The Men (1950) - film review

Shot by a German sniper in WWII, a young American soldier, Ken Wilcheck, suffers a spinal injury that will prevent him from ever walking again.  Despite the tender care of doctors and nurses in the veterans’ paraplegic hospital where he is treated, Ken has difficulty coming to terms with his condition and cannot see a future for himself in the outside world.  At first, he even refuses to see his girlfriend Ellen, but she persists and in the end he agrees to marry her.  On their wedding night, Ken realises that it was pity not love that drove Ellen to marry him.   Embittered, he returns to hospital, the only home he has now...

Marlon Brando made a spectacular film debut in this low-key but highly effective social drama which broke new ground both in terms of its subject and, thanks to Brando, in the style of acting.   Producer Stanley Kramer’s intention was to draw public attention to the plight of veterans who, crippled by injuries sustained in the war, faced a greater battle as they sought to regain their dignity and self-esteem, not to mention social acceptance, when back on home soil.  It is a film that deserves far wider appreciation than it currently enjoys, not only because it a quality piece of drama, but because its themes – a nation’s debt to its war veterans, the struggle against adversity, etc. – are of a timeless character, just as relevant today as they were in 1950.    

At the time, Marlon Brando was a rising stage actor, winning acclaim for his performance in a Broadway production of Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire.  He had little respect for Hollywood and was ambivalent about starting a film career.  However, he was persuaded to take the lead role in The Men as soon as he read the screenplay.  A graduate of the Actors Studio, Brando took his method approach very seriously and spent a month on a paraplegic ward in a real veterans’ hospital to prepare for the film, which accounts for the extraordinary realism that he brings to the film.   Thanks to Brando, a carefully crafted script, and Fred Zinnemann’s measured direction, The Men avoids sentimentality and caricature.  Instead, it delivers a genuinely heart-rending and truthful tale of men struggling to rebuild their lives after Fate has delivered them a devastating blow.

© James Travers 2009

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