Too Young the Hero

Decades before advanced record keeping was put into place and computers can pull up a background of a person in seconds, it is said that thousands of underage boys lied about their ages to join the U.S. Military. Their reasons for joining varied; many served with honor.

Twelve year old Calvin Leon Graham, "Too Young the Hero" was one of those thousands.

Until CBS aired this made-for-TV movie, I had never heard of Calvin Graham. While parts and names were fictionalized for "dramatic clarity" (as the teleplay indicated at the beginning), I thought this conveyed the story of Graham well: his life as part of a poor family in Texas; his not-so-good relationship with his step dad; his plot to get into the Navy; his subsequent Navy service and maturing as he faces death and destruction when his ship, the USS South Dakota goes into combat; his discovery of his true age by the Navy; and his wrongful brig time made for an interesting account.

Again, there were parts and names fictionalized, but if this movie wanted to make you learn more about Calvin Graham, then it did its job. In my opinion, not too many people have heard of this Sailor until the broadcast of this 1988 tele-movie to include President Reagan who viewed it at the time. After he viewed this, he signed legislation that granted Graham full disability benefits (which he was denied after leaving the Navy).

Sure, it was made-for-TV and budgeted as such. North Carolina (where most of this was shot) stood in for many places in this tele-feature: Houston, TX (Calvin's Home at 12); Pearl Harbor, HI; New Caledonia; New York City; and rounding off the state's participation in this movie, the museum battleship, USS North Carolina stood in for the long since dismantled USS South Dakota. Virginia's National Guard Base, Camp Pendleton stood in for the rest: Corpus Christi, TX (Brig); San Diego, CA (Boot Camp). Of course, when Ricky Schroder shot this, he was seventeen years old. Did people cringe at these "inaccuracies?" Of course! I know I did. But it did not detract from the story.

It didn't have the budget of another TV WWII epic, "The Winds of War" (which shot at various places around the country and world); and while there have been many amazing (pre-teen) child actors in Hollywood, I doubt that 1) there were any that looked like they can pass for 17; and 2) they would have been able to depict the part of Graham maturing quickly convincingly. There are always "nits" in any movie, but all you can do is hope they don't keep you from taking in the story.

Again, many underage young men served in the military. Many served with honor. Underage military service is a story that is rarely told and CBS did it real well for Calvin Graham. I don't know if we should put these once too-young-to-be-in-the-service members on a pedestal like we seem to for the Pattons, MacArthurs and Nimitz' of the time, but I do know we need to honor them as they became men while their peers back home were doing typical activities of pre-teen and 'teen boys.

Their story is rarely told, let alone Calvin Graham's. When you look past the nit-picks and obvious older age of Ricky Schroder playing a twelve year old, this tele-movie will give you an appreciation of who Calvin Graham was and what he endured. It is unlikely there will be another movie made about Calvin Graham.

If you read up on him (after watching this movie), you will find he was the youngest service member to fight in World War II. Thank you CBS for pointing me to research that fact!

Well, Too Young the Hero is a very campy war movie made for TV. My Grandfather was on the same Battleship that the story takes place during the second world war. I used to watch the movie constantly when I was younger, until I realized that it really isn't very good. The acting is not the best I've seen, and the entire story is generally not pulled off well.

Calvin wanted to join the military service in part because he wanted to serve his country like the older boys (or young men) and in part because he had no real place to live or means of support. Considering how hard boot camp can be on an "of age" enlistee or draftee, imagine then what it must have been like for a 12-year-old boy. Yet he persevered, he endured, he survived, perhaps in part because his family circumstances had really not made it possible for him to be a child for very long. He had been picking cotton in the fields when he was five; he was much more a grownup than what we think of a 12 year old being now.

I thought Rick Schroder did a really good job of playing the role of Calvin. Actually it was a kind of turnabout - while Calvin was 12 and had to pass himself off as 17, Schroder was 17 and had to pass for 12.

Some have pointed out 'how could the military not have known he was only 12?'. At least one other reviewer pointed out that his teeth would have been a giveaway, well in fact the movie covered that. When Calvin was getting his dental exam the dentist immediately caught that he was only about 12. "You don't even have your 12-year molars yet, you've still got baby teeth!" He handed Calvin his folder and told him to take it to a sergeant to be sent home; instead, when the dentist turned away for a moment, Calvin replaced his folder on the stack and said nothing to anyone. He was past that problem neatly.

There's more to the story than can or should be shared here. I can only say I found it very interesting and I think this most unusual true story bears watching, and Calvin bears our remembering.

There are several troubling components of this movie other than the criticism that Shroder was not 12 years old when playing the role. This lad enlisted fraudently as did many other under-aged enlistees in World War 2. Some because of patriotism but in the case of this boy it was because of economic deprivation. He performed his war duties well enough to be awarded citations for bravery. Due to some bureaucratic foul-up he was jailed when returning from leave for desertion. The sad part of this story is that he was raped while in the brig and even the chaplain admitted he was not authorized to write to family members indicating where he was. A fellow prisoner upon release did courageously call the victim's sister and she contacted a local paper to secure his release. But the final absurdity is seen when an officer tells the released victim to not divulge what happened to him. The navy did not want its dirty wash shown to the world.

Okay, Shroder doesn't look twelve, but pretty close. That isn't the problem. The film has a kind of shoddy look to it, mainly due to the photography and wardrobe. Ricky Shroder is a nice guy but not the most convincing of actors. The scenes on the battleship were shot aboard the North Carolina, a relic moored on the Cape Fear River.

Some of the performances are quite good, particularly my own as the hobo snoring on the stairs who must be stepped over by Shroder and his friend. I thought my imitation of waking up was superb. As with too many true stories though, this one doesn't follow a tight enough narrative line. It's not linear, not "fictional" enough. There are three main narrative threads -- Calvin's dysfunctional family life, his unlawful enlistment in the Navy, and his abuse in the brig -- and they don't always mesh together as well as they might.

In real life, Calvin's service to his country was acknowledged finally, long after the events themselves took place. But, as with all autobiographical material, the story as we see it depends largely on his description of what happened. Was he really raped in the brig? Jailhouse rape was a shocker thirty years ago when situational homosexuality in prison was first acknowledged, but by now we've come to expect scenes like that. A shipmate of mine once spent some time in the Marine Brig. Unless brigs have changed a great deal, inmates didn't get raped in the 1940s. It's not like Sing Sing! They can very easily get beaten up and subject to other verbal and physical abuse, but not raped.

Be that as it may, this script could have used a bit of tightening. It rambles around, rather slowly at times, and doesn't exactly enthrall the viewer, except for the performers playing the hobos. One of them is simply sublime.