Wednesday, March 02, 2011

The Red Badge of Courage (DVD)

The Red Badge of Courage (1951) starring Audie Murphy, Bill Mauldin. Stephen Crane's Civil War story is brought to the movie screen by director John Huston. Yankee soldier Henry Fleming (Murphy) runs from the enemy the first time he sees action, and feels shame at himself as a coward. But a chance injury, a "red badge of courage," makes it look like he was injured in battle. He rejoins his regiment and goes into battle the next day, fighting like a "wildcat." I'll have to reread the book, but I don't remember this as being the plot of Crane's "The Red Badge of Courage." Anyway, it's a pretty good movie, with some exciting battle scenes. The closed captions are better than the subtitles that are included on the disc. Grade: B (I did reread the book, and found much to my surprise that the movie hews very closely to the plot as Crane wrote it. Go figure.)

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