Editorial Reviews and
DVD Information about
A Walk in the Sun
Product Description
This highly acclaimed WWII film was directed by Lewis Milestone(All Quiet on the Western Front). It follows a platoon of infantry in Italy, faced with capturing a strategic farmhouse from heavily fortified German forces. Numerous aspects of war are explored here, as ordinary soldiers, from all walks of life, undergo severe stress when facing possible, sudden death!
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Customer Reviews for
A Walk in the Sun
A Walk in The Sun
One of the great war films of all time, and almost entirely overlooked. Watching it is like spending an afternoon traveling with a regular army combat group with whom you soon become personally involved. This depiction of lightly equipped WWII volunteer and draftees surviving a landing and marching inland to take a bridge and farmhouse is, chapter and verse, as true to life as scripted films get. What faces these men, and those left to come forward and lead after losses and breakdowns, quietly and gracefully illustrates the real strength of Americans in uniform - without a hint of jingoism, personal "glory," or patriotic fanfare. Just a company of men on a mission, unsure of what's going on around them, taking unpredictable damage, meeting obstacles, and relying their own collective determined inertia to overcome them.A Walk in the Sun
The Extraordinary Infantryman
I use the term ordinary to emphasize just how extraordinary the US infantryman was in WWII. In motion pictures it seems that most war films focus and glorify trained teams sent on secret missions or small groups of elite fighting men trained for a specific purpose. Most of these films never really focus on the men, the morality and camaraderie developed (one exception being THE DEVIL'S BRIGADE) and the day-to-day grind of combat and unsettled nerves. A WALK IN THE SUN is one of a handful of war films that focuses on these endearing elements of civilian men thrown into this mundane (on the surface) yet extraordinary routine of constant exposure to death from enemy ordnance. They are a unit from mixed backgrounds thrown into this maelstrom of uncertainty and death. They develop camaraderie and build trust in each other and execute the daily task they are ordered to without real knowledge of the bigger picture and without specific question of purpose. They get the job done ay any cost whatever the reason. Men die, they grieve and they keep moving. They are on the lowest rung in the field of getting the job done. And they persevere. Recent pictures like SAVING PRIVATE and the restored Sam Fuller epic THE BIG RED ONE have redirected the focus to the lowly ordinary infantryman out there getting the job done. BATTLEGROUND and THE STORY OF G.I. JOE have been around for a while and they too have gotten their deserved recognition. Their greatness comes because they have focused on the men. A WALK IN THE SUN is poetic in nature. Mild mannered Sterling Holloway's death scene is very poignant and difficult to watch and even fathom because of the irony that war has exposed these men to. The diversity of the men is great yet the leader types pick up and take charge when it becomes necessary without any hesitation. Dana Andrews is a man seeing that they get the job done. John Ireland, in one of his better performances, is a distant and cool character that seems like the eyes and ears of the viewer taking in all that transpires. Screenwriter Robert Rossen's script is rich in the character studies of these men including Richard Conte, Lloyd Bridges, Norman Lloyd, George Tyne, Huntz Hall and Herbert Rudley under Lewis Milestone's lyrical direction.
A Walk in the Sun
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