Review of The Purple Plain (1954) by Justin S — 26 Jul 2010

The Purple Plain is the story of a Royal Air Force pilot at the end of the second world war. Bill Forrester played by Gregory Peck struggles to come to terms with the death of his new wife who was killed at an air raid during a party.

Bill longs for death, he flies into areas that he isn't supposed to and is nearly killed the first time in the film, he sustains a minor injury and is forced to undergo a psychological evaluation from the resident doctor.

Rather than evaluate Bill the doctor offers to take him into the town located in Burma, there he meets Anna who is a teacher. The two almost instantly catch each other's eyes, Things are going well for Bill until during a flight he is shot down with two co-pilots and they must make their way through the jungle back to the base.

The film takes advantage of it's surroundings and gets some wonderful shots, It was shown recently on AMC and the technicolor looks great. Gregory Peck does a great job although i'm not quite sure how his hair is perfect the whole movie after being: shot down, falling off a clip, and sweating in severe heat.

Yes the film is a tad predictable at times, but it still is a rewarding enough/decent picture. If you get the chance check it out AMC has been showing it quite a bit or just que it up on your netflix account if you're bored.