The Men

Following Broadway triumphs during the late 1940s, Marlon Brando made his spectacular screen debut in Fred Zinnemann's sober, semi-documentary 1950 film about paraplegic vets struggling to overcome their physical and psychological injuries in a VA hospital. Produced by Stanley Kramer (who always made message movies), The Men aimed to inform viewers about the myriad problems confronting wounded warriors (often in the face of public indifference or hostility). Carl Foreman's script handled the men's sexual and emotional hurdles in a fashion that pushed the envelope for “popular entertainment” at the time. But it was Brando's Ken, seen early on in a brief sequence in which he's shot while leading an infantry charge, that gave the film its dramatic force, thanks to a galvanizing performance that captures the character's initial fury at his disability, his overwhelming efforts to overcome it, and the anger he feels over society's inclination to treat him as only half a man. Brando would, of course, make a more lasting impression in A Streetcar Named Desire the following year, but The Men remains a watershed moment in his career, and he's ably supported by Teresa Wright as his fiancée, Everett Sloane as his doctor, and Jack Webb as a fellow patient (many others here were actual paraplegics under VA care). The Men suffers a bit from the heavy-handed didacticism of '50s melodrama, but the fact that the nation is now dealing with veterans returning from yet another war with traumatic injuries invests the film with renewed topicality. Highly recommended. (F. Swietek)