I giovani leoni

"The Young Lions" is a black & white 1958 WW2 drama featuring Marlon Brando, Dean Martin and Montgomery Clift.

The film attempts to show the German, American and French sides of the war. Brando stars as a young German officer who becomes increasingly disillusioned with Hitler's regime and the world war he started. Meanwhile Martin plays a worldly Broadway musician who struggles with cowardice whereas Montgomery Clift's character is a poor, naive Jewish American who falls in love with with a winsome lass (Hope Lange) and fights the anti-semitic guys in his platoon.

Marlon's performance illustrates why he's considered the greatest actor in cinema; he's just captivating. Most reviewers note that Brando's German storyline is more interesting than the two American story lines, which is true, but repeat viewings grant the viewer more appreciation for the latter.

There are three stunning women featured in the picture: Barbara Rush, May Britt and Liliane Montevecchi. Rush is Martin's marriage-minded gal, who flirts with Brando early on; Britt plays the luscious sexpot wife of Brando's captain (Maximilian Schell); and Montevecchi performs as a French girl who initially insults Brando's character (because he's a German invader).

It should be pointed out that "The Young Lions" is not a war action film, but rather a powerful war DRAMA. Yes, there's quite a bit of action (France, Northern Africa, etc.), but the emphasis is on the characters and their stories. The climax involves a horrified and utterly disillusioned Brando, leaving a strong impact.

FINAL WORD: If you're looking for a mindless action flick this is not the one to see. This perhaps explains some of the less-than-stellar reviews. Yet, make no mistake, "The Young Lions" is without a doubt a WAR film. It's also a masterpiece of cinematic art, not to mention one of Brando's most mesmerizing performances.

The film runs 2 hours, 47 minutes.

GRADE A-

Lt. Christian Diestl (Marlon Brando) is a dutiful German who finds the war more and more troubling. Meanwhile back in the US, Jewish Noah Ackerman (Montgomery Clift) finds love, and entertainer Michael Whiteacre (Dean Martin) try to avoid the war.

This movie is split in three. I find the Marlon Brando part very intriguing right from the start. A straight movie with just his character would be very interesting. Brando sets a serious compelling tone. Clift and Martin's movie starts slowly. Quite frankly, it starts as an old fashion melodramatic romance with puppy dog Montgomery Clift. Martin has even less to do as he debates whether to join the fight or not. The movie crawls along at times, and would probably be better served to just keep Brando. Although Clift has some minor drama. At 167 minutes, this is like 2 movies jammed into one. The connection between the stories is tenuous at best until the very end. It seems it took forever to get there. Once there, the point of the movie is made crystal clear, but it seems that it could have been done with a much tighter story.

'The Young Lions,' flaws have prevented my liking it as much as I'd like to.

Mongomery Clift was too old for his role as "young man" Pvt. Noah Ackerman. Clift looks old enough to be the same age as the actor who portrays the father of Ackerman's beloved Hope. Also, the near-repetition of his 'From Here to Eternity' pugilist part feels perverse, excessive, monotonously voyeuristic. Those circumstances aside, Clift's performance finely communicates Ackerman's plaintive, good-hearted tenderness.

Brando's effort is solid, though I'd like to have seen more character development: we know nothing of Christian Diestl's upbringing in Weimar/Nazi Germany except for his revelation that he was a shoemaker's son who ran out of money midway through medical school. More could have been made of the intellect of a young skier whose medical ambitions were, in parallel with the German people's interwar ambitions toward a place in the world befitting their view of themselves, thwarted until their vile demagogue rode the wave of such ambition to utter destruction.

Dean Martin's work is adequate, but not stellar; perhaps a result of his playing the would-be shirker. In some moments his slender dramatic gifts exceed their natural power, but in most of his screen-time he seems to be coasting on his Hollywood persona's legendary charm.

Maximillian Schell's work is first-rate, but it seems to have gotten him typecast in later films as the rabid, or otherwise intrinsically flawed, Nazi officer - which he only managed to again turn into solid effect in 'The Odessa File.' Solid actresses Hope Lange and Barbara Rush aren't given much decent scripting to work with. WWII veteran-writers, the unsurpassable James Jones included, had difficulty portraying women characters: often their female characters seem stilted, if not downright stereotypes. Thus I suspect that 'The Young Lion's' screenwriters hadn't much in the original novel from which to develop its women characters. This also applies to Diestl's girlfriend Francoise (in fact, the most credible female role here is that of Simone who portrays, briefly but heart-rendingly, a woman in dread for her about-to-desert boyfriend Brandt's fate). May Britt, as the opportunistic, adulterous Frau Hardenburg, is adequate; but for her corrupt role the scriptwriters faced no great challenge.

Most preventing my liking this film are its stagey sets and lighting. There's just one superb location scene: the Afrika Korps's dawn ambush of a British unit; the other location scenes - especially of Ackerman's and Whittaker's infantry company - seem much too bucolic in the midst of history's most violent war. The other complaint I have, about this and other post-mid-50's WWII films, is that the women's hairstyles, makeup, and clothing are not of the 1940's, but of the later vogue in which such films were shot: this disjoints the viewer from belief in the period which such films attempt to portray.

'The Young Lions' script leaves much to be desired. It might have been more thoroughly fleshed out, from Irwin Shaw's novel, than it turned out to be. Its best-written scene is of Hope's father taking Noah Ackerman for a contemplative walk round the square of Hope's Vermont hometown, as it flourishes the only writing impressive in economy and power.

One glaring continuity gaffe, in the scene in which Diestl and Brandt meet Simone and Francoise: it's night, yet when Diestl leaves the studio-shot sidewalk table to pursue Francoise to the nearby riverbank, the cut shifts to a location shot made plainly at midday. Quite a few other interior-to-exterior, and vice-versa, scene shifts also detract from the 'The Young Lions' visual flow and credibility. One instance in which it succeeds is actually one in which many other WWII films suffer egregiously: 'The Young Lions' manages to seamlessly weave bits of actual WWII documentary/file footage into its narrative (in one moment, however, this doesn't work: the too-long sequence depicting the El Alamein offensive, which uses documentary clips but which also reuses Hollywood footage from, I think, 'The Desert Rats' or 'The Desert Fox'). This sequence is followed by the almost comical - yet intended to be tragical - motorcycle retreat of Diestl and Hardenburg, which is poorly done in rear-screen projection with the pair astride a bucking, but plainly otherwise stationary, motorcycle (which, by the way, is an American, not a German, bike).

One blooper I caught (but then I'm familiar with such details): after Diestl's African tour he meets Brandt in France, and in the exterior shot Diestl's wearing the old-style Wehrmacht officers cap sans silver chin cords, but when the duo steps into a building to continue conversing, in the interior shot Diestl's cap has magically sprouted the later cap style's chin cords.

An element of unreality in 'The Young Lions' is the remarkable survival rate of Ackerman's infantry squad mates - which doesn't reflect the grievous casualties suffered by U.S. units that fought from D-Day to the final campaign that ended in Germany. (Indeed, ETO commanders howled for replacements for their units' casualties; even the procrustean Patton had reluctantly to accept Negro units as replacements for his decimated formations - though to his credit Patton acknowledged the fitness and combat excellence of those Negro units, about one of which Kareem Abdul Jabbar has well-written a fitting history-cum-tribute).

Though some detail moments of 'The Young Lions' give the story enough meat for the audience to chew and digest satisfyingly, its scopic plot's enormous, world-ranging bones could not have been given enough sinew and muscle to have yielded thoroughgoing excellence, else the film would have run six or more hours. This prompts the expectation that a thoroughly-fleshed mini-series (are you listening HBO?) deserves to be adapted - much more closely and roundly than this 1958 film could have been - from Shaw's novel. In sum the major flaw of 'The Young Lions' is, despite fine acting efforts made on necessarily scant script matter, its failure to have met its ambition of capturing the whole meat of Shaw's story.

The impact of love , war and death on young lives is the focus of this moving drama of War told from the American and German points of view . As a disilussionated Nazi officer , Marlon Brando , sensively considers the belief that Hitler would save Germany , but then things go wrong , as his concience troubles are disturbing him more and more until he can no longer shut his eyes to atrocities committed in the name of the Third Reich . Meanwhile Montgomery Clift enlists the Army and along with the brasher of the Americans , Dean Martin , make good friends throughout the violent war .

An atractive and spectacular warlike movie with outstanding interpretations , thrills , impressive battle scenes , emotion and various love stories . It displays a star-studded cast with the best actors by the time . Based on a famous bestseller written by Irwin Shaw with script by Edward Anhalt who along with Marlon Brando himself remoulded the central role of the young Nazi Christian . A realistic anti-war film with enjoyable message , thought-provoking issues , and showing the horror war . Marlon Brando is excellent as the disillusioned officer who comes to question his Nazi beliefs . Montgomery Clift and Dean Martin are superb as two disparate GIs made friends by a common cause , and the latter does his biggest work in his first dramatic character . They are well accompanied by an appropriate cast of beautiful women as Hope Lange , Barbara Rush, May Britt , Doris Doll , Parley Baer , among others . Adding special appearances from Lee Van Cleef , Edward Franz and special mention for the German Maximilian Schell as the ruthless officer whose wife becomes Christian's lover .

It packs an adequate and atmospheric cinematography in black and white by Joe McDonald . As well as a rousing and sensitive musical score by Hugo Friedhofer. The motion picture was professionally directed by Edward Dmytryck . He was a good craftsman who made a lot of films in all kinds of genres and of course he realized various warfare flicks , such as : "Hitler's Children" , "Back to Batan", "Mutiny", "The Caine Mutiny" , "Soldier of Fortune" , "Behind the Rising Sun" , "Anzio" and this "The Young Lions". Rating : 7/10 . Notable and essential and indispensable watching for WWII enthusiasts . Recommended for fans of the trío protagonists : Marlon Brando , Montgomery Clift , Dean Martin.

I have seen this movie several times and catch something different every time I see it. Today is the first time I've seen it from the beginning. In the context of the time it was made, it was a bold statement about the human factor in any war. Brando shines and plays a sympathetic character who sees first hand the evil that men do in the name of patriotism.

Made at a time when the Americans that liberated the concentration camps were in their prime and there weren't any idiots running around claiming it was a lie, we see how ordinary citizens respond to the unthinkable. Brando's character stands in for the citizens of the Reich who claimed they were clueless about the genocide while the ashes from the smokestacks fell like snow on their towns. We see the horror and the denial.

It briefly explores a major taboo--interracial/interfaith marriages. It looks at racism in the context of anti-Semitcism (unfortunately still alive and well in America) and one man's courage in opposing it. Ironic this brand of racism, as the founder of the prevelant religion in America was a Jewish rabbi.

This movie is worth the 3 hours of time; it would make a great set piece with "Judgement at Nuremberg" which also showcases the talents of many of the actors from this film.

Good acting from all players in this film. It presages Robert Altman with the interweaving of the characters' lives from the first shot where Barbara Rush and Brando debate the merits of the Fatherland to the last scene in the forest where the end comes full circle.