La patrouille égarée

Rarely does a movie transform from the stage to the screen successfully. The Long and the Short and the Tall is one of few exceptions. A harrowing and moving story of how a group of British soldiers find themselves engaged in combat with the enemy in the Burmese jungle. Not only does the imagery capture the intense feeling of fear engaging the soldiers as they realise the enemy forces are aware of their existence, it also takes the viewer into the minds and exposes the smell of death as it envelopes the humid moment of combat. Well worth watching. One of the best war movies ever made with an all star British cast delivering a perfect script.

Looking at this bunch out on patrol in the China/Burma/India theater of World War II I was reminded of what Clark Gable said to Charles Laughton about the impressed seaman on the Bounty, them not being king and country volunteers. Sergeant Richard Todd has his hands full keeping good discipline and order with crew in The Long And The Short And The Tall. Using that British wartime ballad as a title tells about all the different types one gets in the Armed Services.

So it is in this film where Sergeant Richard Todd has a mission which he figures is a light one. Just go out to get background recordings of jungle sounds to be played in real battle to confuse the enemy. But the Japanese are also full of tricks. This patrol is drawn into enemy held area and then the idea is for the British soldiers to get out alive.

Based on a stage play and the stage roots of his project aren't all that well concealed, the patrol captures a Japanese scout. Just his presence among them brings a breakdown in discipline that spells disaster. It is inevitable in war that one does not see the enemy as human. If you did you couldn't kill them. The more popular the war, the more that spreads to the civilian sector.

Standing out among the patrol members are Richard Harris and Laurence Harvey who would dislike each other intensely in civilian life in any event. Harvey in fact has no kind words for anybody. With him it's like is Joe Lampton character from Room At The Top went off to war, most likely drafted.

The Britsh whose island nation was threatened far worse than continental USA have this film as being the first at least I know of to show their fighting men as less than heroes. The film's main weakness is not successful transition to the screen from the stage. But the acting is vivid especially from Todd, Harris, and Harvey.

This war-drama was adapted from the stage. To be fair, this is not surprising, seeing as the film is very dialogue heavy with characters standing around delivering lines to each other. Each of the soldiers plays a specific role, which allows the writers to dramatize various issues. It's an anti-war movie at heart and one of the central themes is how prisoners of war are dealt with. The story itself has a group of British soldiers somewhere in the Burmese jungle surrounded by the Japanese enemy. They end up capturing an enemy soldier and this leads to different types of disharmony amongst the men in how they should treat this man. Over and above this though there is a lot of friction between the troops anyhow, as they are not a happy unit in the first place.

I wouldn't say the film is particularly believable to be perfectly honest. It seems highly unlikely that men in the midst of the vicious conflict in the Far East would ever be this philosophical about the civil liberties of an enemy soldier. However, if you suspend your disbelief, you will be rewarded as it's a well written and acted film. For a war movie there is very little action, only at the end is there really any combat. It's essentially a drama set around a combat unit. Its well worth seeking out as it seems to be a fairly obscure film. However, it's well worth your time, especially if you are a fan of older war movies.

Indeed, I believe this is the best movie ever made. I saw it first when I was a teenager, and its effect on me was astounding, although I didn't know the title. Twenty years later I learned the title, and it is still the most profound war movie ever made. It proves you don't need a gigantic budget and special effects to have a super story, and a script, in my opinion, is the biggest reason to see a movie. If you don't like great scripts, profound themes, believable characters, great acting and directing, you won't understand what makes this movie great. The characters and fight scenes are uncannily realistic, with human blows and emotions instead of the silly choreography look you get in the modern "dork" fight scenes that leave your eyes wandering in disdain. I won't give away much except to say the plot is much like The Ox-Bow Incident and Southern Comfort. Probably not for right wing war mongers, but it may be just what they need to see.

What at first seems to be your typical British war film about a squad of soldiers behind enemy lines in Burma actually turns out to be something far, far different - and better. THE LONG AND THE SHORT AND THE TALL is actually a morality play about the importance of human life, the nature of warfare, and mankind's humanity towards his own kind. It was based on a play and occasionally feels very staged and studio-bound, but it overcomes these flaws to become something very compelling.

What's especially good about this film is that it takes careful time to develop each of the main characters in turn. So we get Richard Todd as the tough, incredibly ruthless sergeant, and Richard Harris as his volatile corporal. Ronald Fraser does well as a man conflicted between kindness and brutality, and David McCallum is a delight as the coward of the group. Best of all is Laurence Harvey, who plays a racist on the outside but at the same time becomes the most humane one of the lot.

THE LNG AND THE SHORT AND THE TALL doesn't pack a great deal of action into the running time, but when it does occur it's incredibly hard-hitting due to the aforementioned characterisation. Kenji Takaki also deserves kudos for playing the Japanese soldier; without a single word of English, he manages to create a thoroughly sympathetic character. Less is more, and this underrated war movie is a great example of that ethos.