Home of the Brave

To correct a previous commentary... "The Big Red One" is the 1st Infantry Division. The "Red Ball Express" was the name given to the truck convoys. My own opinions of the film: I think a movie like this needs to be appreciated within the context of the time period it was made. Considering that the country then was barely taking baby steps into the civil rights movement, the subject was handled pretty well. It sent it's message without being preachy or patronizing. A great cast also helps it make a worthwhile movie to watch. It's too bad that James Edwards died several years later while still relatively young. He might've made a real breakthrough to some leading roles.

I was 11 years old when my Mother took me to see Home Of The Brave. She came home from work and said, I want to take you to a movie, it is time you see something other than Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy...I can tell you I grew up a lot seeing HOME OF THE BRAVE. I can remember the dialog to this day even though I only saw this movie once. James Edwards and Lloyd Bridges gave star performances, yet the supporting cast was truly outstanding too...... Jeff Corey was the Doctor (psychiatrist)who helped James Edwards overcome the difficulties of war, and of course of being black. (Corey is recognized as one of the greatest character actors in the history of stage and screen. Check his filmography.) It was a landmark scene and performance by both Corey and Edwards. In the 50s Corey was black balled by the House Unamerican Activities Commitee. HUAC. Because he would not name actors sympathetic to the Communists. Many actors did squeal to save there own careers, but not Corey, he laughed at them. Did not work in Hollywood for 12 or more years. He became an acting teacher for the likes of Jack Nicholson, Barbara Streisand, Cher, and many others. Those three won academy awards. May he rest in peace, he left us in 2002. Corey has an outstanding website, check it out, here is the URL address... jeffcorey.com..... James Edwards filmography is full of great performances down through the years.An outstanding filmography by a pioneering actor who never received the recognition he deserved. One year in the 70s, I was involved with a cable TV station in San Diego,we produced the La Costa celebrity tennis tournament. Lloyd Bridges was there and I walked up to him and said, "Thank You for your performance in "Home of The Brave", he was so startled and said to me, when did you see it? I replied, "when I was 11 years old, my mother took me to see it. She said it was an important film, and it was time to know about the freedom this movie is trying to portray." He said to me, "thank you very much, you made my day, in fact my whole month. Thank You." It is nice to know that these great actors who made this film a landmark in cinema were revered by so many. Most are gone now but their performances are preserved in the great history of film. See this movie, buy the VHS on the internet, show it to others and you become part of movie history too. Thank You. RADUDCA

...since AI first saw it on TV in the late 50's. This is a frank look at military racism and its results. The term "nigger" is used openly (a rarity at any time to be sure, in a movie without an all-black cast and especially way back then). James Edwards delivers a powerful performance as a psychosomatically paralyzed black soldier being treated by a white psychiatrist (Jeff Corey). Corey's relentless digging stirs Edwards's memory and the incident that caused the paralysis is finally uncovered. Stark, honest storytelling. Based on a play in which the afflicted soldier was Jewish, this retelling is very contemporary even today.

The importance of this film cannot be overstated. 1 - It gave us JAMES EDWARDS, thus ending Hollywood's Heroic-Black-Man Prohibition. Without Mr. Edwards there would be no Sidney Poitier, no Denzel. 2 - This film, hot on the heels of President Truman's Executive Order integrating America's segregated military, examines the possible pressures of this new policy on both the races - without demeaning either. 3 - Until this time Hollywood had managed to fight two world wars on screen without any major assistance from America's Black population except as domestics. 4 - The existence of HOME OF THE BRAVE put pressure on subsequent films (which only a scant few bowed to)to present a more accurate racial and ethnic portrayal of America's fighting forces. So (with the exception of SAHARA) every Black man in a Hollywood war film owes thanks to Mr. Edwards.

The irony is Mr. Edwards' last film, PATTON, has him portraying a valet. The insult is that Patton's most important victory - The Battle of The Bulge - was facilitated in great part by the contribution of The Big Red One - a battalion of Black truck drivers - who risked all to keep Patton's front supplied until the weather cleared enough to allow cargo flights. This historic fact (the race of the drivers in this segregated unit) is ignored in the film leaving Mr. Edwards with the only Black speaking part in a sweeping biography about a WWII general - isn't this where we came in?

If you examine Mr. Edward's filmography (by which I mean screen the films) it is difficult to understand the spottiness of his career and his relative obscurity. Part of the explanation may lie in the murky machinations of HUAC, McCarthyism, the Hollywood Blacklist and Mr. Edwards' worldwide tour with this film (it included a stop in the then Soviet Union). If you have any information regarding this aspect of his life please post it here.

CeOTIS

Mark Robson's sensitively directed film perfectly captures the social mores and racial bigotry of its time during the stresses and traumas of war. The dialogue is brittle and thoroughly convincing. Although Lloyd Bridges and James Edwards are both excellent, Frank Lovejoy steals the film with his portrait of Mingo. Steve Brodie is just right as the insecure bigot who is more ignorant than evil. This is one of my five favorite war movies of all time. It reminds me of another great film made the next year called "The Men" with Marlon Brando. I give this one 10 out of 10.