The Young Lions

The film follows three men in parallel: Christian, a German ski instructor, Michael, an American from show business, and Noah, who meets antisemitism inside the army. The war drags all three toward the same place and the encounter settles all their accounts. Edward Dmytryk adapted Irwin Shaw's novel, but the German officer is less merciless than on the page; Marlon Brando insisted on turning the character into a man open to sympathy and dyed his hair blond. Shaw objected to the change openly. Montgomery Clift and Dean Martin take the other two parts, and Clift's Noah is the most affecting line in it. The black-and-white photography and wide frame suit the war epics of the period. Who it is for: viewers who like fifties war epics and want to see these three actors meet. Who it is not for: anyone looking for fidelity to the historical detail.