the propaganda that does exist was deliberately placed to pass the censors of the era. The enemy isn't demonized. Instead he is an inevitable and impersonal presence. The closest he gets to being flesh and blood is when the dead arm of a German halftrack crewman flops out to reveal a large jeweled ring on his finger. "I wonder who he stole that one from?" remarks one of the Americans.
Otherwise the enemy is a mechanical presence in the form of an airplane, tank, armored car or especially a peaceful looking Italian farmhouse. Our Americans, at the same time, are entirely real. They gossip, complain, wisecrack, suffer and die. They even crackup, some unable to withstand the strain of leadership and never ending combat. Richard Conte, with his machinegun "Baby", provide a grim and fatalistic backdrop to the story. We recognize him as the citizen soldier, one who fights and fights well without knowing or caring exactly why he fights. He is interchangeable. He can equally well be a German, Italian, Russian or Japanese soldier. He fights because he has been ordered to fight. Simple and inevitable.
Our Americans are ordered to take out an Italian farmhouse where German soldiers may or may not be located. Out of bazooka rockets, they must test the place with their bodies. The Americans screw up by advancing en masse. The Germans screw up by firing too soon. The Americans, taking a few casualties, regroup and in a truly excruciating scene, wait for their watches to strike zero hour before opening up with their machine gun and attacking over open ground. It is a slaughter. German machine gunners fire and butcher the exposed Americans. American survivors make it into the farm house and slaughter the unseen Germans. No prisoners are shown and the American sergeant walks out of the building carving another notch in his rifle stock. War in all its glory and horror. I'm reminded of R.E. Lee's famous statement on viewing the stricken field of Frederichsburg, "It is good that war is so terrible....else...we should love it too much."
Ron Braithwaite, author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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