I was looking for a war movie involving Christmas that I had not already posted and this was the best I could do. It does have the song "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" but the scene is very far from Happy Holidays. And the film is like a lump of coal in your stocking. Here are some better choices for your viewing pleasure: A Midnight Clear, Joyeux Noel, and Silent Night.
“The Victors” is a film written, directed, and produced by Carl Foreman. It was the only film he directed. He fled the U.S. for Great Britain when he got caught up in the Red Scare. He was blacklisted when he refused to name names before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He later said that if it had not been for that controversy, he would have directed more films. He is mainly known for his screenplays, which included “The Guns of Navarone” and “Bridge on the River Kwai” (which he wrote under a pseudonym). He wrote this screenplay based on a collection of short stories entitled The Human Kind by Alex Baron. Baron was a veteran of WWII and based the book on his experiences. Foreman wanted Steve McQueen for the lead role, but McQueen did not want to be typecast in war movies. For the movie, the main characters were changed to Americans. Foreman intended the movie to be very anti-war with the theme that nobody wins in a war. The movie was a joint American/British production. Filming occurred in Sweden, France, Italy, and Great Britain. After a disastrous opening in England, the film was cut by around 20 minutes for American release. One scene was cut because the Hays Code did not condone an affair between two American soldiers and a male prostitute.
The movie opens with footage from “All Quiet…”, Hitler speaking, Stukas bombing, armies marching. There is more marching just in the credits than any war movie in history. Also, if you came in the theater not knowing the movie was going to be anti-war, now you knew. The movie is a series of vignettes set in Italy, Normandy, and then occupied Berlin. If you are looking for action, the first vignette disabuses you of that. A squad led by Sgt. Craig (Eli Wallach) moves through a deserted Italian town and nothing interesting happens. Get used to it. The film will feature two of those men – Trower (George Hamilton) and Chase (George Peppard). Trower is an all-American boy and Chase is a clicheish irresponsible ladies’ man. Both will meet a series of women as they fight the war. The movie poster includes pictures of all six significant female characters. To give you a taste of their war adventures, here is one of the vignettes. Trower meets a hot chick named Regine (Romy Schneider) who plays a violin in a café in Belgium. She is morose and mousy. Trower takes her back to her place, they kiss, and scene! “Maybe I’ll see you again”. “I’d like that.” The next time Trower goes to the café, he sees his Regine with a wolf named Eldridge (Michael Callan). Trower looks like a whipped puppy. Regine is apparently now a slut and the loathsome Eldridge has made a woman out of her. And scene! This from the guy who wrote “The Guns of Navarone” screenplay.
The most acclaimed scene involves the Eddie Slovik execution. Trower and Chase are witnesses to it. It takes place in a stark, snow-covered field. Slovik is led to the post with Frank Sinatra crooning “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. Foreman was aware of Sinatra’s interest in making a movie about Slovik and Sinatra recorded his version of the song for Foreman’s film. Foreman ham-handedly closes the scene with “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”. The cinematography is striking, but the music is too wink-wink. Speaking of bludgeoning the audience with your anti-war theme, the movie ends with a vignette involving a knife fight between an American soldier and a Soviet soldier in occupied Berlin. Their bodies fall in the shape of a V for Victory and dot-dot-dot-dash plays the movie out. Here comes the Cold War, which will be just like every other war.
“The Victors” is highly respected by some critics and for that reason I had looked forward to seeing it for years. It is not easy to find. Imagine my disappointment when it turned out to be a piece of crap. It is boring and too long. Most of the vignettes are pointless and some are ridiculous to boot. In one of them, Craig (who up to this point has been the typically gruff, no nonsense sergeant) scopes out a house for a billet. He meets the woman (Jeanne Moreau) who lives there. He is a gentleman and she cooks him a meal. Meanwhile the squad must be wondering where old sarge is. He stays the night. They snuggle chastely during a bombardment. They do not go down to the safety of the basement, even though she is petrified! This scene seems to go on forever. It makes you wonder how bad the scenes they cut were. In spite of this, Craig is the only interesting character (and played by the best actor) and yet he disappears halfway through the film.
Besides the revelation that war is hell, you will learn little from this movie. It is not a small unit movie, it is a small story movie. There is hardly anything about soldier life, other than that they like women. And some of them are assholes. You know the cliché about no dog dies in a war movie, this movie is the exception. You certainly won’t learn much about the war, although the newsreels provide some background. In fact, the movie assumes you already know the basics of the war. That way a short scene involving Jews escaping from an abandoned concentration camp speaks for itself, according to Foreman.
Peppard is on record as theorizing that the movie failed because it was ahead of its time in grittiness. It was too early to tap into the late 60’s anti-war war movie vibe. However, even if this movie had R-rated sex scenes (a nude scene showcasing Elke Sommers was nixed), it still would not be good. And even if the soldier’s talked like real soldiers (the most common insult is “stupid idiot”, which is said an embarrassing nine times!), the dialogue would still be stilted. It deserves some credit for turning its back on the gung-ho mentality of most war movies of that era, but the attempt to go in the other direction is a misfire. If you want to watch a good, vignette-oriented war movie, watch “The Big Red One”. The sarge sticks around to the end and by the finish you won’t be begging the movie to end.
GRADE = F
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