Review of The Young Lions (1958) by Jeremy S — 21 Mar 2010
Brando makes for a hot nazi, but that's about it for this film. dmytryk made several great film noirs but doesn't get to flex his creative talent because the film is too muzzled by the studio's prestige picture ambitions and claims of fidelity to the novel on which its based.
'the young lions' is stuck somewhere between the melodrama of earlier war pictures and the gritty, violent realism emerging at the time and it fails to deliver a cohesive and satisfying coalescence of elements.
the acting is very strong, however, especially from the female actresses, playing variations of the noir femme fatale. monty clift gives a very strange performance but it's both distracting and disheartening to see his once-beautiful face so pale and worn after his motorcycle accident.
This review of The Young Lions (1958) was written by Jeremy S on 21 Mar 2010.
The Young Lions has generally received positive reviews.
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