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Beautiful, moving film.

Awesome Movie

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

There are Many Things that are Powerful in this Court Martial Movie. An Early Paul Newman Performance, and a Fine, Important Supporting Cast, but there is a lot of Ambiguity as the Film Kowtows to the Military Behind the Scenes Watchdogs and Fudge Facts about the True State of Affairs Concerning POW's and Collaboration with the Enemy.It was a Fact that 1 in 7 POW did Collaborate, not the Miniscule "Only 40" that the Film would have You Believe and so on. Also, the Intertwining of the Soldiers Home Lives and Their Lack of Love from Father is more of a Dramatic Inclusion for a Stage Play than would seem Necessary with an Approach Toward Battle Hardened Officers and NCO's.This Muddle makes the Movie Easier to Watch as a Drama but it All gets a bit Confusing with the Overlap. As a Film it is a Sombre Affair and is a Curioso of its Time and is Interesting in that Respect, but it Reeks of Propaganda and Rug Sweeping about a War that had just Ended and this Seems like a Rush Job by the Military and a Half-Hearted Effort by MGM to get the Thing Over with as it was not going to be Box Office, and the Fact that the Movie is so Little Known Today is an Indication of its Inaccuracy and its Ability to Entertain and Enlighten.

Paul Newman's second film (but released after "Somebody Up There Likes Me") demonstrates that, even then, he was the truly finest screen performer around. But the very nature of his style has always placed him behind –or to the side of– more "bravura" actors of the time. Unlike Brando and Clift and Dean- he is much less self-centered; in other words he is a sharing actor. This puts the SCENE in focus more than the performance, and in this extremely underrated (and almost forgotten) courtroom drama you have one of the best scenes I have ever come across - a simple dialogue between Newman and his father, played by Walter Pidgeon (who gives one of HIS best performances here). The short scene takes place towards the end of the film and is pivotal to the story. It is a miniature master-class in technique, communication (or lack of it) and truth. There are clear parallels to "East of Eden" but somehow the shading here is less stark, which makes the confrontation so much more -real. Courtroom dramas, especially American ones, almost always work as on screen. The inbuilt tension and clear pattern of procedure, with gradual unraveling of facts and insights, is compelling, no matter what the case or period. This one is no exception. There are many cadences and moral issues are raised that one sometimes wishes could have gone even further. Otherwise the screenplay (based on a tele-play) is taut, careful and intriguing. So are the characters: Wendell Corey and Edmond O Brien as defense and prosecuting counsel respectively are particularly noteworthy, and utterly believable in parts that could easily have been stereotypes. If one must criticize, I would have to say that the first part of the film, before the court case begins, could have been curtailed slightly. Not because it is in any way uninteresting, but because it seems somehow rather unnecessary -as if just placed in to flesh out the film. But this is a minor criticism of a film that really deserves to be better known.

Paul Newman (as Captain Edward W. Hall Jr.) returns home from the Korean War, on a stretcher, after being held in an enemy prison camp. At first, Mr. Newman is treated as a recovering war hero. After evidence surfaces to reveal he collaborated with the enemy, Wendell Corey (as Major Sam Moulton) serves Newman with court-martial papers. This doesn't sit well with military-minded father Walter Pidgeon (as Colonel Edward W. Hall Sr.). Newman's widowed sister-in-law, Anne Francis (as Aggie Hall) is more understanding...A re-make of the Rod Serling's television version "The Rack" (1955), with Mr. Corey reprising his thankless prosecutorial role; this is a very well-acted, thought-provoking drama. It is also one of Newman's best early feature film performances. Smaller parts, like those essayed by Cloris Leachman (as Caroline) and James Best (as Cassidy), provide an added incentive to watch. However, the ending, whatever the filmmakers' intentions, is not very well-handled.****** The Rack (11/2/56) Arnold Laven ~ Paul Newman, Walter Pidgeon, Wendell Corey, Anne Francis

This movie is well worth watching. It concerns a Korean war POW who returns home and is subject to a court-martial on charges of collaborating with the enemy. Paul Newman, as war veteran Capt. Edward Worthington Hall Jr., shows signs of the powerful actor he would later become, and the supporting cast is excellent. I particularly liked Wendell Corey as the somewhat reluctant but duty-bound prosecutor. The Korean War seems to have been a particularly grizzly affair where torture was common and the Geneva Convention flouted. In post Abu Ghraib 2006, torture is of current interest and gives "The Rack" added relevance. In showing that a strong and decorated officer like Captain Worthington can be broken, the unfortunate message is that torture does work on occasion. We all know that each of us has a breaking point, but the concept explored here is what makes some people, Captain Worthington in this case, succumb before that point is reached. The emphasis is on mental torture - trying to figure out just what the crucial vulnerability is in a personality and exploiting that. For Worthington it was loneliness, his mother having died young and his father being a martinet. The thing that pushed him over the edge was losing his brother in the war. But, by his own admission, he never felt that he had reached his breaking point. The message is that most of us are stronger than we think and we rarely get pushed, or push ourselves, to our limits and beyond. The issues are argued in detail in the court-martial and one conclusion posited by the defense is that maybe the country was in some part responsible for what happened to Captain Worthington - the soldiers were never trained for what they encountered in the war and the populace was pretty much ignorant about who we were fighting and the reason for it. As the Iraq war grinds on Santayana's quote comes to mind, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."With such strong themes and excellent performances, why is this only a good and not a great movie? For me it was a lot of little things. Like when Lee Marvin comes into a room in the hospital where the patients are watching a movie and he comes up behind Newman and hangs a noose around his neck with a "Traitor" sign attached. When Newman pursues Marvin to talk with him, Marvin flees down the hallway. Some bothersome things here. How did Marvin make this item? Being on crutches it seems unlikely he was carrying this thing around with him at all times just waiting for the right moment. And Marvin was presented as an aggressive macho man, so his flight in the face of potential confrontation was out of character. This scene could have been much more effective. A pivotal point Newman makes in his defense is "My father never kissed me." To single that out as a way a saying that his father was remote and unaffectionate seemed odd to me. There are a lot of loving and affectionate fathers who never kissed their sons. That line just seemed in there to set up the scene in the car where Newman's father does kiss him, but that awkward out-of-character part of the scene in the car seemed forced to me. Just as actors should never seem to be acting, screenplays should never have such obvious plot devices.All told, this is an admirable film coming so soon after the Korean war and forcing consideration of issues that I'm sure the country was eager to forget.