Expert: Mel - 5/22/2004

Question
hello, their is a movie that i cant remember it's name. it was a black/white movie, probably american production and actors, and it deals with the psychological meanings of war. it tells a story about an american soldier feelings throught the WWII. i remember he was in paris when it was liberated and their was that scene when their was a french girl in a pup that he liked, but she couldnt talk and stay with him because other soldiers pay more.

their was also that scene where one soldier was going in a mission, then he find a lonely woman staying in her big 2 floors house, her family escaped but she have to say for a reason i cannot remember, the house was in a field, then that soldier stayed the night with her in her bed, just because she was really afriad to sleep alone that night with all the airplanes sounds.

another scene i remember, is that the soldier is seen after the forcies entered germany, then we see him through his relation with a german family, where he give them money in exchange to be their daughter's friend, then he gets angry with them for somereason, then he get in a fight with a drunk russian soldier and the russian soldier kill him in a handfight in the streets of berlin. and that's the end of the movie.

then after the end and befor the credits, a statment shows and tells that the director was more interested in veiwing and analysing how war affect people.

it's a movie along the side of All is Quite In The western front, talking about alienation and how people react to war.

their arent that much fighting and war scences in this movie. and it was probably made by a famous director as a statment aganist war.

and i also would like to know other movies aganist war.

thanx for your help :)

Answer
Hello Shereif,

The film you are referring to was called "THE VICTORS". It was Produced and Directed in 1963 by Carl Foreman and starred George Peppard, Eli Wallach, George Hamilton, Melina Mercouri, Jeannes Moreau, Peter Fonda and Vince Edwards amongst others. The Russian soldier in the last scene was played by Albert Finney.

Two personal favourites of mine, of this type of film, are "Breaker Morant" (1980) and Stanley Kubrick's "Paths Of Glory" from 1957.

Here are some sites that list films of an "anti-war" nature that you might find useful:

http://www.tlavideo.com/templates/results_list.cfm?kid=29&c=2&sn=1438&v=1&enable...

http://worldfilm.about.com/cs/toppicks/tp/antiwar.htm

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/listmania/list-browse/-/1TMFOV7JRIW99/002-6...

http://www.filmsite.org/warfilms.html


Glad to be of help. Cheers.........Mel.