The Red Badge of Courage (1951)
Directed by John Huston
Henry Fleming is a young Union soldier in the American Civil War. During his unit's first engagement, Henry flees the battlefield in fear. When he learns that the Union actually won the battle, shame over his cowardice leads him to lie to his friend Tom and the other soldiers, saying that he had been injured in battle. However, when he learns that his unit will be leading a charge against the enemy, Henry takes the opportunity to face his fears and redeem himself.
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What critics compared The Red Badge of Courage to
Even in John Huston’s somnambulistic and (in my opinion) overrated 1951 film of Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage, some of the interior logic of the novel was echoed with a delicacy and depth of feeling that is sadly missing here.
As the great-great grandson of Union soldier Robert Lybarger, I have to confess that good American Civil War stories like Gone with the Wind, Glory, The Red Badge of Courage or even Pharaoh's Army do have a special place in my heart.
It combines the mercenary workings of "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" with the "The Red Badge of Courage."
The lovely English actress Mbatha-Raw (from Belle) projects a wounded dignity as Rachel, Oakland native Mahershala Ali steals every scene he’s in as the escaped slave Moses, and the young, scared character of Newton’s nephew Daniel (played by Jacob Lofland) brings to mind what may be the best of all possible Civil War films, John Huston’s The Red Badge of Courage.
Some scenes will remind viewers of “The Red Badge of Courage,” while others will echo “All Quiet on the Western Front.”
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The argument has raged for years in one form or another, over hundreds of movies, from The Birth of a Nation and All Quiet on the Western Front to Sands of Iwo Jima, The Red Badge of Courage, The Burmese Harp, The Battle of Algiers, Das Boot, and The Messenger.
This bait-and-switch is nothing new in war stories; you can find it from "The Red Badge of Courage" clear back to "The Iliad."
While this invokes recollections of a similar scene in John Huston’s The Red Badge of Courage, an encounter with a shell-shocked soldier pre-dates the famous slapping scene in Patton and foreshadows what is to come.
That’s a novel premise for a Cruise movie; but soon he’s reluctantly tossed into battle like the rookie from “The Red Badge of Courage.”
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Shades of The Red Badge of Courage creep in with one young gung-ho Army Ranger arriving in Somalia to "kick some ass"—of course, Sgt.
It’s The Red Badge of Courage, without the courage.