American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

To Hell and Back. 1955. Dir: Jesse Hibbs. Universal Studios.

Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/Movie-Marathon-Classic-Collection-Island/dp/B004GSVXBW/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1308873823&sr=1-2



To Hell and Back

Any WW2 movie marathon would be sadly lost without this staple film of the genre. The film tells the real-life story of America's most decorated WW2 soldier: Audie Murphy. Murphy's story is well known in military circles so I won't waste the words here to recap his exploits. The film is loosely based on his autobiography though a certain degree of Hollywood fabrication is used to keep the storyline fluid (who wants to watch a movie about Murphy dealing with malaria?). Overall the pace of the movie moves well except for a brief period in the middle where the platoon take a liberty in Italy. Here a romantic liasion with a village girl slows the pace for a time. It is with great relief when the overly-cliched scenes end and the boys get back to war. The movie is a delight to watch no matter how many times one has seen it. Compared to newer, more realistic, WW2 films it falls far short with its battle scenes and depictions of life for the soldiers. But in 1955 this film was starting to dive into the psychological effects of combat on the soldiers and their reluctance to accept the replacements that entered their ranks. It would go on to be Universal Studios biggest financial success until Jaws swam out 20 years later.

Overall I give it:

out of

To my mind, for a war hero Murphy wasn't all that bad as an actor. Not that he didn't appear in some lousy movies, but when Howard Hawks or John Huston got their directorial hands on him, he wasn't too bad at all. In my opinion, his best acting job was as the volatile brother of Burt Lancaster and Audrey Hepburn in "The Unforgiven." One of the few times he was cast against his Hollywood "type" and fared well.

_________________
Your Obedient Servant,
Lt Gen Dwight McBride
Ist Division/1st Brigade
V Corps/AOP/USA