The Men [Blu-ray]

Overview

Fred Zinnemann's sensitive film on the plight of paraplegic WWII veterans features Marlon Brando in his superbly moving screen debut. He plays Lt. Bud Wilozek, one of a group of veterans recovering in the paraplegic ward of a hospital in his hometown. His former fiancée, Ellen (Theresa Wright), explains to his physician, Dr. Brock (Everett Sloane), her concern about his isolation and apparent depression since he has broken their engagment and refuses to see her. He counsels her to be patient, but when he decides to broach the issue with Bud, the embittered patient reacts angrily to the doctor's intrusiveness, and continues to refuse to see Ellen. The doctor cajoles the withdrawn paraplegic into the life of the ward, where fellow patients Richard Erdman, Jack Webb, and Arthur Jurado begin to pull Bud out of his spiritual miasma. At length, his sense of hope starts to return, and after seeing Ellen for the first time in months, he begins to contemplate the possibility of marriage. Zinnemann and screenwriter Carl Foreman spent a month in a veteran's hospital researching the film, and Brando lived in the paraplegic unit for a time as part of his preparation.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/30/2013
UPC:	0887090061803
Original Release:	1950
Rating:	NR
Source:	Olive
Presentation:	[B&W]
Language:	English
Time:	1:27:00
Sales rank:	20,542

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Marlon Brando	Ken
Teresa Wright	Ellen Wilozek
Everett Sloane	Dr. Brock
Jack Webb	Norm
Richard Erdman	Leo
Arthur Jurado	Angel
Virginia Farmer	Nurse Robbins
Dorothy Tree	Ellen's Mother
Howard St. John	Ellen's Father
Nita Hunter	Dolores
Patricia Joiner	Laverne
John Miller	Mr. Doolin,Mr. Doolin
Cliff Clark	Dr. Kameran
Ray Teal	Man at Bar
Margarita Martin	Angel's Mother
John Hamilton	Justice of the peace
Obie Parker	the Lookout
DeForest Kelley	Actor
Ray Mitchell	Thompson
Pete Simon	Mullin
Paul Peltz	Hopkins
Tom Gillick	Fine
Randall Updyke III	Baker
Marshall Ball	Romano
Carlo Lewis	Gunderson
William Lea Jr.	Walter

Technical Credits

Carl Foreman

Stanley Kramer	Producer
Fred Zinnemann	Director
Carl Foreman	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

This was the movie audience's first opportunity to see the actor whose legendary performance as Stanley Kowalski had galvanized Broadway in A Streetcar Named Desire a few years before, revolutionizing the art of acting in the process, and he doesn't disappoint. Like many films of the period, it adopts a semi-documentary approach to the problems of the wounded vets, dwelling at length on the exact nature of the obstacles faced by the patients, as well as detailing the kind of clinical treatment, both physical and psychological, that will make them as functional as they can be. While the focus of the script is on the brooding Brando, nearly all of the characters are well-developed, and Foreman sensitively underlines the barely restrained awareness of their stigmatization in the gallows humor which nearly all affect. Jack Webb, light years from his Dragnet persona, is surprisingly deft and witty as the house intellectual, and Everett Sloane is stingingly effective as the doctor who vents his frustration over the stagnation of his patients. But the main attraction is Brando, who brings to the film the same kind of naturalness and spontaneity which had electrified Broadway. American audiences had never seen an actor of such range and power on film, nor one so willing to court their rejection in mining the darkest regions of his psyche for the sake of his craft.

All Movie Guide - Michael Costello