The Red Badge of Courage
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Audie Murphy, Bill MauldinBrand: MURPHY,AUDIE
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 69 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-02-04
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of The Red Badge of Courage
Movie Review: Audie Murphy's best film
Summary: 5 Stars
The Youth (Audie Murphy) finds his first taste of battle to be more than he'd bargained for.
Although it's over fifty-years-old, John Huston's adaptation of Stephen Crane's THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE holds up remarkably well. Crane's novel of youth, written when Crane was in his early twenties, is an exploration of the nature of courage as measured in the crucible of battle. Civil War battle, to be exact. The Youth - that's how he's listed in the credits - along with the Loud Soldier (Bill Mauldin,) the Tall Soldier (John Dierkes,) and the rest of his regiment are marching to the battlefield shortly after the movie opens.
The `red badge' in the title is a battle scar, proof to the world - and yourself - that you have sufficient courage to belong. Whether that type of physical courage is today so highly and universally esteemed is debatable. Certainly Mauldin and especially Murphy, two still-youth heroes of the Second World War, won't resonate with later audiences. Mauldin enlisted in the army in 1940, and while in the service created the cartoon characters Willie and Joe, two average GIs fighting in Europe. Willie and Joe appeared in Stars and Stripes and won for Mauldin the Pulitzer Prize in 1945. Murphy was the most decorated combat American combat soldier of the war. Mauldin and Murphy's real-life courage was unquestioned, and Huston's use of the two in lead roles in canny. It adds a unique layer of immediacy and realism to the story.
There's a loose-limbed, deep focus, tight close-up look to the film that puts us under the skin of our universal Everyman soldiers. Murphy always seemed somewhat stiff as an actor, but here Huston keeps the dialogue short and concentrates on the darting eyes and pursed lips of the unproven youth. It works surprisingly well. THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE is famous as a butchered film, one the studios took from the director and cut by some twenty minutes. In fact, the running time for this one is a little over an hour, more suitable for a Boston Blackie episode than a major feature release. Huston, the story goes, was outraged but diverted by preliminary work on his next project, The African Queen. This is probably all so, but whoever did the re-cut knew what they were doing. The finished product is a trim, muscular story that benefits from its brevity.
Summary of The Red Badge of Courage
A young man is initiated into adulthood as a Union Army recruit during the Civil War.Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: NR
Release Date: 4-FEB-2003
Media Type: DVD