To Hell And Back
If you watch without knowing that Murphy is re-enacting his own experiences, the film is a pretty alienating experience. Its willingness to depict the catastrophic psychological impact of war is weirdly at odds with its fierce flurries of patriotism. And Murphy himself is hardly magnetic: When you try to imagine what must have been going on inside his head, however, the movie begins to thrum with horrible life. Its star gained medals in Europe, but he also acquired a pretty serious mental malaise. They then called it combat stress — in today's terms, post-traumatic stress disorder — but Murphy's own description was richer.
The boys from Universal recreated the beaches of Anzio and the battlegrounds of Sicily and Germany on the Yakima firing range in Washington state.
The army — believing that the film would prove "a vitamin pill for recruitment" — lent them a division of troops. The studio, in Freudian mode, suggested that Murphy might find the process cathartic. Outraged by Redleg atrocities, the James and Younger Brothers along with Kit Dalton join Quantrill's Raiders and find themselves participating in even worse war crimes. In Silver City, naive farm boy Cass and newcomer saloon girl Nellie are married by Judge Roy Bean in a shotgun wedding but their honeymoon is marred by outlaws. Mistaken for a murderous outlaw, an innocent passerby is forced to go on the run to try and clear his name by catching the real culprit.
In his desire to control a frontier town, ruthless town boss Decker appoints the town drunk as sheriff who, in return, hires gunfighter Destry as his deputy. A beautiful woman with an ulterior motive hires two gunslingers to escort her through Indian territory so she can be reunited with her awaiting husband. When whites hunger after the gold on Ute Indian land, a bigoted young man finds himself forced into a peacekeeping role.
An agent sent from Washington in takes charge of an Apache reservation and has the oppressive US Army back off, which creates conflicts and causes the Indians to have great respect for him. Native of Texas, he was placed in charge of his many younger siblings on the death of his mother and decided to join the military at the age of 18 to provide for them. His many acts of bravery and heroism during the US military advance through Italy, France and into Germany earn him increasing rank and responsibility as well as the respect of his comrades in arms.
Eventually he receives two dozen of the highest medals the US and France can bestow, culminating in the awarding of the Congressional Medal of Honor. I liked this movie not so much because it is a great movie it is an average war movie of this era but because it made me reflect about reality versus perception and how you can be very wrong about something by taking it at face value. At 5'5", maybe lbs, a high tinny voice, and hyper-kinetic motion, he seems more like someone that would get killed early and easily, or worse get you killed.
The reality, he was the man you wanted in your platoon when the battle started. He was made of heroic stuff.
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He wasn't a tough talking braggart. He was just a soldier that would do anything to save his brothers and get home alive. He of course isn't the only example of this. He just got his own movie. It was a good thing that he was an actor because John Wayne would have played his part if he hadn't been, which would have been a real shame because you would have lost the true meaning behind the story.
To Hell And Back – Lyrics
Hollywood prefers style over substance. It would have been a true disservice to all of the short, underweight chirpy men in the world. Think about Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne, who would you want in your platoon. John Wayne is your probable choice.
To Hell and Back: From real life to reel life | Film | The Guardian
Murphy and his men later take part in Operation Shingle. After landing on the beach, Murphy and his men fight around an abandoned farmhouse. This battle results in Lt.
Manning, Kovak and Johnson being killed. After the Allied breakout of Operation Shingle, Murphy eventually receives a battlefield commission in the rank of second lieutenant. The action for which Murphy was awarded the Medal of Honor is depicted near the end of the film. In January , near Holtzwihr , France, Murphy's company is forced to retreat in the face of a fierce German attack. However, Murphy remains behind, at the edge of a forest, to direct artillery fire on the advancing enemy infantry and armor.
As the Germans close on his position, Murphy jumps onto an abandoned M4 Sherman tank he actually performed this action atop an M10 tank destroyer and uses its. Although wounded and dangerously exposed to enemy fire, Murphy single-handedly turns back the German attack, thereby saving his company. After a period of hospitalization, he is returned to duty.
The film concludes with Murphy's Medal of Honor ceremony shortly after the war ends, as Murphy remembers Kovak, Johnson and Brandon, who were killed in action. When Universal-International picked up the film rights to Audie Murphy's book, he initially declined to play himself, recommending instead Tony Curtis , with whom he had previously worked in three Westerns , Sierra , Kansas Raiders and The Cimarron Kid.
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However, producer Aaron Rosenberg and director Jesse Hibbs convinced Audie to star in the picture, despite the fact the year-old Murphy would be portraying himself as he was at ages 17— Originally, several generals who served in World War II were considered to perform the voiceover opening for the movie, among them Maxwell D. The date of the premiere was also the tenth anniversary of Murphy's army discharge at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. Reviews from critics were generally positive, with Murphy receiving good notices for his performance. Weiler of The New York Times wrote that Murphy "lends stature, credibility and dignity to an autobiography that would be routine and hackneyed without him.
Fighting or funning, they are believable. The war action shown is packed with thrills and suspense. Coe of The Washington Post was positive, writing that Murphy "brings an emotional poignancy that stems partly from our knowledge that he did these daring, unbelievable acts of courage and partly from the skill he has achieved as an actor. However, the events described in the picture have a factitious air about them. Maybe the spontaneity of actual heroism just can't be duplicated in the movies. Commonplace, 'B' picture direction and a reliance on familiar Service types make the lavishly staged battle scenes appear monotonous, confused, and, at the climax—with Murphy wiping out scores of the enemy singlehanded—not a little ridiculous.