Exécuté pour désertion

I saw this made for TV film when it originally came out. Martin Sheens star was rising and the network that broadcast it hyped it pretty well but didn't over do it. It has a number of documentary type scenes in it which keeps the whole story of Slovik on track . The story was going to be made into a film a number of years earlier with Steve McQueen in the title role but some political pressure blocked it. The fact is Eddie Slovik wasn't the only American soldier executed in WWII. He was the only one executed for desertion. All these years later his execution clearly was something that shouldn't have taken place. The officers who made the decision to shoot him were more than likely worrying not about his life but about their life and military career. Even though the viewer knows that Pvt Slovik will be executed the scene in which he is led out, tied up, hooded, last rites given then shot is very moving. Ned Beatty turns in a good performance as an Army Chaplain. Another film that has an Army execution scene in it that will grip the viewer is `The Victors' Check that one out as well.

I read the book in 1970 or so when I was in the Army, I thought the movie was pretty well balanced. The book starts with Huie visiting the "Dishonored Dead" section of the US Oise-Aisne Cemetery in France where Slovik was initially buried-his remains were repatriated in 1987. The author keeps asking why only one death sentence carried out and why Slovik, why if the purpose was to make an example of him was the execution carried out in secrecy. From there he goes into Slovik's troubled youth, his criminal record which initially protected him from the draft. But as the Drill Sergeant tells him and his fellow recruits in Basic, "You guys are the bottom of the barrel. But now the heat's one, Uncle Same needs bodies, and the bottom of that barrel is starting to look mighty good." Armies-and the governments they serve-have a funny way of lowering their standards as wars drag on. The official name of the Draft in the USA was (and is) Selective Service, by 1943 they were a lot less selective. Slovik was a good example of what WWII GIs called "The Sad Sack" (in my day, 1967-1971, a "dud", in civilianese we might say a loser.

One poster said Slovik gambled and lost, a very apt description. He repeatedly declared he would desert if given the chance, he was given a chance to redeem himself, he refused-I can clearly recall the scene where he tells the JAG officer "I want my court martial." Eisenhower hoped he could equal Pershing's record of no executions for desertion, but as the author notes he had a lot of other things on his plate. The author notes the court martial was made up of rear echelon officers, he notes the presence of some combat arms officers would have been better but they were otherwise engaged. I recall the scene where the president of the court reads the written secret ballots, realizes the vote is unanimous for death, tells the others "Let's have another cigarette and think about this."

Worth watching, very true to the source, this is one you watch and you draw your own conclusions.

I am 45 years old and I watched this 'Movie Of The Week' on TV when it was new. As I grew older I saw it again and would notice certain things that I didn't see when I was younger. The TV Movies, now called TV Mini-series were so much better in the early to mid 1970s, I think.

Now, I would find it very hard to watch because many people believe Pvt. Slovik should not have been executed considering the overall circumstances and also because of so many other experiences over my years. This film helped shaped my heartfelt opposition to the death penalty. I'm happy to say that I have always respected the work of Martin Sheen and his sons over the years.

John Martin, Fort Worth, Texas

In January 1945 Private Eddie D Slovik became the only man shot for desertion by the United States Army since the American Civil War. This film shows Slovik's adult life, the twists, turns and decisions that lead to the event and how it unfolded.

An incredibly powerful drama. Shows well what lead to the execution of Private Slovik - his personal life, his decisions, the court martial process - and the execution itself. Most remarkable is how balanced it is: after seeing his view you have some sympathy for Slovik but you get to see and understand the US Army's side too. You are reminded of this conflict between empathy for Slovik's situation and the fact that scores of other soldiers are in a similar position as him but are willing to do their duty.

Quite sensitively told: no big empty speeches about duty and honour, no gung ho rants and the main characters on the US Army's side have no personal agenda - they're just following the process and doing their job.

Rounding it off, the execution scene is very realistic and emotional. Even if you are firmly of the view that justice is being served you can't help but be moved by the final few scenes.

Great work by Martin Sheen in the lead role. Solid supporting cast that includes Ned Beatty and Gary Busey. 8/9-year-old Charlie Sheen also gets some uncredited screen time.

It's been many years since I last saw "The Execution of Private Slovik," and I look forward to its release (someday soon, please!) on DVD. In particular, I recall a terrific performance by Ned Beatty.

Those who condemn this film as an anti-military screed should reconsider. The tenor of most war films of the early 1970s was undoubtedly influenced by a national revulsion with the war in Vietnam (which, unfortunately, was taken out far too often on the Americans who fought there). But the impetus to get beyond the "triumphalism" of most American war films of the '40s, '50s, and '60s would eventually lead to "Platoon," "Saving Private Ryan," and "Blackhawk Down," films that respected fighting men by demonstrating more effectively the hell that they endure. "The Execution of Private Slovik" was an excellent effort to get beyond the myth of "The Good War" and demonstrate that war inevitably degrades and damages all who are involved.

As to whether Eddie Slovik deserved his fate: Slovik was an emotionally troubled young man who never should have been put into combat in the first place, but as the U.S. casualties began to mount in the ETO in the fall of 1944, his requests for non-combat duty were rejected and he was sent to a rifle company as a replacement. He was a "coward" in the traditional sense of the word, but he was only one of more than 21,000 U.S. servicemen convicted of desertion during WWII. Of the 49 who were condemned to death for desertion, Slovik was the only one actually executed; all the others had their sentences commuted to prison time. (Another 141 U.S. servicemen was executed by the U.S. government during the war, all for the crimes of murder and rape.) If justice is supposed to be fair and impartial, it certainly appears that Slovik was singled out as an example to deter other would-be deserters. Why Slovik? One of the officers who sat on his court-martial would write years later that his execution was "an historic injustice."

See: http://www.americanheritage.com /articles/magazine/ah/1987/6/1987_6_97.shtml

http://www.worldwar2history.info/ Army/deserters.html

http://info.detnews.com/history/ /story/index.cfm?id=103&category=people

My father was an infantryman in the Philippines and was injured in combat a few weeks after Slovik was executed. I'm glad my father and millions of other Americans overcame their fear and did their duty, but Slovik didn't deserve death for his "cowardice." Punishment, yes; dishonor, perhaps. But not a firing squad.

Note: The execution of Slovik (though the soldier is never named) also was depicted, briefly, in an earlier antiwar film, "The Victors," directed by Carl Foreman and released in 1963. The scene is played without dialog; in a savagely ironic gesture, the execution is played out while Frank Sinatra croons "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" on the soundtrack. Even more ironically, Sinatra himself once owned the film rights to William Bradford Huie's book, "The Execution of Private Slovik," but he sold them to another person before Richard Levinson and William Link obtained the rights to make this film. "The Victors" is an excellent film in its own right -- until it comes out on DVD, catch it if you can!