100 Best War Movies: 70. A Walk in the Sun (1945)

 

“A Walk in the Sun” is a faithful rendering of the novel by Harry Brown. He enlisted in 1941 and served as a writer for Yank magazine. The movie was released in 1945 and is in black and white. It is set in 1943 during the invasion of Salerno in the Italian campaign in WWII. Production began after actor Burgess Meredith (who served as the narrator in the film) urged that the book be made into a movie. The director was Lewis Milestone of “All Quiet” fame. The U.S. Army cooperated in production by providing weapons, including American weapons masquerading as Germans. The Army also vetted the script suggesting two minor changes. The movie was greeted positively by audiences and critics. It was rereleased in 1951 as “Salerno Beachhead”.

            In an unorthodox use of credits, we are introduced to the main characters by face and name. The narrator tells us a little about each in a folksy way.  They are members of the Texas Division.  They are from all over the United States, however.  The platoon includes an Italian-American, a factory worker, a minister's son, a farmer, a Southerner, and, of course, a guy from Brooklyn. Then to make things more intriguing, the ballad begins and will reappear periodically throughout the film. The men are on a landing craft heading for Salerno.  We get our first taste of what’s to come as the men engage in typical soldier conversations. The big incident is the mortal wounding of their lieutenant as he incautiously looks over the side of the craft. The men take this setback in stride indicating both the enlisted/officer divide and the hardened attitude of combat veterans.

The platoon lands on a quiet stretch of beach and digs in. The audience craving for action and violence is introduced to the reality of battles – there are large stretches of boredom and individual soldiers (and even small units) are usually clueless about what is going on elsewhere on the battlefield. Anyone expecting the talking to end at this stage of the movie is quickly disabused of that hope. However, the conversations are fascinating and feel like they come out of the mouths of G.I.s, not a Hollywood screenwriter trying to imagine what soldiers would talk about. We get a lot of 1940s slang so for those of you are not old enough here is a glossary of just a few of the terms:

loving = stands in for the "f word" (this is a 1945 war movie, remember)

take a powder = relax

hit the dirt = get down (used mostly when strafing is possible)

sure as little apples = very sure

hoist tail = get up

shake it = move quickly

take ten = take a break

doughfoot = soldier (variation of doughboy)

in the pink = healthy

you kill me = you’re being ridiculous

what’s eating you? = what’s bothering you?

And the term that was used at least ten times – “butt”. This refers to a cigarette as in “butt me” if you want one. This being a 1940s war movie, be careful of second hand smoke because these actors smoke every chance they get. The unit even has a pet phrase – “nobody dies”. This serves as a hoped for self-fulfilling prophecy. Audience, do not fear – it is not an accurate prediction of the upcoming events. By the way, the phrase eerily foreshadows “Hamburger Hill” and its “It don’t mean nothing”.

     The plot is simple. The unit is sent on a mission to destroy a bridge and take a farm house.  They are not told why. The rest of the movie is a series of action scenes interspersed with bouts of conversations. The soldiers talk about home, their futures (one keeps predicting that they will be in the Army all the way through the “Battle of Tibet”), food (one dreams of eating an apple), etc. Thankfully, no one pulls out a picture of his future wife, thus avoiding certain death. The men have developed an admirable small unit comradeship which allows them to constantly joke and provoke. My favorite exchange is when one of the privates asks Sgt. Tyne (Dana Andrews) if he can smoke. Tyne’s one word response is “Burn”.

Along the way, they have to deal with their leader succumbing to combat fatigue, what we call PTSD today. There is no explanation to why he cracks. Probably from too much combat in the past and being thrust into a leadership role. The platoon is sympathetic, but takes it in stride. Everyone has a breaking point. They ambush a German armored car in a scene that may hold the record for most grenades thrown. They eventually arrive at the farm house and the movie concludes with them taking it, not without losses. However, although the movie is truthful in depicting deaths as being random, it is not a “who will survive?” movie. They are not on a suicide mission.

ACTING:                      B

ACTION:                      C   7/10 (quantity)

ACCURACY:               A  (it follows the book very closely)

PLOT:                           A-

REALISM:                   A

CINEMATOGRAPHY:     B

SCORE:                        B 

BEST SCENE:  ambushing the armored car

BEST QUOTE:  Windy:  Dear Frances, we just blew a bridge and took a farmhouse. It was so easy... so terribly easy.

CRITIQUE.  “A Walk in the Sun” is an odd little movie. It is definitely old school, but it has some features that you don’t see in most of the black and white WWII movies. This is immediately clear with the opening that has the character identifications and the ballad. Granted, the song is very corny, but it is different. This is a very talkative movie, but thankfully the dialogue is entertaining. Few war movies are truer to the sense of humor of American GIs. The comedy team of Friedman (George Tyne) and Rivera (Richard Conte) have the following typical exchange. Friedman: “When I run out of butts, you’ll be in a fine mess.” Rivera: “I’ll find a new friend.” The dialogue is not all joking around. The men can get deep at times.. Several lines are brilliant. Tyne: “It’s a funny thing how many people you meet in the army that cross your path for a few seconds and you never see ‘em again.”

 It also realistically portrays the “hurry up and wait” nature of combat. Most war movies spend way too much time on the fighting and way too little on the waiting. And yet, I do not think most viewers would find it boring. That may be because the platoon is continually moving forward, with some breaks. The two big action scenes are well-staged. It is very good at portraying the “fog of war”. They know their mission, but have no idea what is happening elsewhere in the beachhead. “You never get to see nothing. You’re fighting by ear.”

         The acting is good throughout the ensemble. No one hams it up. Even Huntz Hall (of Bowery Boys fame) is impressive. He gets to argue that a human is more complex than a leaf. (That sounds silly, but is actually deep.) Dana Andrews as Tyne is the reluctant, but dutiful leader. He is not heroic and makes mistakes. He wears the mantle of command uncomfortably, but ably. The movie is excellent in depicting the attitude of GIs in WWII. Let’s get this over with. Each step is one step closer to the end and going home.

              The movie is not based on any actual incident. The invasion of Salerno did start out as a “walk in the sun” as depicted in the movie. I have already commented on the accuracy of the soldier talk and behavior. The tactics also ring true. The seeming lack of emotions in dealing with fallen comrades is probably exaggerated to match the mood of the film, but battle-hardened men could conceivably be callous at this point.

“A Walk in the Sun” is a must-see movie for WWII movie buffs. It is one of the best movies made about the war during the war. It avoids the patriotism and propaganda of most of those movies. It is one of the best small unit movies. You don’t get the usual bombastic action scenes that Hollywood loves, but you do get to know the men and you get a look at a typical mission. Not every mission was taking a bridge or landing on a beach under fire. Sometimes it was just walking down a road to take a farmhouse and losing good men in the process.

BOOK/MOVIE: A Walk in the Sun (1944/1945)

                        Harry Brown was a poet.  His first book was a 156 page poem entitled “The Poem of Bunker Hill”.  In January, 1941, he enlisted in the Army Corps of Engineers.  He did not make it overseas as he was stationed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.  In 1942, he joined Yank magazine.  In 1944, he wrote the book.  The book was a hit with readers and critics, but it got engulfed by the spate of epic war novels like Norman Mailer’s “The Naked and the Dead” and is largely forgotten today. The movie germinated when Burgess Meredith (the narrator in the film) encouraged producer Samuel Bronston to turn it into a movie.  Bronston ran into financial difficulties and the project fell to Lewis Milestone.  Milestone convinced Brown to move to Hollywood and become a screenwriter.  He did not write the screenplay for the movie.  Robert Rossen, who later wrote “All the King’s Men”, was the screenwriter.  As we will see, Rossen did not have to work hard on “A Walk in the Sun”.  Brown had a productive career as a screenwriter.  He wrote “Sands of Iwo Jima” and “Eight Iron Men” (based on his play). 

                        The novel is the opposite of a “big” war novel.  It covers only half a day in the war.  A platoon lands at Salerno in Italy and has the mission to assault a farm house that is several miles inland.  It follows the heterogenous group as it moves down a road to its objective.  The men discuss various topics and evidence the  black humor, griping, and wistfulness typical of G.I.’s.  They lose their commanding officer early and his replacement cracks due to combat fatigue (what we today call “post-traumatic stress disorder”).  They carry on because they have a job to do.  They are not patriots.  There is a limited amount of action leading up to the attack on the farm house and a bridge.

                        Lewis Milestone brought in Colonel Thomas Drake as technical adviser for the film.  Drake had been taken captive at Kasserine Pass and was exchanged due to ill health.  He did not have a lot of advising to do as the story is a simple one.  The Army did request that the nonuse of bazookas against the farm house be explained by having the bazooka team use up their ammunition (off screen).  Milestone ignored the request that a scene be added where the mission is outlined for the platoon.  He felt the objective was simply a means to the march.

                        I would have liked to have Robert Rossen’s job.  The screenplay is almost exactly like the book.  He borrowed the dialogue almost verbatim.  I could find little that the men say that they didn’t say in the novel.  To his credit, Rossen was smart enough to realize the dialogue could not be improved on.  Brown, although he apparently did not have first-hand experience with combat infantry, had a way with soldier banter.  The book is heavily dialogue-oriented and it works because the interchanges between the soldiers are cracking.  Much of it is humorous.  But the movie is not just a stroll in the Italian countryside with soldiers yammering away.  It explores several themes.

                                        One of the themes is comradeship.  The platoon is from the Texas Division, but the men are a cross-section of the nation (including Brooklyn, of course).  They were clearly thrown together by the war and would not have been comrades otherwise.  The dialogue indicates how these veterans of North Africa have evolved their social dynamic, which has a twinge of dysfunction in it.  The love is there, but it can’t be stated.  This means the dialogue could have come from any American war, up until Vietnam.  Watch and listen to “Hamburger Hill” and you will see the difference between G.I.’s and grunts.  And the difference between all previous American wars and Vietnam.  It also explores leadership, in a realistic way.  The green lieutenant dies in a greenish way.  He is replaced by Sergeant Porter, who is clearly in over his head.  A veteran who has been with the platoon for a while, he should be a good leader, but his wits have been dulled by too much war.  Tyne (Dana Andrews in the movie) reluctantly steps up to take command when Porter inevitably cracks.  A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.  Tyne makes mistakes reflective of the Army’s tactical doctrine.  The men follow him because they respect him and someone has to lead.  An unusual theme for a movie made in the 1940s is combat fatigue.  Porter suffers from a classic case of it.  He has been through so much that he reaches his breaking point.  Brown laconically introduces him by saying that “he has a lot on his mind”.   Brown conforms to the theory that every WWII infantryman had a certain breaking point directly related to time in combat.  He has the other soldiers showing apathy more than sympathy, but they are not critical of Porter either.  They understand, but they don’t condone.   None take the Patton approach.  There is relief that it doesn’t happen in the middle of a fight.

                                        There are slight differences between the book and the movie.  While the book expands on the characters’ thoughts, Rossen was able to translate some of those thoughts into dialogue.  You still will learn more about the characters from reading the book, but not as much as you would think.   One improvement Rossen makes is with Brown’s strange decision to make Tyne a corporal.  This means Tyne is advanced over the competent Sgt. Ward (Lloyd Bridges).  In the book, Ward has no problem with this, but it’s an oddly unrealistic aspect of the novel.  Windy Craven (John Ireland) is bumped up to a major character in the movie.  He serves as a secondary narrator as he composes letters in his head.  Craven does not appear in the book until page 142.  It was a good decision by Rossen, but an odd one considering this was Ireland’s first film and clearly he did not have the clout to enhance his role.  The ending in the book takes a minimalist approach.  There are no details about the taking of the house or the blowing of the bridge (which in the book is more realistically a pontoon bridge).  Tyne, not Windy, gets the last words:  “It was so easy. It is so terribly easy.”

                                        Normally, I find that war movies improve upon the novels they are based upon.  The screenwriter has the luxury of having the blueprint for the house and then he can make improvements.  In this case, the movie is essentially the novel.  That is a good thing because the novel is one of the great war novels and was easily adapted to a movie.  For people who are more visual than print-oriented, the movie is an outstanding substitute for reading  the book.  The ensemble cast brings the characters to life perfectly.  The action is well-done.   I actually used the farm house scenario in my Military History class.  Spoiler alert:  Tyne could have handled it better.  One area where the book is superior is it does not have any ballads in it.  The movie has five sappy songs!  (Down from twelve due to preview audiences vomiting.)  There is another difference from “Hamburger Hill”, by the way.

                BOOK =  A

       MOVIE  =  A

Here are some of my favorite passages from the book:

There is something about a dead man’s face that cannot be explained.  Something has gone from its features.  It’s as though life lent an aura, a glow, that unseen, could yet be perceived through some unknown sense.  

It was odd how many people you meet in the Army who crossed your path for perhaps only a few seconds and then went on , never to be seen again.

When a man is uncomfortable, through either heat or cold, he finds it hard to think consecutively.  He is too conscious of his ever-present discomfort.  The body, as always, thwarts the mind.

Every man … had his own thoughts as he walked along, and they hovered unseen over the little group, an indefinable armor, a protection against fate, an indestructible essence.

The men were not even interested in Tinker’s hand, poised above the wall.  They had seen such things before.  It was very much like going to a bad movie for the second time.  It was wonderful what could bore them after a year in battle.

A BRIDGE TOO FAR (5) vs. A WALK IN THE SUN (12)

 

VS.

 

 



A BRIDGE TOO FAR (5) vs. A WALK IN THE SUN (12)

 

ACTING:

 

                "A Bridge Too Far" has an all-star cast of both British and American A-Listers.  They took the production seriously.  There are excellent performances across the board.  Maybe it was the competition.  The standouts included James Caan as a grunt who saves his “dead” lieutenant and Elliot Gould as a crusty American officer who has to build a Bailey Bridge.  Michael Caine, Anthony Hopkins, Sean Connery, and Gene Hackman are commanding as commanders.  Kudos to Dirk Bogarde for taking on the thankless role of Gen. Browning (Monty’s incompetent lap dog – or so the movie implies) and making American audiences shake their heads smugly. 

               "A Walk in the Sun" has a cast of familiar B-Listers from the 1940s.  They do as well as could be expected, but can’t compete with the “Bridge” cast.  Dana Andrews is strong in the lead role, but noone breaks out.  A couple of the performances get a little grating after a while (ex. Richard Conte as Ramirez) .  However, given the small nature of the film, the acting is more than adequate.

FIRST QUARTER SCORE:      BRIDGE    9            WALK     7

CLICHES: 

                “Bridge” is not the type of war movie that lends itself to clichés so this category is slightly unfair.  I tried thinking of some “epic war movie” clichés like pompous orchestral music, but could not come up with a comparable list to the combat movie clichés list.  With respect to similar movies like “The Longest Day”, “Midway”, and “Tora! Tora! Tora!”, it follows the typical plot pattern.  Concentration on leadership instead of the troops, coverage of several units, jumping between Allied and Axis perspectives, a few grunts getting personal stories (ex. Dohun), etc.

                “Walk” is a small unit dynamics movie in the classic sense.  It begins with a thank you to the Armed Forces. The group is heterogeneous (including the Brooklynite), but the different backgrounds are not a major plot point.  There is a commentator in the form of Windy Craven who is composing a letter to his sister in his head.  The hero (Tyne) has leadership forced on him.  There is a distinct objective that they move towards.  The plot alternates between action and dialogue.  On the other hand, it is missing several of the other clichés.  There is no redemption character and no real conflict within the group.

HALF TIME SCORE:     BRIDGE     17             WALK    14

PLOT:

                “Bridge” is the true story of Operation Market Garden and it is based on the outstanding book by Cornelius Ryan.  The movie does justice to both.  It does an excellent job juggling the command perspectives of both sides and integrating the battle scenes.  Considering the complexity of the campaign, the film is not confusing and manages to stick to a linear structure.

                “Walk” has a much simpler plot.  It also is based on a great novel by Harry Brown so it is not a true story.  The plot builds slowly to an assault on a German farm house in Italy. The combat scene at the end is the obligatory payoff for a movie that is more interested in soldier interaction than action.  This means the plot is uncommon for a war movie and thus its competent direction by Lewis Milestone makes the movie very interesting, but not for everyone.  In other words, if you have seen ten war movies, you will probably hate it.  If you have seen 100, you’ll probably love it.  The movie is almost totally the opposite of “Bridge” in its concentration on the small picture.  The movies make outstanding companions.

THIRD QUARTER SCORE:    BRIDGE    26        WALK    22

COMBAT:

                “Bridge” is very underrated as a combat film.  There are several very well done combat sequences.  The scenes involving the Arnhem Bridge stand out, but there is also the best river crossing under fire scene in war movie history.  The action is violent and pretty graphic.  There are plenty of realistic explosions.  Compared to its most obvious equivalent, “The Longest Day”, it packs a lot more punch.

                “Walk” is at a big disadvantage in this tournament when it comes to combat.  It throws some in, but almost as an afterthought.  There is a scene involving ambushing an armored car which is cool, but mainly because of the staging and cinematography.  The assault on the farm house has a weird feel to it with most of the action from a German machine gunner point of view and Americans making a frontal charge leading to falling bodies.  It’s pretty bloodless.  Other than the lack of blood, the movie is honest about the boring nature of warfare where long bouts of sitting around and talking are broken up by short intense moments of violence.  However, this reality does not go over well with most war movie fans.

FINAL SCORE:    BRIDGE    35      WALK    27

 

COLOR ANALYSIS:  I am a big fan of "A Walk in the Sun", but sometimes bigger is better.  "Walk" could not hang with the more talent-laden "Bridge".  Realistic soldier talk and behavior makes "Walk" a fine representative of the minimalist school of war films, but in a match-up of combat films it lacks bang.  The fact that its day in the life of a platoon is true to the basically boring nature of war is commendable.  However, it ran into a movie that was true to the massive nature of a military campaign.  "Bridge" lived up to its pedigree with excellent acting and set pieces.  It just overwhelmed "Walk".