The onscreen meeting between Brando and Clift, the two defining actors of their generation, is akin to, for instance, the one of De Niro and Pacino in Heat, down to the frequency both pioneering champions of Method acting were related in people's minds and even mistaken for each other. As for the rest of the film, you can say that, also like with Michael Mann's production, The Young Lions is a most worthy narrative space, one which has a few interesting traits besides its stellar cast.

Director Edward Dmytryk, as efficient as ever in the delivery of a story full of conflict and human struggle --just remember Warlock or Broken Lance, two fine Westerns from the era--, takes a celebrated…

The Young Lions is a solid and absorbing look at the toll war takes on its combatants.

Based on Irwin Shaw's 1948 novel, Edward Dmytryk's adaptation focuses on its three central characters; two American GI's played by Montgomery Clift and Dean Martin, and a Nazi officer, played by Marlon Brando. Where the film differentiates from the novel is the noticeably sympathetic light it places upon Brando's Nazi, Christian Diestl. The novel depicts an increasing dehumanisation of his character as the war progresses, leaving him blind to all but his desire to survive. The film however opts for a different path and explores his commitment to do his duty without question until he realises just what is being asked of him,…

The Young Lions doesn't hold the reputation which several similar World War II films maintain, but it deserves an equally prestigious stature based on how it depicts very relevant yet under-discussed issues. For instance, art and history textbooks alike tend to color the Germans as villainous scoundrels during the war. You'd expect more modern perspectives to shine a light on the fact that numerous Germans had no choice but to comply with the order from their superiors. Given how understated and uncommon words of German empathy are these days, it's bewildering to see an American film from the 50s that sympathize with a conflicted Nazi. The theme of The Young Lions is equality; the Americans are parallel alongside the German…

Film #5 of Smiler Grogan's September 2016 Scavenger Hunt
Task 5/30: A film starring Marlon Brando

"After all the arms and the legs have been blown off it doesn't really matter because nothing really changes."

The Young Lions is one of the first post-Hollywood blacklist revisionist war films - and I'll always be amused about how, like westerns, the "revisionist" label refers to the subgenre that actually doesn't over-romanticize and white wash the era - that takes an unsentimental look at three different soldiers and the way their experiences in war differ.

This is a movie about characters more than anything else, so their journeys are what makes up the story. Marlon Brando plays Christian Diestl, a Germany soldier who…

I am a fan of Brando, Martin, and especially Montgomery Clift. The three leads in the film were all outstanding and Clift demonstrated his mastery of the screen as he stole the picture along with Hope Lange, an outstanding actress in every respect. Brando was the blond German, Martin the singer, and Clift the Jew. Lange's WASP character falls for Clift and the ending gives hope for the world. Viewing this war film as a child, there were scenes in it that I would never forget and after various viewings I still enjoy watching the greatest of the actors on display and Brando and Schell's travels through the sands of North Africa on a motorbike, trying to escape the Allied…

This WWII drama tells three stories of two American GIs (played by Dean Martin and Montgomery Clift) and one German officer (Marlon Brando) and their experiences during wartime. The two Americans are unlikely friends who show a touching camaraderie but there is no connection with the third story until the final five minutes when the three finally meet during the American liberation of a Nazi death camp. Brando is particularly good as the conflicted German officer whose basic humanity recoils against Nazi ideology and the ‘will to power’ behind the following of brutal orders. Clift is also excellent as a sensitive young man who has to prove his mettle in a macho environment far out of his comfort zone. The…