Watch The Mountain Road For Free

How sad is this?

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This is a rare film that criticizes the KMT in China's war with Japan in 1944. The KMT was fighting the CCP (Communists) at the same time they were fighting the Japanese. The CCP was fighting the Japanese as well. They are not even mentioned in the film. The Chinese Civil War started way before 1944. It was the KMT (Chiang Kai-Shek) against the CCP (Mao Zedong). It lasted until 1949, when the CCP finally won when the KMT retreated to Taiwan. The film itself, though, has some problems. There is really not too much suspense or tension in the film. Stewart is really miscast (he was more comfortable in Air Force films) as a demolition man. Harry Morgan is very good though, as is the rest of the cast, who rescue the film from Stewart. Other than Flying Tigers, I cannot remember one other well-made film about the Chinese in WW 2. Empire of the Sun was very good, but it was not really about China. The Last Emperor was very good, but it was more about Puyi than the Chinese in WW2. At least this film marks a shift away from the stereotypical portrayal of the Chinese we had seen in films prior to 1960. There were still a few stereotypes, but not as many as before. Interesting film.

I watched this movie on commercial late-night TV when I was 17 (in 1969). I am sure I then missed most of what was there to be gleaned, however, the soundtrack was compelling.The movie is something of a preview of coming events (not unlike "The Sand Pebbles") with respect to our involvement in Vietnam. I cannot understand how intelligent people could overlook the problems occasioned by fighting a war in a culture so different from our own.The grist of the movie is how power impacts people and that it is not likely that the first time it is granted, the recipient will be ready. I thought Stewart did an excellent job of articulating his conflict, and regrets, over his use of power, and the female lead's character seemed a little unsympathetic to a man who was genuinely conflicted.The movie leaves me with a trace of melancholy. In 1960, when it was released, there was still time to avoid the all but unfathomable foreign policy blunders of the late '60s. Vietnam impacted the thinking of much of the baby boom generation, and not for the better. It leaves me thinking that the war was fought mostly to satisfy the Joint Chiefs (after Cuba was off limits) and to generate huge amounts of cash for the defense industry.

I am a huge Jimmy Stewart fan. Yet this film left me cold. I think that the director and the screenplay conspire to not let him develop as a character. One time he is doing some poignant scene, where one thinks he has turned a corner in his short-sighted racist view of the larger world, and in moment, he goes right back to where he was. There's no carry-over. This film takes place in 1944 as the U. S. forces are in Chine, looking out for a tenuous ally. This particular group is a demolitions team whose purpose is to blow up roads and bridges and move on. The Japanese are very formidable and have decimated the Chinese people. Stewart expects the Chinese to act like Americans (Sound familiar?) but can't get them to follow his lead. Starvation and pain have a way of doing that. His relationship with a Chinese woman is the most interesting. I'm sure the cowardly film boards kept anything from happening. Once that factor in the film is thrown out, there is a skeleton left and it's not a very interesting one.

This film can really be subtitled, "Why did We Bother to Get Involved?". It is the kind of World War II film that Hollywood would never have shot in the 1940s. For the purpose of wartime propaganda is to attack one enemy at a time. In 1941 - 1945 the Japanese were the enemy, and our allies were the brave Chinese people. Only a handful of specialists on China knew the complexity of relationships in Chinese politics. One was Lieutenant General Joseph ("Vinigar Joe") Stillwell, who had been in China since the 1930s. He knew the main enemy was Japan, but he had little trust for the Kuomintang government of General Chang Kai Shek, which he knew was corrupt. China since the teens had been suffering from a large number of civil wars between generals with armies called "War-Lords". When Sun Yat Sen founded the Kuomingtang he hoped to get the assistance of the west to build up it's arms and defeat the war-lords. Unfortunately the Japanese prevented this kind of period of consolidation to occur, so Chang found he was supporting the representatives of a constitutional government, and was opposed by the Japanese and the War-Lords. Then a third foe arose: the Communists under Mao Tse Tung. In such a complex quilt pattern like country, we could not know who were our friends or foes. Washington, D.C. decided our ally was Chang, and Stillwell was frustrated on the support we wasted on him and his cohorts.THE MOUNTAIN ROAD is a simple film about a set of Americans, led by Jimmy Stewart, who are ordered to slow down a Japanese advance into Western China by the Japanese. The interesting thing of the movie is that we never seen any Japanese soldiers. No we see only Americans and Chinese. We see how they mingle and interrelate, but also how they may end up fighting. Americans being hurt by one of the brave allied people we try to help - how familiar that sounds nowadays.Stewart initially tries to get permission from the local Kuomintgang Colonel to blow up a bridge. He does get it, although he finds the customs of the Colonel too showy (he has to eat some lunch with the Colonel). He is given the use of a Colonel Kwan (Henry Silva) as a translator, and he has to escort a well educated woman, a General's widow (Lisa Lu) to the town that is their destination. Stewart has always wanted to have a command, so he had agreed to this one. He has Harry Morgan as his chief sergeant, James Best and Mike Kellin as two of his troops, and Glenn Corbett as Collins, his right hand man and translator.The film really follows how the Americans deal with their erstwhile allies, and the results are somewhat discouraging. As time passes Steward's patience with the Chinese begins to crack. In particular two tragedies destroy it: the death of Collins while trying to do an act of kindness to the starving villagers they are among; and the roadside murder and robbery of two of the men (one a sick man) by Chinese soldiers turned into bandits. Stewart and Lu had slowly developed a love affair but the two tragedies, and Stewart's reaction to the second destroy what chances the bi-racial love affair might have had. In the end they part, and Stewart realizes he was to blame for it.Or was he? Lu makes several realistic assessments of what her China requires to survive, and it is right that unity is needed. But she is unwilling to admit that her people do not have the right to kill people for personal gain. She keeps hiding behind the fact that they don't know better. Yet the scene when Stewart catches the thief and murderers drinking in a bar in a town, they realize what he is there about and start arming themselves for the upcoming fight. Stewart tries to explain his seeking punishment of the guilty was do to the headiness of having the power of life and death in the form of his getting an active command on the field. That may be true, but the two incidents involving his men and the locals hardly paint them as innocents types protecting themselves against wicked Americans. In the end the two points of view just cannot meet at a particular point. So the romance cannot last. But the audience wonders if friendship between the two countries is worth it in the end.