The Young Lions (1958)

One of the most thoughtful films about World War II, this 1958 Edward Dmytryk (The Left Hand of God) drama, based on a novel by Irwin Shaw, tells parallel stories of two American soldiers (Montgomery Clift and Dean Martin) and one German officer (Marlon Brando), whose war experiences we follow until they intersect outside a concentration camp. Martin plays what he calls "a likable coward," Clift is intense as a Jewish GI, and Brando experiments with the limits of his part as a Nazi reevaluating his beliefs. Legend has it that Clift accused Brando of bleeding-heart excessiveness. Interestingly, the two Method actors share no scenes together. --Tom Keogh Amazon.com

Another World War Two Film

I had never seen this film before but am on a mission to see all of Marlon Brando's movies. In this film based on the novel by Irwin Shaw, Brando plays a Nazi officer who is in the new word of the month, "conflicted" by what the Germans are doing. There is one scene, for example, where he disobeys an order by his superior officer played by Maximillian Schell to kill a soldier. Even though this film is shot in black and white, it is obvious that the makeup people have died Brando's hair light blond, something that doesn't quite work with his dark eyes and eyebrows. While this is certainly not his best performance, watching the greatest American actor of his generation in always mesmerizing.

Montgomery Clift, who plays a Jewish American GI, is not Brando, however. Although I know that many people rave about Clift's acting abilities he often leaves me cold with his strange wall-eyed stares as he does here in much of the movie although he gets better as the film progresses. A very young Dean Martin as a performer who gets drafted, Hope Lange and Barbara Rush are in the film as well.

The action begins with grand panoramic snow skiing scenes in Bavaria; then the action moves to New York, North Africa, Paris and London. There are two stories here-- that of the American soldiers and Brando and the German troops-- that never come together until the very end of the movie.

Filmed in 1958, "The Young Lions" is a bit dated and had to conform with the then standards of decency so there is a lot of deep kissing here but with everybody keeping their clothes on. A lot is left to the imagination-- a refreshing touch. August 27, 2008

By no measure a "classic" war film

Having a very large collection of war films, there is a lot on shelf by which to compare and contrast this one. This is by no measure a "classic" war film, because that label would rank it up there with "Saving Private Ryan," "The Longest Day," "Tora-Tora-Tora," and many others through which the "classic" standard was developed.

Given, this COULD have been, and perhaps should have been a great film, but it is full of flaws, and unfortunately three of them are the acting of three pretty fair actors. The adaptation from the book was basically ineffective, and thus rendered the movie an almost painfully plodding experience. It is far too long, and opportunities to deliver a powerful message on war itself were lost. Frankly, the obvious efforts to render this an idealistic classic failed.

In terms of the acting, none of the three central characters were presented effectively, and perhaps not even believably. Part of the problem was that Brando, Clift, and Martin were not challenged, and at times actually seemed to be disinterested in anything but reading their lines. Because of his inexperience, Dean Martin can be forgiven, but Clift and Brando were extremely weak in their portrayals of the characters, and again, appreared to be merely going through their lines.

The best part of the entire film was the musical score, which was exceptional. Naturally, if the "...best part of the film..." was the music, the prosecution rests when it comes to further elaboration on the qualities - or the lack thereof - of the film. On a purely personal note, I had some trouble with what I perceived as an attempt to portray Brando's German officer character as an even "cuddly Nazi," and the director took the attempted idealism a bit too far. July 31, 2008

Occassionally ambitious but often timid would-be blockbuster

Heavily diluting Irwin Shaw's doorstop novel about two American soldiers and one Nazi whose paths gradually converge over the years from 1939-45 into an expensive but mostly not very good, often surprisingly studiobound CinemaScope soap opera, 1958's The Young Lions delivers a lot less dramatic weight than you'd expect from a film featuring both Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift.

The two stars only encounter each other in the film's last couple of minutes and don't even share a scene, but there's little doubt that if they did it would have been Brando who would have walked away with it, and not just because he has the most interesting character. Despite looking every inch the blonde Aryan ubermensch, his Christian is a much more sympathetic creation than the character in Shaw's novel, here a somewhat naïve believer in the Nazi Party who is gradually disillusioned and destroyed by the brutality he sees in service that takes him from Paris to North Africa and, ultimately, a near-abandoned concentration camp. In the novel Christian remained an unrepentant Nazi to the end, killing Clift's Jewish soldier before being killed himself, but the novel changes him from bully into victim in what would become the clichéd screen image of `the good German' who doesn't realise what the Nazis really are until it's too late (a change that infuriated Clift). Yet Brando, playing his part softly, manages to convince in a way his co-star never does, especially in his early scene when he tries inarticulately to explain to an American girl why he thinks the Nazi Party is a good thing for Germany.

Sadly there's no doubting that the film's biggest liability as far as casting goes is Montgomery Clift, delivering one of the worst and most inappropriately amateurish performances you'll ever see from a great actor. Even allowing for the effects of the accident that left half his face paralysed, he's hopelessly miscast despite the role being reduced to little more than a variation of his From Here to Eternity persona: looking much older and frailer than his years, it's impossible to believe he's the young A-1 soldier other characters talk about. It's hard to tell whether he genuinely improves in the second half of the film or you just get used to the array of clumsy mannerism and inflections he adopts: certainly his last big speech is a painful bit of curiously underpowered overacting. Knowing that Clift felt it was his finest screen work and was certain it would land him an Oscar only makes it seem all the more painful. By contrast, Dean Martin's less prominent role as a Broadway star pulling strings to stay out of the front line who befriends him is much more convincing. Maximilian Schell, sounding curiously like a young Alan Arkin, also makes an impression as Brando's ruthless immediate superior, as does Parley Baer as Christian's bon vivant friend.

George Stevens had tried to make the film years earlier, and he'd probably have done a better job of it than Edward Dmytryk who, post-blacklist, directs like a man who isn't taking any chances and who doesn't want any trouble. It's very much an old-school, rather stolid production for much of the running time, with limited location work in Europe and stock newsreel footage mixing less than convincingly with overfamiliar standing sets on the 20th Century Fox backlot.

There are moments when the picture briefly sputters into life: a sequence of triumphant Nazi soldiers swarming over the steps of the Sacre Coeur in Paris like flies on a sugarlump as they take tourist photos of each other; an uncomfortable walk through a small town as Clift's prospective father-in-law who has never even met a Jew is forced to face his own anti-Semitism; Brando walking through the decimated streets of a blitzed Berlin; and an encounter with a self-justifying concentration camp commander who prides himself on being a good soldier (a scene somewhat compromised by half of his dialogue being dubbed by a French actor and the rest played in his own thick German accent). Certainly there is enough to make the film worth watching despite the not always convincing romantic subplots - Dean Martin and Barbara Rush's being particularly confused and underwhelming - but nowhere near enough to make the film live up to its potential, let alone become the `most revered film of this generation' that the film's laughably hype-heavy trailer promised.

Aside from trailers for other Fox war films (including a bizarre DVD trailer for Tora! Tora! Tora! designed to make it look like Pearl Harbor!) the only extra is that over the top original trailer for the film, which spends almost as much time promoting producer Al Lichtman as it does the cast or the film!
November 7, 2007

The Young Lions

Great WW2 picture depicting US/German sides of the war. Excellent casting with Brando and Britt at their best and Martin & Clift also there. This one film to see more than once. Wish it was in color but B&W does the job. October 8, 2007

The Young Lions

Based on Irving Shaw's novel, Edward Dmytryk's perceptive rumination on love, war, loyalty, and fate is notable for offering one of the first three-dimensional portrayals of a Nazi character, courtesy of Brando, in a surprisingly understated mode. Clift's own turn as the proud, patriotic Jew is one of his shining moments on-screen, while Dino eased into his first serious screen role with assurance. Great support from Lee Van Cleef (as Clift's racist superior), the superb Maximillian Schell (as a cynical Nazi), and Hope Lange, Barbara Rush, and May Britt (as love interests) keep these "Lions" roaring. June 27, 2007

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