Die Sieger

Predating APOCALYPSE NOW by fifteen years, this is the most powerful, sad, ironic and hard-hitting anti-war film I have seen and I rank it nearly on a par with KING RAT, my personal favourite. A group of ill-assorted soldiers make their way through the grim battlefields of France and Germany and Italy as much oppressed by their own corrupt fellow soldiers and officers as the enemy. There are so many memorable scenes in the movie of suffering, loneliness and the tragedy of war that I cannot recommend it highly enough. The script is literate, uncompromising, surprising and resolutely objective about both the enemy and the liberators that fight them. The cast is an amazing ensemble of talent and there is a sense of really brutal authenticity in the film which seldom is to be found in the cinema today. A final grim twist at the end, reflecting the height of the Cold War when the film was made, is one of the simplest and most articulate statements on the continuing madness of human conflict we are still gripped by. Coppola, Stone and every other great film-maker dealing with war in its various incarnations is indebted to this unique movie.

It's been many years since I've seen this picture, but there are scenes and sequences which I will never forget.

Essentially, the film tells how war, any war, ultimately de-humanizes everyone it touches. Some survive. Some don't. Others are permanently scarred. Through the cracks in the rubble, human goodness and feeling sometimes emerges, but the overall cost is unbearably heavy.

Particularly powerful are sequences where George Hamilton returns to the European city to visit the girl he'd fallen in love with, not expecting to find what he finds has happened to her; George Peppard visiting "old sarge" in the hospital, also to be surprised; the ugly face of racial violence within the armed forces.

Episodic, yes, even maddeningly so, as the film loosely follows a group of sometimes unconnected soldiers and what happens to them and others--but still, THE VICTORS haunts and reminds us that war is the last acceptable choice of human activities.

It's gratifying to read so many other appreciative reviews of this too-little-seen film.

I was 12 years old when Life magazine ran a spread on "The Victors" late in 1963, shortly before its release, and I recall the article was a bit negative in describing the film, as though the reviewer couldn't accept a film that depicted World War II so bleakly. Few films about Americans in that war had ever portrayed them so unheroically. (The only one I can think of is Robert Aldrich's "Attack!") The movie's Christmas season release in a country still reeling from the JFK assassination knocked this grim film out of theaters in a matter of three or four weeks. It was shown several times on the old CBS late movie series in the late '60s (where I first got to see it), but I've only seen it once on a premium cable presentation, in the mid-'90s. Several years ago I was able to obtain a 16mm print from the only rental house that offered it, but it was a scan-and-pan version from which some scenes had been cut.

One of these scenes, quickly trimmed from the initial release version, depicted a young European boy trying to sell a sexual service to American GIs; I think the other scene that was cut involved one of the female stars in the film. Even for the early 1960s, "The Victors" was a sexually frank film (without being in any way pornographic), which certainly must have offended some early viewers and exhibitors. Indeed, despite the American characters, the film really is more European in flavor and moral atmosphere. (Foreman, blacklisted by Hollywood in 1953, had been living in England for several years when he made the film, and his directorial style seems to owe much to the Italian neo-realists.)

(It's also interesting to contemplate that Foreman's previous film outing had been as writer and producer of "The Guns of Navarone." One is tempted to think that the gala heroics and spectacular action of that popular film may have prompted Foreman to make a more realistic war movie.)

The episodic format of "The Victors" also makes it a difficult viewing experience for people used to more continuity in their films. Foreman based the film rather faithfully on Alexander Baron's novel, "The Human Kind," itself essentially a collection of short sketches involving the same wartime characters (in the novel, they're British soldiers, but Foreman retained their names for the American film characters). Still, for a repeat viewer, it is possible to see the characters change through the episodes. Some of the characters disappear with no explanation, others are suddenly promoted, new characters appear unheralded. Life, and war, are like that sometimes. And there is some shrewd foreshadowing: Early in the film, Trower (George Hamilton) remarks that he hopes to meet a Russian soldier; and be sure to take careful note of Grogan (Jim Mitchum) in his first few scenes.

"The Victors" is not without humor or compassion, but Foreman's purpose was to eliminate the heroics and the excitement of combat and to demonstrate that, as much as we try to rationalize it, war is a degrading experience for all concerned. The corrupting of a lovely young musician (Romy Schneider) by an American soldier (Michael Callan), the fleeting affair between Baker (Vince Edwards)and a young Italian mother (Rosanna Schiaffino), the encounter between Sgt. Craig (Eli Wallach) and a shell-shocked French woman (Jeanne Moreau) -- all remain vivid in the memory.

Another interesting feature of "The Victors," which was not in the novel, is Foreman's use of wartime newsreels as counterpoint to the fictional scenes. Sometimes it's a little too cute, but mostly it works.

Foreman knew that most people who saw "The Victors" would have an idea of what war action was like, if only from earlier war movies. What he wanted to show, what few earlier war films ever showed, was the moral wear-and-tear of combat on solder and civilian alike, in victory or defeat. To a large extent he succeeds. This is a film well-deserving of DVD release (in its complete widescreen version). And if you like this film, go the TCM website and demand that they show it!

One of the most extraordinarily intelligent films ever made, this epic from Carl Foreman (High Noon, Bridge Over River Kwai, Guns of Navarone) follows the fortunes of an American platoon during WWII.

Plenty of well-known stars (Peppard, Fonda, Finney) shine in solid performances while the B&W film compliments the moody cinematography.

It's not anti-war - more a study of friendship, love and prejudice intensified under stress (Casualties of War indeed). Episodes of deep pathos contrast with intermittent feelgood factors - although some of the intended irony is a little heavy (primarily because it was aimed at the American viewer).

Unlike Private Ryan and similar Yank-only trash, it is one of the few WWII films to actively feature the participation of other allied nations, notably France, Russia and India, and the effects on the civilians of Belgium, England, Italy and Germany.

My favourite scene is when the character played by George Peppard is waiting for a bus in the pouring rain while on leave in England. A working class family invite him into their home until the bus arrives and their hospitality is such that he comfortably falls asleep on a chair by the fire. On finally catching the bus he discovers the family have placed a 10 shilling note in his top pocket. I think this is one of the most touching moments in the history of film.

In the most famous scene the platoon are ordered to witness a deserter executed by firing squad somewhere in a snowy landscape of France, while over-running from earlier newsreel footage, the soundtrack is playing 'Have yourself a Merry Little Xmas'. Very moving.

America should be proud of this one.

Kevin Molloy TV Producer London, England

A somewhat distasteful but fine, very watchable film. It has the one cynical message of how WWII consequentially brought about some sort of demise in all those involved in the Allies efforts to rid Europe of the Nazis - both soldiers and citizens. In a series of short scenes, different characters take centre stage in depicting different aspects of the main theme. Sometimes the best in people is displayed, with genuine friendships and affections, but those with more exposure to the conflict as it progresses from the invasion of France, are more susceptible to their darker sides coming to the fore. Some are more able to overcome this (like Peppard), others sink deeper into despair (like Hamilton), some don't question how they have become worse (like Mitcham), while the ultimate downfall of others is physical rather than mental maiming (like Wallach). Faults do exist. The film is a little heavy laden with making the same point in unrelated scenes, and sometimes the attempted pathos is over done. Also, like all films of its era, the 'likeable' male characters have to be clean cut and good looking, any black character is too weak, and there are too many glamorous women, with the only strong woman character not being pleasant. Republican Yanks will hate the film's lack of heroism and fair play, along with it's criticism of the virtues the USA was fighting for: Profiteers doing well as the free-market economy went to war and GI's capable of being as racist as their Nazi foes. In the main its an enjoyable, nicely acted film - one of my favourites - a refreshing change to all the simplistic, pious and very corny "good over-coming evil" representation of this conflict a-la Spielberg, etc.