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Good concept, poorly executed.

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

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It's 1862. A group of inexperienced Union soldiers head south to face the enemy. They are full of bravado and excitement although young Henry Fleming (Audie Murphy) has secret fears. In the heat of their first full battle, Henry and others turn and run as the Rebs charge. He is shocked to learn of a victory afterwards and wished to have a battle wound, a red badge of courage.Legendary director John Huston made this anti-war war movie. Like the book, it strips away the glory of the battlefield to give a vision of war from the small humanistic point of view. The battle scenes are big enough and chaotic enough without being overwhelming. It fits the final climax where the big battle actually happens on the other side of the hill. Audie Murphy has his boyish looks and his war veteran bona fide. The only uncertain aspect is the narration which purports to be lines from the book. Certainly, I understand the concept but much of it is unnecessary. Huston loved the work but the studio does get its dirty little hands on the film. The filming and the story really struck at the glorification of wars and is one of Huston's most interesting work.

The movie is a fantastic movie due to the fact that they used actual information from the book in the movie. The character of Henry Fleming is very important as the entire movie is based around him. I feel as though the Character of Jim could have been more developed than he was. Also i feel as though when Henry goes off he could of had a narrative voice from the book. Overall i was very surprised with the graphics being it was a movie from the early fifties. The graphics were done very well especially when the cannons were fired it seemed as though the cannons were indeed real. The voices could have been a bit louder over the battle noises.

Stephen Crane's classic Civil War story about a soldier (Audie Murphy) who runs away during a battle but gets another chance to prove his courage. Beautifully shot and acted. Audie Murphy leads a great cast, all of whom give wonderful performances. One of John Huston's finest directorial efforts. It was edited heavily by the studio, which makes it all the more amazing that it's still such a great film. The first time I saw it was in the '90s and I remember thinking it was too short. Oddly, now I don't feel that way. Maybe it's just because I'm worn out by all of the overlong movies that come out these days. I've grown to appreciate films that work well with a succinct runtime. Sometimes less is more. Still, I wouldn't mind seeing Huston's original cut to see if it would have been even better. Definitely a must-see film.

Red Badge of Courage, The (1951) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Adaptation of Stephen Crane's novel has a Civil War soldier (Audie Murphy) running away from battle because he's scared but after wondering around for a bit he begins to become a man and prepares for his next battle. It's rather amazing to read about the history of this movie, which was pretty much a huge battle between director Huston and the studio. MGM would eventually take the film away from the director and cut a two-hour movie down to 69-minutes and with that in mind it's amazing at how well the film still holds up. I'm not sure what all was cut out but I'd love to see that version, which is apparently missing. That's a real shame considering both Huston and Murphy tried to buy the uncut version of the film back from the studio only to learn the additional footage had been thrown out. As for what's left, this is a very impressive little movie that I'm guessing was meant to show the fine line between being a hero and a coward and how circumstance can change a person. I thought the movie was extremely powerful in its message even though it never preaches or being over dramatic. The movie contains some wonderful battle scenes, which are among some of the best on ground footage since THE BIRTH OF A NATION. The battle scenes are certainly masterfully directed but so are the quieter scenes with the men marching and talking. Hearing them talk about various subjects including death was perfectly handled by the director. There's some terrific cinematography including a couple wonderful scenes showing the sun shining through some trees. Murphy gives a very strong performance as does the rest of the cast. Andy Devine has a small but important role in the film as well.