The Young Lions (1958)
Genre: War
Duration: 167 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: Edward Dmytryk
Stars: Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift and Dean Martin
IMDb score:
7,1 (9.576)
Releasedate: 2 April 1958
The Young Lions plot
"Irwin Shaw's monumental best-seller"
The film is about the fate of two soldiers during WWII. German officer Christian disapproves of what happens in the war less and less, while American GI Ackerman climbs the military hierarchy.
Actors and actresses
Lt. Christian Diestl
Noah Ackerman
Michael Whiteacre
Hope Plowman
Margaret Freemantle
Gretchen Hardenberg
Capt. Hardenberg
Simone
1st Sgt. Rickett
Françoise
Reviews & comments
Bobbejaantje
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- 2301 messages
- 2092 votes
Not such a great film. With this, I think the makers wanted to show that, besides the clear camps Germans vs. Americans, there was a big grey area regarding spirit and motivation in both camps. Everywhere you find overachievers, yes-men, deserters, people with a heart, ... It's just a shame that they need 2 hours and 40 to get this message across and that the film then seems to last twice as long because it's all not that gripping, despite the theme.
A big plus in this film is the use of some great actors, namely Clift, Brando, Schell and also a Van Cleef who comes by. I had a bit more trouble with Martin, but in the end they cast him well as a cowardly broadway star to make it not completely unbelievable (no pun).
However, I found the script neither gripping, nor exciting nor anything, rather boring. With dialogues and situations that at times seem unbelievable to the point of cringing (first meeting of Clift with his father-in-law to be, meeting of Brando with his French flame), because sometimes they want to lay it on too thick.
So, a fail for the script, but still worth seeing some character actors at work. Otherwise, this film is worth forgetting, unfortunately.
In brackets, the script contains another error near the time when a French woman mentions to her friend in 1940 (on the timeline) the risk of having one's head shaved when dealing with German officers. As far as I know, this custom was not introduced until after WWII and she could not possibly be referring to it.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Roger Thornhill
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- 6070 messages
- 2476 votes
Very ambitious film with two top-heavy method actors who both play on the edge without really going over it. Unfortunately, their intense acting makes the rest of the film pale a bit, causing the expressiveness of the whole to lag somewhat behind the good intentions. Difficult to say anything about The young lions film because of this: certainly not a failure, but also not a film that will stay with me for long, despite the serious premise and the sometimes very strong individual scenes.
Marlon Brando used to be my great idol, thanks to his charisma, his enormous physical presence, his willingness to accept so many different roles (Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, a motorcyclist, a Mexican resistance leader, Napoleon, a Japanese interpreter, a gambler in a musical in which he also sang) and especially his brilliant Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, still the most impressive role I have ever seen on the silver screen. Over the years, however, I have also become skeptical, and the further his career progressed, the more difficult it sometimes became to take him and his performances seriously, just as he no longer seemed to take his own film roles seriously. His Christian Diestl may be a bit on the edge, there are already some mannerisms in his interpretation, but he also comes across as powerful and intimidating, and the canvas of the plot is large enough to accommodate his acting. Clift is a bit neurotic, and his character is less interesting than Brando's anyway, while Martin plays himself very well.
Translated from Dutch · View original
james_cameron
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- 7060 messages
- 9825 votes
Long but mostly fascinating film about the fate of a number of soldiers during the Second World War, both on the German and American side. It takes some getting used to Marlon Brando as a reluctant Nazi, but he does a fine job in the end, just like Dean Martin and Montgomery Clift. A bit too many sidesteps in terms of plot to keep things on track and there is little spectacle, but characters and themes are intriguing.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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