Watch The Long and the Short and the Tall For Free

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

I remember that when this film was released it raised a lot of controversy amongst the soldiers that fought in the Far East.They were upset at their representation as an undisciplined rabble and at the proposition that they would kill an unarmed prisoner of war.There are a number of factors that prevent this becoming a great film.Firstly there is the obvious artificially of the jungle.Those in TV's It ain't half hot look more realistic.Secondly there is the shear theatricality of the performances.Not the usual stiff upper lip type of film.It has all the characters shouting at each other at the top of their voices.The Maps didn't need radio detection.Thirdly there is the performance of Laurence Harvey determined to make sure that everyone knows who is the star of the film.Shame that Peter O Toole didn't get to reprise his stage roll.I was unable to see this on its release as it was an X certificate and I couldn't pass for 16.Difficult to believe this now.

Looking at this bunch out on patrol in the China/Burma/India theater of World War II I was reminded of what Clark Gable said to Charles Laughton about the impressed seaman on the Bounty, them not being king and country volunteers. Sergeant Richard Todd has his hands full keeping good discipline and order with crew in The Long And The Short And The Tall. Using that British wartime ballad as a title tells about all the different types one gets in the Armed Services.So it is in this film where Sergeant Richard Todd has a mission which he figures is a light one. Just go out to get background recordings of jungle sounds to be played in real battle to confuse the enemy. But the Japanese are also full of tricks. This patrol is drawn into enemy held area and then the idea is for the British soldiers to get out alive.Based on a stage play and the stage roots of his project aren't all that well concealed, the patrol captures a Japanese scout. Just his presence among them brings a breakdown in discipline that spells disaster. It is inevitable in war that one does not see the enemy as human. If you did you couldn't kill them. The more popular the war, the more that spreads to the civilian sector.Standing out among the patrol members are Richard Harris and Laurence Harvey who would dislike each other intensely in civilian life in any event. Harvey in fact has no kind words for anybody. With him it's like is Joe Lampton character from Room At The Top went off to war, most likely drafted.The Britsh whose island nation was threatened far worse than continental USA have this film as being the first at least I know of to show their fighting men as less than heroes. The film's main weakness is not successful transition to the screen from the stage. But the acting is vivid especially from Todd, Harris, and Harvey.

Where to begin? I'm not a war monger, just a realist. These guys are fighting in WW2, not Vietnam. Their generation was the generation of the Empire; I grew up with this generation (I'm 60). They are in the middle of the Burmese jungle (horrible) with Japanese soldiers probably in the vicinity. Its war so 'kill or be killed'. There was no Geneva Convention in the Japanese war. They the Japanese fought cruelly and brutally. Fact. They treated POWs appallingly. Fact. This was a perverse 'bushido' (similar to Islamic notions of jihad/Martyrdom/Suiciding) so nothing to do with the supposed 'evils of Western Imperialism'. The British Army knew this. So in that context, a story of a bunch of soldiers in the middle of the Japanese jungle, surrounded by this enemy, and acting like they're in a West End stage production makes no sense. Lawrence Harvey's character shows no awareness of being in a dirty war. Richard Todd's sergeant is barely in control. Richard Harris' corporal is not much better. In the middle of such a barbaric context so much 'moralising' is both unreal and ridiculous, and insulting to the British and Empoire troops who had to fight and die out there. They were 'the Forgotten Army'. It was many times worse than the West European or Med/ME theatres of conflict. Unfortunaely this was the first of the post-war generation 'morality and psychology' movies about the war. its pure nonsense. But its effect led to debacle of Vietnam in the 70s and finally to the most recent debacles in Iraq and Afghan. The West wallowing in its own moral ambiguity and assumed self-righteousness. While the East of Vienna countries from Turkey and Russia to China/Japan went their own way. This was the beginning of Western self-doubt and decline. Where has it got the West? Not very far... This is the first and last time I will watch this film. I gave it 2 for technical merit and because I like Richard Todd. Leslie Norman (father of Barry) has made much better films than this.

This war-drama was adapted from the stage. To be fair, this is not surprising, seeing as the film is very dialogue heavy with characters standing around delivering lines to each other. Each of the soldiers plays a specific role, which allows the writers to dramatize various issues. It's an anti-war movie at heart and one of the central themes is how prisoners of war are dealt with. The story itself has a group of British soldiers somewhere in the Burmese jungle surrounded by the Japanese enemy. They end up capturing an enemy soldier and this leads to different types of disharmony amongst the men in how they should treat this man. Over and above this though there is a lot of friction between the troops anyhow, as they are not a happy unit in the first place.I wouldn't say the film is particularly believable to be perfectly honest. It seems highly unlikely that men in the midst of the vicious conflict in the Far East would ever be this philosophical about the civil liberties of an enemy soldier. However, if you suspend your disbelief, you will be rewarded as it's a well written and acted film. For a war movie there is very little action, only at the end is there really any combat. It's essentially a drama set around a combat unit. Its well worth seeking out as it seems to be a fairly obscure film. However, it's well worth your time, especially if you are a fan of older war movies.