Regular Price $3.88

Starring: Dana Andrews,  Richard Conte,  George Tyne,  John Ireland,  Lloyd Bridges, 
Directed By: Lewis Milestone, 
Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Release Date: 1945-12-25
Studio: St Clair Vision
Format: Black & White,  DVD-Video,  NTSC, 

Editorial Reviews and DVD Information about A Walk in the Sun

Amazon.com
Alongside larger-scaled epics, this 1945 drama looks modest, but director Lewis Milestone achieves a gritty realism that is ultimately closer to the truth of combat. A World War I veteran, Milestone had already created a classic war film--and powerful antiwar statement--in 1930's All Quiet on the Western Front, focusing on German troops in the trenches during "the Great War." For obvious reasons, A Walk in the Sun views the action from the perspective of American troops, but Milestone and a strong cast headed by Dana Andrews and Richard Conte prove remarkably clear-eyed in this chronicle of a platoon moving through the Italian countryside following the successful, but bloody, invasion of Italy. There's little of the cheerleading fervor or reflexive demonizing of the enemy visible in other films from the period; instead, the men's treacherous odyssey captures the sense of random chaos as their bucolic trek is interrupted by sudden skirmishes. We're shown the deep bonds forged between the soldiers, the loss of innocence that is the inevitable price of combat experience, and the capricious fates that can spare one soldier while exterminating another. Milestone would extend his mastery of wartime fiction to include the Korean War, captured in the equally fine, equally sobering Pork Chop Hill. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews for A Walk in the Sun

A Walk with Death
Recently I heard that "A Walk in the Sun" was, in fact, an anti-war movie. I did a little research and found that Milestone was also responsible for the classic, anti-war film of Remarque's wonderful "All Quiet on the Western Front." When looked at from this point of view "A Walk in the Sun" is all the better.

This is a brilliant look at the psychology of soldiers and the brutal facts of combat. It is to a certain extent a propaganda flick but, unlike so many others of the era, including even the great 'Casablanca', the propaganda is minimized to a bare minimum. I rather suspect that the propaganda that does exist was deliberately placed to pass the censors of the era. The enemy isn't demonized. Instead he is an inevitable and impersonal presence. The closest he gets to being flesh and blood is when the dead arm of a German halftrack crewman flops out to reveal a large jeweled ring on his finger. "I wonder who he stole that one from?" remarks one of the Americans.

Otherwise the enemy is a mechanical presence in the form of an airplane, tank, armored car or especially a peaceful looking Italian farmhouse. Our Americans, at the same time, are entirely real. They gossip, complain, wisecrack, suffer and die. They even crackup, some unable to withstand the strain of leadership and never ending combat. Richard Conte, with his machinegun "Baby", provide a grim and fatalistic backdrop to the story. We recognize him as the citizen soldier, one who fights and fights well without knowing or caring exactly why he fights. He is interchangeable. He can equally well be a German, Italian, Russian or Japanese soldier. He fights because he has been ordered to fight. Simple and inevitable.

Our Americans are ordered to take out an Italian farmhouse where German soldiers may or may not be located. Out of bazooka ammunition, they must test the nature of the place with their own bodies. The Americans screw up by advancing en masse. The Germans screw up by firing too soon. The Americans, taking a few casualties, regroup and in a truly excruciating scene, wait for their watches to strike zero hour before opening up with their machine gun and attacking over open ground. It is a slaughter. German machine gunners open up and butcher the exposed Americans. American survivors make it into the farm house and slaughter the unseen Germans. No prisoners are shown and the American sergeant walks out of the building carving another notch in his rifle stock. War in all its glory and horror. I'm reminded of R.E. Lee's famous statement on viewing the stricken field of Frederichsburg, "It is good that war is so terrible....else...we should love it too much."

Ron Braithwaite, author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico

A Walk in the Sun

So much promise, but a big dud.
A laughable attempt to make put realism in a war movie. The soldiers dumbly keep flocking together in middle of enemy terrority , sheepishly walk out in the open while under fire , ask dumb questions , make half dumb attempts at witt , act serious and dumb at the same time , are amazed with each other over dumb things. The only ones dumber are the germans who must of had ear plugs to avoid listening to the dumb music score and that trick let the american soldiers talk loudly as they pleased. The only ones dumber then actors must be the director and producers of this dumb movie.A Walk in the Sun

One Day in the War
This film is adapted from the book by Harry Brown about the experiences of infantrymen. The US Armed Forces provided support for this film. Soldiers are on a landing barge preparing to invade Italy in 1943. The lieutenant looked over the top when a shell burst and wounded him. The sergeant is now in command. The conversations tell about each soldier. They are being sent 6 miles inland to capture a farmhouse. The men grumble and complain when waiting. The sun comes up and they are still waiting. They move into the trees to hide from enemy airplanes. The smoke and explosions signify the action in the background. An airplane strafes the woods and hits some of the men. The men chatter about things to avoid discussing their condition.

Sergeant Porter has a problem and can't go on. An enemy armored car comes down the road. They will use grenades to attack it when it returns. The bazookas are used for tanks. The grenades break the tread of the armored car and disable it. They continue walking towards that farmhouse. They assemble behind the stone wall. The machine gun in the farmhouse fires a burst. "Windy" says they should circle around by the wall and blow-up the bridge and ignore the farmhouse [the indirect approach]. They synchronize their attack on the farmhouse. The charge against the machine guns and take the farmhouse. "It was so easy."

This bowdlerized version may be as realistic as Hollywood could be for a war movie. Very little happens until there is much action. ["A walk in the sun" was a phrase for an easy job.] The film follows the book, except the plane that strafes the woods looks like a P-51, not the ME-110A Walk in the Sun

Oustanding
This is the first video I purchased, back when tapes first became available. I remembered the movie from the theater presentation. Truly an outstanding flick.
The medic was the voice for the recording ""Peter and the Wolf" among and cartoon features.
A Walk in the Sun

A Classic That Deserves Better
I bought the video hoping to see a classic, which I did. The story was wonderful, both poignant and realistic. I loved every moment, but this film deserves better than the copies I have viewed. Not one of them does it justice. Grainyness, skipping, uncoordination of sound and video make viewing difficult. Come on AFI and the big studios, you could really make this film a gem. Time to step up and restore it to its former glory.A Walk in the Sun