The Men

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Fred Zinnemann's sensitive film on the plight of paraplegic WWII veterans features Marlon Brando in his superbly moving screen debut. He plays Lt. Bud Wilozek, one of a group of veterans recovering in the paraplegic ward of a hospital in his hometown. His former fiancee, Ellen (Theresa Wright), explains to his physician, Dr. Brock (Everett Sloane), her concern about his isolation and apparent depression since he has broken their engagment and refuses to see her. He counsels her to be patient, but when he decides to broach the issue with Bud, the embittered patient reacts angrily to the doctor's intrusiveness, and continues to refuse to see Ellen. The doctor cajoles the withdrawn paraplegic into the life of the ward, where fellow patients Richard Erdman, Jack Webb, and Arthur Jurado begin to pull Bud out of his spiritual miasma. At length, his sense of hope starts to return, and after seeing Ellen for the first time in months, he begins to contemplate the possibility of marriage. Zinnemann and screenwriter Carl Foreman spent a month in a veteran's hospital researching the film, and Brando lived in the paraplegic unit for a time as part of his preparation. ~ Michael Costello, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Screen: Black and White
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Features:
  • cc

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Nominated Best Story and Screenplay - 1950 (Carl Foreman)

• British Academy of Film and Television Arts

•     Nominated Best Film - Any Source - 1950 (Stanley Kramer)

• National Board of Review

•     Nominated Best Picture - 1950

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Marlon Brando - Ken
       Teresa Wright - Ellen Wilozek
       Everett Sloane - Dr. Brock
       Jack Webb - Norm
       Richard Erdman - Leo
       Arthur Jurado - Angel
       Virginia Farmer - Nurse Robbins
       Dorothy Tree - Ellen's Mother
       Howard St. John - Ellen's Father
       Nita Hunter - Dolores
       Patricia Joiner - Laverne
       Cliff Clark - Dr. Kameran
       Ray Teal - Man at Bar
       Margarita Martin - Angel's Mother
       John Miller - Mr. Doolin
       DeForest Kelley
       John Hamilton - Justice of the peace

• Director:

  Fred Zinnemann

• Producer:

  Stanley Kramer

• Screenwriter:

  Carl Foreman

• Screen Story:

  Carl Foreman

• Cinematographer:

  Robert de Grasse

• Composer (Music Score):

  Dimitri Tiomkin

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Dimitri Tiomkin

• Editor:

  Harry Gerstad

• Production Designer:

  Rudolph Sternad

• Associate Producer:

  George Glass

• Set Designer:

  Edward Boyle

• Makeup:

  Gus Norin

REVIEW:

• This was the movie audience's first opportunity to see the actor whose legendary performance as Stanley Kowalski had galvanized Broadway in A Streetcar Named Desire a few years before, revolutionizing the art of acting in the process, and he doesn't disappoint. Like many films of the period, it adopts a semi-documentary approach to the problems of the wounded vets, dwelling at length on the exact nature of the obstacles faced by the patients, as well as detailing the kind of clinical treatment, both physical and psychological, that will make them as functional as they can be. While the focus of the script is on the brooding Brando, nearly all of the characters are well-developed, and Foreman sensitively underlines the barely restrained awareness of their stigmatization in the gallows humor which nearly all affect. Jack Webb, light years from his Dragnet persona, is surprisingly deft and witty as the house intellectual, and Everett Sloane is stingingly effective as the doctor who vents his frustration over the stagnation of his patients. But the main attraction is Brando, who brings to the film the same kind of naturalness and spontaneity which had electrified Broadway. American audiences had never seen an actor of such range and power on film, nor one so willing to court their rejection in mining the darkest regions of his psyche for the sake of his craft. ~ Michael Costello, Rovi