Review: The Young Lions

Marlon Brando is Christian Diestl, an idealistic young German soldier serving under Adolf Hitler, who initially has hopes that the Fuhrer will do great things for Germany (Hitler was an absolute monster, but one has to also remember that prior to WWII, he was Germany’s economic saviour, basically, so they were optimistic about him at that time). Serving in North Africa, however, proves a disillusioning experience for him. Meanwhile, we also follow American crooner Michael Whiteacre (Dean Martin) in his attempts to avoid serving on the front lines for as long as humanly possible, despite his girl (Barbara Rush) doing her part in the war effort, making him feel guilty and developing a drinking habit (Or was free alcohol just the hook to get Martin to sign on to the film?). When called up to the draft board, Martin meets young Jewish American Noah Ackerman (Montgomery Clift), and they become fast friends. Noah, who becomes the target of anti-Semitic bullying by fellow soldiers (including a sergeant played by a staggeringly thin Lee Van Cleef), also begins a romance with a pretty WASP girl named Hope (conveniently played by another Hope, Hope Lange). Her father Vaughan Taylor is uneasy about his daughter dating a Jew...until he meets nice guy Noah. Maximilian Schell turns up as a Nazi Captain and Diestl’s superior, who is very pro-German, and whose sexy wife (May Britt) has designs on his young, blond Lieutenant, Diestl. Liliane Montevecchi turns up as Diestl’s other possible love interest earlier in the film, a very patriotic Frenchwoman.

 

Montgomery Clift is in my view one of the greatest actors of all-time, whilst fellow ‘method’ actor Marlon Brando has always irritated me. The guy’s ‘method’ is always right there on show, and you never really see the character, unlike the more naturalistic thesping from Clift, Paul Newman, and to an extent Robert De Niro. So it’s interesting that in this 1958 WWII film, Marlon Brando steals the show in his best-ever performance (he has you actually caring about a German officer during WWII), whilst Clift is stuck with a character that borrows a few too many beats from his character in “From Here to Eternity”. Directed by Edward Dmytryk (“The Caine Mutiny”, “Warlock”), it’s one of the best WWII films, and somewhat underrated, not to mention it’s one of the few WWII films to give the German POV in addition to the American side of things. The film provides a really interesting balance between ‘Old Hollywood’ and a grittier, more ‘method’ American cinema.

 

In addition to providing nuance on the German side of things, the film is willing to include fear, reticence, anti-Semitism (by Americans, no less), death, suicide, you name it. True, the talk of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust is seriously dialled down, but under the circumstances, that’s understandable. It also didn’t bother me that Dean Martin’s extremely reticent character eventually goes off to war, because even then he’s still extremely reluctant to be there. He offers a very different kind of American soldier in WWII, and I appreciated that (I was less impressed with the obvious attempt at recreating the Frank Sinatra/Monty Clift pairing from “From Here to Eternity”, with Sinatra’s pal Deano. It doesn’t quite go all the way there, but still the superficial resemblance annoys nonetheless). I mean, if I had to choose between patriotism and, y’know, not dying, I’d choose to stay alive. Fuck patriotism at that point, so I totally understand any reticence to fight. Brando’s excellent here, in a very restrained performance, and proves to be quite good with accents it must be said. At no point does the hand-wringing, wrinkled forehead brooding crap go into overdrive here, and there are no cotton balls in his damn cheeks.

 

Although there are elements to Clift’s character that reminded me of “From Here to Eternity” (except here he gets bullied by fellow soldiers due to anti-Semitism, not a reluctance to box, which is probably easier to swallow, really), there is no doubting the man’s talent as an actor. A very sad and troubled man, his vulnerability and seeming insecurity as a human being (especially after his horrific car accident two years before this film) appeared to lend him a humility and sensitivity that made him both magnetic and sympathetic on screen. Didn’t anyone ever tell him how great he was? His scenes with Hope Lange in this might’ve been mundane in a lesser actor’s hands, but Clift’s sensitivity and awkwardness make them very sweet. Or maybe he had just been on a bender with Deano the night before, who knows. At one point he says to her; ‘I guess I thought if I was myself, you wouldn’t look at me twice’. Car accident or not, only Monty Clift could look the way he did, deliver that line, and get away with it. One thing I didn’t get, though; After one of his fellow soldiers has already beaten the crap out of him, why do they keep beating him up? We know why Clift keeps fighting, but what else is there for the other guys to prove? Surely even racists would stop after one beating, and move on to someone else, right? The eventual turnaround of these men is a tad hard to swallow, too, and even I can’t defend Clift going AWOL in yet another WWII film. The pairing of supposedly Jewish Clift and WASP Lange is a tad obvious, and to be honest, her dad Vaughan Taylor looks more Jewish than Clift, but those are minor issues, really.

 

Deano’s pretty good in his role, which was apparently originally intended for Tony Randall (which would’ve been interesting). He’s not the actor Sinatra was, but he has charisma and presence (I always found him much more likeable than Frank). Having him play a singer and reticent participant in the war, makes sure his isn’t just Maggio from “From Here to Eternity” played by Frank’s right-hand man. He gets one great, borderline vomiting reaction shot late in the film, in particular. Deano’s obsession with alcohol in this is, however, rather disconcerting. Look out for an excellent small role for Maximilian Schell as a very different kind of German to the one he played in “Judgment at Nuremberg”. He’s a genuine worry every time he appears. In fact, at times he might actually remind you of Christoph Waltz from the more recent “Inglorious Basterds”. There’s also memorable small roles for French-Italian actress Liliane Montevecchi and a seriously hot Swedish actress May Britt. The former only appears very briefly as a potential love match for Brando, named Francoise, while the latter’s two scenes as Schell’s sexy wife are starkly different, starting out as a Gloria Grahame-esque femme fatale (except hot), before reappearing a somewhat deglamorised woman. I guess war does that to people, even if they’re not the ones fighting in it.

 

I’m not sure where the film was shot, but it all looks very authentic (the scenery is very nice), and the battle scenes, whilst not terribly large scale are seemingly real too. Having some of it take place in Africa also gives it some distinction, with some shots of stark, bare landscape and trees (The film is in B&W, and I couldn’t possibly imagine it in colour).

 

This film is no “From Here to Eternity” and will be too long and slow for some, but I found it all really interesting, and somewhat disarming in its treatment of at least the Brando character. It’s in showing different viewpoints and angles towards the war that the film really differentiates itself, despite an occasional similarity to “From Here to Eternity” (BTW, anyone else think the scene where Clift is chastised by an SO for his reading material would’ve been funnier if he had been reading “From Here to Eternity”?).

 

The structure of the film is somewhat episodic, but with two storylines and lots of ground to cover, it’s necessary, as is the length. It’s an ambitious but also impressive and interesting film. It’s so impressive that you likely won’t even notice the first time around that our two main storylines don’t converge until right at the end. And it actually works anyway! Why has this film been largely forgotten? I just don’t get it. The screenplay by Edward Anhalt (“Becket”, “Hour of the Gun”) was based on the Irwin Shaw novel, with apparently quite a difference between the two, something that annoyed by Shaw and star Clift. So perhaps (reading between the lines) the things I liked most about the film are the least connected to the source material.

 

Rating: B+