On Y List of Movie Reviews
(For optimum viewing, adjust the zoom level of your browser to 125%.)
The Young Lions (1958)
Rate:
2
Viewed:
8/14
8/14:
Which is worse: Brando's blond dye job or his sensitive portrayal of a sympathetic Nazi?
I've not seen a war picture this atrociously bad since Beach Red. The Young Lions?
Ha! They're hardly that. Maximilian Schell was 28, Marlon Brando 34, Montgomery Clift 38, and Dean Martin 41 when the film was made.
Brando is wasted given the fact that his character has so much potential but isn't well-developed. Montgomery, who looks brain
damaged, did this before in From Here to Eternity. Dean is absolutely miscast
and therefore looks all wrong.
Maximilian plays a German character as he always does in almost every Nazi picture ever made. I'm only surprised he
didn't speak German this time. On the whole, it's safe to say they've been outperformed by the females.
The romance subplot between Marlon Brando and May Britt shows promise but fails to materialize. What's annoying
is there's no sense of a plot. It's just a pointless movie, clocking at nearly three hours, with many
interminable scenes. Director Edward Dmytryk should've cut out the Americans and kept the film strictly German by focusing
solely on Christian Diestl. This way, Brando might have scored another Oscar nomination, but I have to be reminded of the
hammy scene of him and Schell on the scooter in front of the traveling matte as if it's Days of Our WWII Lives.
All in all, The Young Lions is one of the worst war pictures I've ever seen.