NFR Project: 'A Walk in the Sun' (1945)

 

NFR Project: “A Walk in the Sun”

Dir: Lewis Milestone

Scr: Robert Rossen

Pho: Russell Harlan

Ed: W. Duncan Mansfield

Premiere: Dec. 3, 1945

117 min.

Innovative in its time, A Walk in the Sun pales now in comparison to more realistic efforts of the era such as William Wellman’s two World War II epics, The Story of G.I. Joe (1945) and Battleground (1949). However, this film gives us a soldier’s-eye view of a few momentous hours in the life of an Army combat platoon. Milestone had famously made the Oscar-winning World War I drama All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), so he was a natural pick to helm this film.

The place is Salerno, Italy. It is 1943. Men of the Texas Division are landing at dawn to attack and oppose the German army. Their objective is to take a farmhouse inland and blow up a nearby bridge. We follow them as they make their way across the hot Italian sunscape (the 20^th Centruy Fox ranch).

We are privileged to hear their thoughts, and their dialogue with each other quickly sketches character and attitude. The back-and-forth is a little stiff; the film has a “literary” feel to it that is hard to shake. Milestone keeps his camera on the ground and in the faces of the men, relentlessly focusing on their inner struggles as they march into a deadly encounter.

The platoon loses its lieutenant before it even hits the beach; its platoon sergeant is killed as well. That leaves the execution of the plan to Sergeant Porter (Herbert Rudley), backed up by Seargeants Tyne (Dana Andrews) and Ward (Lloyd Bridges). Other soldiers include Privates Archimbeau (Norman Lloyd), Craven (John Ireland), and McWilliams (Sterling Holloway).

Porter soon cracks up, and Tyne takes over. The men destroy a German half-track. They get strafed. They get to the farmhouse, and find it stanchly defended. They wind up implementing a feint around the farmhouse, followed by a frontal assault. With great loss of life, they take the objective.

We are given insight into the panic and uncertainty accompanying every step along the way. The nervous banter between the men is standard WWII-type dialogue, along with the insertion of the word “loving” for the f-word. “Loving” is used a lot.

The film is epitome of the all-American (and all-white) Army comradeship films. Men get close to each other with wisecracks and obscenity. They muddle through, they improvise. They get the job done.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: ‘The Ballad of San Pietro.’