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Ghost Canyon

A Walk In The Sun: 4K Definitive Restoration
(Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, John Ireland, George Tyne, Lloyd Bridges, et al / Blu-ray + DVD / NR / (1945) 2022 / MVD Visual)

Overview: Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, John Ireland, Lloyd Bridges, and Norman Lloyd head a stellar ensemble cast comprising the lead platoon of Texas Division of the U.S. Fifth Army.

This eclectic group of citizen-soldiers are thrust into a life-or-death mission to blow up an enemy bridge while attempting to capture a strategic farmhouse heavily garrisoned by German troops.

The dilemma of the common soldier trudging to an unknown fate under a blazing Italian sun is captured by the different thoughts and personalities of a disparate group of men under arduous stress.

Who will rise to the occasion or crumble under pressure? Robert Rossen’s literate script dramatizes the narrative from the perspective of the infantryman whose mundane routine of service-related ennui is interspersed with heart-pulsing action amid the ever-present specter of sudden death.

Once seen, it is never to be forgotten. The superb camera work by six-time Academy Award ® nominee Russell Harlan is supported by the titular ballad written by Millard Lampell and Earl Robinson and performed by renowned African-American operatic singer Kenneth Spencer.

A Walk in the Sun was named as one of the year’s top films by the National Board of Review, was nominated for Best Film by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and was added to the National Film Registry in 2016 for its cultural, historical and aesthetic significance.

Once seen, it is never to be forgotten.

Blu-ray Verdict: Simply put, this movie is beyond criticism. Within its celluloid record there clambers cold history. The tanks are real. The planes are real. The people are real. This was a contemporary war movie to the actual war, without the layers of myth lacquered by years of failing memory.

Unlike recent high budget over-the-top productions and the copious blood spattering within, this little epic tends to mute the violence into the pathos of the moment of death.

That being the death of heroes. And the emphasis appears to hinge on the suddenness, the randomness, and the tragedy of men dying hard. It is a stark memorial to the courage and sacrifice of the World War II soldier.

Amazingly, and very much in contrast to most other war films of the period which demonized the enemy, this film provides a neutral texture to the foe. Here the German soldiers are but shadows on the cave wall.

The stray Italian soldiers appear as comic sidekicks in the maelstrom of a nation at peril from two sides. The enemy appears to escape the moral condemnation that other films embraced. This is war and this is what it is by those who fought it.

The film describes the landings of an infantry platoon on the Salerno beaches in Italy. All of a sudden they are left leaderless as two of the senior officers meets a soldier’s fate.

The beach scene remains a descriptive detail of what a soldier’s paradox in modern warfare was. They bring the war, but they do not know where it is, where they are, whether the war will visit them, or what lies in front of them. Without the need for special effects the director garnishes the film with the fog of war skillfully.

A startling moment is when the third ranking leader, a noncom Sergeant succumbs to panic and shell shock. It is perhaps the kindest treatment of the condition ever presented cinematically during that period. The rest of the platoon appears to be supportive to the fallen insane Sergeant. But the war goes on. They move on.

Rallied by a solid Sergeant the platoon moves onto its objectives, a bridge and a farmhouse at a cost. The objectives are difficult and the angst of leadership and follower play the scene well. And unlike most war movies where heroism goes beyond definition, these heroes are all very much afraid.

The film has a solid core of young actors of the period. Dana Andrews, a very young Lloyd Bridges appear to anchor the cast. The black and white format suits this tiny epic. The cinematography, stunts are solid and consistently well done.

It is a darkish film, and yet very much worth seeing, especially now given that MVD Visual have brought out this 4K Definitive Restoration that brings to life all the actors and their expressions in the heat of battel quite like never before. This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.37:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of:

Disc 1 - Blu-Ray Special Features:
4K Master from the UCLA Film & Television Archive’s 35mm photochemical restoration
Commentary by Alan K. Rode

Disc 2 - DVD Special Features:
Zanuck Goes to War: The WWII Films of Fox
Living History: Norman Lloyd on Saboteur and A Walk in the Sun (2014)
The Battle of San Pietro - Un-cut version from the Academy Film Archive preservation negative
WWII Fox Movietone Newsreels
Theatrical Trailer

www.MVDvisual.com





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