El sargento

I believe this is one of the most sensitive films about hiding your gayness in the military. Even though it takes place many years prior to the 'don't ask don't tell' motto, it speaks of the difficulties a gay man must cope with.

Now that the industry has lost one of its more brilliant character actors, I hope this movie will find its way to DVD, along with "The Loved One" which has been on moritorium for some time.

I haven't seen "The Sergeant" since its first release more than 30 years ago, and I've been disappointed that it hasn't been made available on VHS or recycled on cable TV. The ending of the movie is a cliche, and an unfortunate one, that likely would anger certain gay interest groups today. Yet I recall this film as one that opened the mind of a young heterosexual male who, until then, had been extremely homophobic. Rod Steiger's performance, as a supermacho soldier who is horrified of his own feelings of attraction to another man, is riveting. The outcome of the film, while dated, reflects the conflict and repression that gay men and women often experienced in our society prior to the advent of enlightenment in the 1970s (and, in the case of gay people in today's U.S. armed forces, still do). For my teenaged mind, it aroused the prospect that ALL human beings have the capacity to be sexually attracted to another person of the same sex, and that such attraction should be accepted and understood, rather than dreaded or shunned. Nothing in my subsequent experience has altered that perception. Despite the cliched ending, this is a film that displays empathy for its tormented lead character and demands that he be understood. It deserves revival.

Cliché? No more than a thousand other films that make melodrama of the agony of unrequited love. What makes the film unique is not just that The Sargeant was "secretly" homosexual, what makes it unique is that he was TOO OLD (and fat!) for Swanson, who was obviously a "hottie", and more likely just plain heterosexual anyway.

It's impossible to watch this film and not be somewhat awed by the performance of Rod Steiger, who doesn't speak a word until ten minutes into the film, but his silent performance at the end still screams in your gut as the closing credits roll.

Did Swanson feel guilty for not helping out the old guy, or just pity because The Sargeant was a pervert? This question is left unanswered at the end of the film. It is as vital and important today as it was when released. It tells a story not only of general attitudes toward homosexuality at the time, but the never-ending story of young men's indifference to the attentions of fat old supervisors.

Seriously, the WB Archive DVD looks very good, but it's easy to see how a full restoration of the film could look exceptionally good. The important thing is that the film not be overlooked because the gay man doesn't get his guy.

A real tour de force for Steiger, whose riveting portrayal of an Army sergeant wrestling with his own repressed desires is both realistic and compelling. Another top-notch Steiger character study.

With the current debate over gays and lesbians serving in the military this 1968 film The Sergeant has a relevance undreamed of by the people who made this film a year before the Stonewall Rebellion.

Rod Steiger gives a brilliant performance as the tortured, self loathing, latently gay non-commissioned officer with whom the psychological bubble finally bursts. Steiger is a master sergeant assigned to a construction battalion in France. He's a professional soldier through and through and does take a rather lax company and whips into some kind of shape. Still there's an uneasiness to him that the men can't figure out. It isn't even on their radar screens, a gay man in the military just didn't compute back then.

It computes least of all to Private John Philip Law whose company Steiger seems to crave incessantly. The fact that Law is seeing local French girl Ludmila Mikael doesn't make any difference, Steiger intrudes on their relationship even more as it gets more serious between Law and Mikael.

It all breaks out in a devastating and dramatic climax where Steiger bursts forth from the latent closet. I assure you that you will not forget it once you've Steiger's self destruction.

In the time Steiger was brought up being gay was the most loathsome thing there was. Brokeback Mountain covered the same things and Steiger did not even have an idyllic summer to look forward to as did Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. Another military film that covered latent homosexuality was Reflections In A Golden Eye where Marlon Brando as an officer was crushing out on a private in his company played by Robert Forster. That however was only one of many issues covered in that film, whereas this is the central and only theme of The Sergeant.

For those interested in gays in the military I would commend you reading Nigel Hamilton's book on the life of Field Marshal Sir Bernard L. Montgomery. Although it's a small part of the story, Hamilton attributes Monty's well known prickly personality to the fact that he was latently gay and never came to terms with it. Rod Steiger's character would have known exactly what Montgomery was feeling.

This is one of Rod Steiger's best screen roles, but the timeliness of the topic means this film could use a remake. Try casting this film with some of today's players. I could see Al Pacino or Robert DeNiro in the part of The Sergeant with maybe some teen heartthrob like Zac Efron as the recruit.

Still it would be extraordinary if it topped this one.