Force of Arms

I wasn't sure what to make of this at first since I had never heard of the movie before I saw it on Turner recently, but almost right off the bat this earnest war/romance drama shows it's mettle.

William Holden is a GI on a short leave in Naples during the Allied advance up Italy. He meets WAC Nancy Olson , and after a short resistance on her part they fall in love , more or less at first sight. I liked the dialog between the two of them during this 'courtship' , it is well written and though Holden plays the wisecracker he so often did in his roles, it seems natural in these scenes.

The rest of the film tracks their time in Italy, together and apart, as Holden returns to the front and faces the need to prove his courage and cool under fire.

The thing that made this movie stand out is the treatment of a war time in service romance that is neither played for laughs or pathos. It is slightly melodramatic at times, but appropriately so for the material.

One of the better films of this type I have seen.

It would be easy to pass off Force of Arms as just another post-WWII action/romance movie until you're a few frames into viewing it. Surprisingly realistic with actual combat footage interspersed with filming. Strong yet sensitively-understated performances by Holden, Olson, and, in a supporting role, Frank Lovejoy. An inspired and superior script helps convey the chaos of combat, its effects on those who are scarred by it, and the powerful force of love that can somehow emerge in the midst of the sheer will to survive. A classic that feels as real in 2017 as when it was filmed.

Forget San Pietro. The real conflict in this early 50s combat film is between anti war cynicism and patriotic effusion. The later wins out, as it almost always would in a pre 1960s Hollywood war movie, but the fact that there is even a spirited contest between the two ideologies shows just how far in the rear view mirror WW2, our only morally justified foreign engagement, had receded by 1951, especially once Korea had taken its place.

So if only as a marker of American society's changing views on war and flag waving this film would be worthy of notice. It is also the last good work of its director, the great Michael Curtiz*, who has at least two films in the top Hollywood 100 of the twentieth century (three if you're a "Yankee Doodle Dandy" fan, which I am not) featuring very realistic, hard bitten battle scenes.

Unfortunately, as previous reviewer planktonrules noted, the film is marred by some of the worst, gushy, mushy, cloyingly romantic dialogue, in the love scenes between William Holden and Nancy Olson, this side of a Fanny Hurst novel. I mean, Holden is a legitimately great actor but not even he can survive such lines as "With you I will live forever", spoken sincerely. And Olson, a much less skilled thesp, is completely done in by the lovey dovey twaddle composed by scenarist Orin Jannings, a scribe with whom I am thankfully not familiar.

Bottom line: Give it a generous B minus 'cause I'm a big Curtiz fan.

*There are some who regard 1958's "King Creole", with Elvis, as good. I am not among them.

Just caught it on Turner. The reviews calling it "routine" show how dull-normal some people are. In fact, the old pro Michael Curtiz (look him up) brings an extraordinary sensibility to the film. Gone are his romantic stylings of Casablanca and Robin Hood, his lush, overdone Warner's agreeable foolishness. Instead, he portrays war as bitter and without glory, full of random death and meaningless violence. The three combat sequences are superb, and Holden, as he would later demonstrate in "Bridge on the River K" is brilliant as a reluctant soldier who has no sense of glory and no wish to be a hero, but is nevertheless the everyman Infantryman, who knows he must do his duty. Curtiz doesn't turn this evocation of battle into boy's fantasy; it's hard, bitter, terrifying and brutally unfair to children and especially young American men who never thought they'd be dying in the slopes of Mt. Casino. The romance is nicely done, even if the ending is trite (but, in the way that cheap melody can be, amazingly satisfying). Olsen and Holden have great chem (as they proved in three other films as well) and all in all, the whole piece is kept in a register of near-realism that's very affecting. A neglected minor gem from the great Curtiz.

I really liked this movie. I fast forwarded through the love scenes though. I am a Holden fan and I seem to like his snide comments he always seems to make. His comments are usually like "gallows humor". In times of stress everything seems to take on a different view or meaning. I also liked where Holden seems to exhibit PTSD. He talks about the horror of the battlefield and his men dying for no reason. I liked this because I thought the US Government did not want anything but us the good guys and the enemy the bad. Most war movies show us never getting hurt and the enemy all dying, What tipped me off was the word "San Pietro". John Huston made a movie called that and it was banned by the Government and not shown because it showed people actually getting killed. Lastly, all the equipment looked real and used in the real manner even down to the mail room! Usually I can find many errors in guns and ammo. Another good movie to watch is, "Pork Chop Hill" with Gregory Peck. You actually see men using body armor and guns and ammo used in the proper manner.