Home of the Brave managed to combine three of the top film genres of 1949: the war film, the psychological drama, and the problems of African-Americans. The film utilizes the recurrent theme of a diverse group of men being subjected to the horror of war and their individual reactions, in this case, to the hell of jungle combat against the Japanese in World War II.
Plot
Undergoing psychoanalysis by an Army psychiatrist (Corey), paralyzed Black war veteran Private Peter Moss (Edwards) begins to walk again only when he confronts his fear of forever being an "outsider".
The film uses flashback techniques to show Moss, an Engineertopography specialist assigned to a reconnaissancepatrol who are clandestinely landed from a PT boat on a Japanese-held island in the South Pacific to prepare the island for a major amphibious landing. The patrol is led by a young major (Dick), and includes Moss's lifelong friend Finch (Bridges), whose death leaves him racked with guilt; bigot Corporal T.J. (Brodie); and the sturdy but troubled Sergeant Mingo (Lovejoy).
When the patrol is discovered, Finch is left behind and captured by the Japanese. They force Finch to cry out to the patrol. Finch later escapes but he dies in Moss's arms. In a firefight with the Japanese, Mingo is wounded in the arm, and Moss is unable to walk. T.J. carries Moss to the returning PT boat that covers the men with its twin .50 caliber machine guns.
In the film's climax, the doctor forces Moss to overcome his paralysis by yelling a racial slur. From this point on, Moss will never again bow to prejudice. At the end of the movie, Mingo and Moss decide to go into business together as a civilians.
Arthur Laurents spent World War II with the Army Pictorial Service based at the film studio in Astoria, Queens, and rose to the rank of sergeant. After his discharge, he wrote a play called Home of the Brave in nine consecutive nights that was inspired by a photograph of GIs in a South Pacificjungle. The drama about anti-Semitism in the military opened on Broadway on December 27, 1945, and ran for 69 performances.[4]
When Laurents sold the rights to Hollywood, he was told that the lead character would be turned from Jewish into black because "Jews have been done".[5]
Producer Stanley Kramer filmed in secrecy under the working title of High Noon. The film was completed in thirty days, for the cost of US$525,000, with Kramer using three different units at the same time.[6] The majority of the film was made on indoor sets, except for the climax that took place on Malibu beach with a former navy PT boat. Associate producer Robert Stillman financed the film with the help of his father, without the usual procedure of borrowing funds from banks.[7]
After 53 minutes, of the 125 minute movie, Sergeant Mingo recites part of Eve Merriam's 1946 poem The Coward to Private Moss:-- "we are only two, and yet our howling can Encircle the world's end. Frightened, you are my only friend.
And frightened, we are everyone. Someone must make a stand. Coward, take my coward's hand."
The New York Herald Tribune reported that a man named Herbert Tweedy imitated the sound of twelve different birds native to the South Pacific for the film.[8]
Reception
Home of the Brave received acclaim from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 98% from 40 reviews.[9]
Accolades
The film gained the prize of the International Catholic Organization for Cinema (OCIC) at the Knokke Experimental Film Festival in 1949.[10] According to this jury, this was a film "most capable of contributing to the revival of moral and spiritual values of humanity". "We all know the definition of this award "for the production that has made the greatest contribution to the moral and spiritual betterment of humanity". it differs from the other awards, when are normally given for artistic merit. Art for Art's sake is not the object, but rather art for the sake of man, the whole of man, heart and soul. Pious dullness is not the aim (...).[11]
In 1959, famed stand-up comedian and social critic Lenny Bruce, as part of a monologue on The Steve Allen Show, criticized Hollywood for its exploitation of race relations just for the sake of exploiting and without really saying anything, but he singled out Home of the Brave as being a good picture that touched on racial issues that were important.[12]
Legacy
In a topical decision, President Truman's Executive Order 9981 had ordered the U.S. Armed Forces to be fully integrated in 1948.
Arthur Laurents was an American playwright, theatre director, film producer and screenwriter. With a career spanning seven decades he received numerous accolades including two Tony Awards, a Drama Desk Award, and nominations for two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and a Golden Globe Award.
Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch was an English-Australian actor of theatre, film and radio.
Richard Jaeckel was an American actor of film and television. Jaeckel became a well-known character actor in his career, which spanned six decades. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor with his role in the 1971 adaptation of Ken Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion.
A Walk in the Sun is a 1945 American war film based on the novel by Harry Brown, who was a writer for Yank, the Army Weekly based in England. The book was serialized in Liberty Magazine in October 1944.
Too Late the Hero is a 1970 American war film directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Michael Caine, Cliff Robertson, Ian Bannen and Harry Andrews.
Joseph M. Newman was an American film director most famous for his 1955 film This Island Earth. His credits include episodes of The Twilight Zone and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
Frank Andrew Lovejoy Jr. was an American actor in radio, film, and television. He is perhaps best remembered for appearing in the film noir The Hitch-Hiker and for starring in the radio drama Night Beat.
Steve Brodie was an American stage, film, and television actor from El Dorado in Butler County in south central Kansas. He reportedly adopted his screen name in memory of Steve Brodie, a daredevil who claimed to have jumped from the Brooklyn Bridge in 1886 and survived.
George Vincent Homeier, known professionally as Skip Homeier, was an American actor who started his career at the age of eleven and became a child star.
Henry Rowland was an American film and television actor. He is remembered for his role as Count Kolinko in the Zorro television series.
The Steel Helmet is a 1951 American war film directed, written, and produced by Samuel Fuller during the Korean War. The cast stars Gene Evans, Robert Hutton, Steve Brodie, James Edwards, and Richard Loo. It was the first American film about the war and the first of several war films by Fuller.
This Man's Navy is a 1945 World War II film about U.S. Navy blimps directed by William A. Wellman and starring Wallace Beery, Tom Drake, Jan Clayton and James Gleason. The supporting cast features Selena Royle and Beery's brother Noah Beery Sr., and presents a rare opportunity to see both Beery brothers work together in their later years. The picture is also one of the very few films, other than training films, to depict U.S. Navy airship operations.
Halls of Montezuma is a 1951 American World War II war film directed by Academy Award-winner Lewis Milestone and starring Richard Widmark. It also stars Robert Wagner in his first credited screen role and features Richard Boone in his feature-film debut. The story is about U.S. Marines fighting on a Japanese-held island, and the title is a reference to the opening line from the Marines' Hymn.
Richard Lane, sometimes known as Dick Lane, was an American actor and television announcer/presenter. In movies, he played assured, fast-talking slickers: usually press agents, policemen and detectives, sometimes swindlers and frauds. He is perhaps best known to movie fans as "Inspector Farraday" in the Boston Blackie mystery-comedies. Lane also played Faraday in the first radio version of Boston Blackie, which ran on NBC from June 23, 1944 to September 15, 1944. Lane was an early arrival on television, first as a news reporter and then as a sports announcer, broadcasting wrestling and roller derby shows on KTLA-TV, mainly from the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles.
James Johnson Edwards was an American actor in films and television. His most famous role was as Private Peter Moss in the 1949 film Home of the Brave, in which he portrayed a Black soldier experiencing racial prejudice while serving in the South Pacific during World War II.
Ambush Bay is a 1966 American war film directed by Ron Winston and starring Hugh O'Brian, Mickey Rooney and James Mitchum. It was filmed on location in the Philippines.
Beachhead! is a 1954 American Technicolor war film based on U.S. Marine Corps Captain Richard G. Hubler 1945 novel I've Got Mine about World War II. It was filmed on Kauai island in the Hawaiian Islands chain in the mid - Pacific Ocean by Aubrey Schenck Productions, released through United Artists studio and directed by Stuart Heisler.
Marines, Let's Go is a 1961 CinemaScope DeLuxe Color Korean War film about three Marine buddies on shore leave in Japan and at war in Korea. It was produced and directed by Raoul Walsh, who also wrote the story. Walsh had previously had successes with films about the U.S. Marine Corps in World War I, the 1920s, and World War II. This was the next-to-last film of Walsh's long directing career.
A Town Like Alice is a 1956 British drama film produced by Joseph Janni and starring Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch that is based on the 1950 novel of the same name by Nevil Shute. The film does not follow the whole novel, concluding at the end of part two and truncating or omitting much detail. It was partially filmed in Malaya and Australia.
Home of the Brave is a 1946 play by Arthur Laurents. A film adaptation was made in 1949, directed by Mark Robson. The Broadway production was directed by Michael Gordon. The play opened at the Belasco Theater on December 27, 1945, and closed on February 23, 1946.
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