Red Ball Express

In Red Ball Express, a group of soldiers whose job isn't normally featured in movies gets center stage. War pictures are usually about the daring Marines or the sailors who are desperate for a taste of the action, not the folks assigned to the boring jobs. These men are the truck drivers who deliver supplies to the fellows featured in the other movies. It's an interesting angle, and if you do find that aspect of the war intriguing, you'll probably like it.

Jeff Chandler stars as the head of the platoon, and of course (since there has to be some drama in a movie that doesn't scream 'drama') he clashes with the other men. Alex Nicol holds a grudge because his brother was killed in a battle involving Jeff. There are also some testy scenes involving Sidney Poitier and the white soldiers who begrudge being assigned to an integrated unit. I've seen much more riveting war movies in my day, but if it sounds interesting to you, give it a shot and see what you think.

Midway through the war, the March of Time devoted time to a filmed panel discussion - quite a new idea, then - as to how the war was to be won. One comment was "This is a Quartermasters' war. Solve the issue of logistics and you've won the war".

That might have been the mission statement of this, very watchable, film

This is not my favourite from Budd Boetticher, not his best either, just a common war flick, but speaking of something rather important for US Army just after D Day for logistics matters, because all the French railway nets were destroyed. It had to be told about, I guess not other film did it. That said the cast is OK, with a convincing Jeff Chandler but not as good as in MERRIL'S MARAUDERS for instance. The real Red Ball Express took many Black soldiers who could not fight in regular troops because of racial segregation in US Army during this period. Yes, this story had to be told, but I guess many things, details have been changed from reality.

I'd have to say that this is a very interesting war time movie. It focuses on not the battle front, but the people who were responsible for the supply line behind the battle front.

The soldiers who are mostly rejects from the battle front are assigned to the Red Ball Express the troops comprising 6000 trucks to bring food, ammunition, and fuel.

This is an innocent looking movie, but it taught me the most important lesson of my life. That everything moves on a commerce. That war is a commerce. It's the delivery of the goods to the points of consumption that is everything. Almost nothing else matters, because if soldiers and tanks didn't have ammo and gas, there's no action. Everything in this world is the same way.

This kind of organized mobility decides the outcome of the war. America had good commander to realize this, and tactical minds to put it into action. Nobody was named a hero, but Patton couldn't have done what he did without the Red Ball Express.

This makes the movie one of the most memorable of all war time movies. I really loved it.

There is more to war than just the glory boys; 95% of the GIs in WW 2 (and all other wars) are never in the limelight as heroes, but they did more than their fair share of sacrifice. My father was one of those guys. He landed at Normandy, was with the infantry marching to the Hurtgen Forest, and getting overrun in the Battle of the Bulge. He was there for it all. He might not have been a hero in those battles (he was always looking for dry socks), but he was a hero to me. He and thousands of others, such as the men in The Red Ball Express, doing thankless jobs and sacrificing a lot more than just a few days lost sleep. Try driving 30 hours without sleep sometime. An underrated film, very similar to The Sorcerer, and the French film, Wages of Fear, but a bit more traditional. Good viewing.