Les vainqueurs

Predating APOCALYPSE NOW by fifteen years, this is the most powerful, sad, ironic and hard-hitting anti-war film I have seen and I rank it nearly on a par with KING RAT, my personal favourite. A group of ill-assorted soldiers make their way through the grim battlefields of France and Germany and Italy as much oppressed by their own corrupt fellow soldiers and officers as the enemy. There are so many memorable scenes in the movie of suffering, loneliness and the tragedy of war that I cannot recommend it highly enough. The script is literate, uncompromising, surprising and resolutely objective about both the enemy and the liberators that fight them. The cast is an amazing ensemble of talent and there is a sense of really brutal authenticity in the film which seldom is to be found in the cinema today. A final grim twist at the end, reflecting the height of the Cold War when the film was made, is one of the simplest and most articulate statements on the continuing madness of human conflict we are still gripped by. Coppola, Stone and every other great film-maker dealing with war in its various incarnations is indebted to this unique movie.

One of the most extraordinarily intelligent films ever made, this epic from Carl Foreman (High Noon, Bridge Over River Kwai, Guns of Navarone) follows the fortunes of an American platoon during WWII.

Plenty of well-known stars (Peppard, Fonda, Finney) shine in solid performances while the B&W film compliments the moody cinematography.

It's not anti-war - more a study of friendship, love and prejudice intensified under stress (Casualties of War indeed). Episodes of deep pathos contrast with intermittent feelgood factors - although some of the intended irony is a little heavy (primarily because it was aimed at the American viewer).

Unlike Private Ryan and similar Yank-only trash, it is one of the few WWII films to actively feature the participation of other allied nations, notably France, Russia and India, and the effects on the civilians of Belgium, England, Italy and Germany.

My favourite scene is when the character played by George Peppard is waiting for a bus in the pouring rain while on leave in England. A working class family invite him into their home until the bus arrives and their hospitality is such that he comfortably falls asleep on a chair by the fire. On finally catching the bus he discovers the family have placed a 10 shilling note in his top pocket. I think this is one of the most touching moments in the history of film.

In the most famous scene the platoon are ordered to witness a deserter executed by firing squad somewhere in a snowy landscape of France, while over-running from earlier newsreel footage, the soundtrack is playing 'Have yourself a Merry Little Xmas'. Very moving.

America should be proud of this one.

Kevin Molloy TV Producer London, England

I saw this movie many years ago, and still remember it. I'd like to see it on video. The movie has a surreal feel to it.... but, I imagine that anyone actually involved in the madness of fighting a modern war feels the surrealness of the movie a very faint immitation of the surrealness of war. The typical movie presents a view of an event, and one has the feeling that all that is significant about the event has been recorded and presented in the movie, but in "The Victors" it is clear that what is being presented is just a peek at reality .. the whole story is unknown, unknowable.... Just as in life we usually feel as if we understand what's going on around us and are acting in a perfectly rational manner, when in fact we are each very small players on a stage and we are being blown about like leaves by forces we don't even know exist.

Carl Foreman's "The Victors" is extraordinary for two reasons:

1) it emphasizes the characters over the action

2) while being a "spot the star" flick, this is a film made up of smaller stars.

Among the "smaller" stars in this, we have Vince Edwards, George Hamilton, Albert Finney, Peter Fonda, Eli Wallach and George Peppard. Perhaps they are not as big as the ones who appeared in the popular war epics of the time, but I think it benefits from this approach. The film is a bunch of low-key stories strung together by the war and these low-key actors are perfect for this approach.

There are action scenes. It wouldn't be a war film without them. But after a while, I got tired of action scene after action scene and I appreciated a film that let us get to know these soldiers and how they felt about the war and life. It predates Terrence Malick's "The Thin Red Line" by about 33 years, but it's just as effective.

Carl Foreman was famously blacklisted during the 1950s and only now is his work appreciated. His credits include "The Bridge Over The River Kwai" and "The Guns of Navarone" and in this, his directorial debut, he demonstrates the skill and drama of the earlier pictures along with the character studies. The result: a richly textured film, one of 1963's best. If only more people knew about it. Columbia, if you're reading this, release it on tape and DVD NOW!

**** out of 4 stars

While not your standard WWII picture The Victors is comprised of short tales about a group of American GIs who slog their way from one spot in the European theater to another. One scene I found to be very powerful. It is a scene of an American GI being executed for desertion with the films background music being a Christmas carol. I took this to be the execution of Private Eddie Slovik who was the only American executed in the Second World War for desertion. It is viewed on the screen from a distance so there are no close up shots. I would recommend this film for the purpose of that one scene alone.