1950's "The Men" may not have been a tour-de-force production like "A Streetcar Named Desire" and there was certainly no Oscar nomination here for actor, Marlon Brando's performance....But, at least - Brando's "method acting" skills showed the audience that he could also play a (somewhat) likable character (who was clearly physically challenged) rather than his usual trademark shtick of a loud-mouthed bully and louse who slapped the women around just for kicks.Anyway - If nothing else - I certainly do give this film its due credit for raising the despairing issue of war vets who had been crippled, maimed, and/or disfigured while serving their country (doing battle duty) during WW2.This sort of distressing subject matter was, I'm sure, not often brought to light before the public back then and I'll bet you this motion picture made a lot of people feel very uneasy and resentful.

The first thing that you need to be aware of when watching The Men is that it is NOT a war film. There are no explosions and outside of the first couple of minutes there are no guns being fired etc. If that's the sort of film that you're looking for then you should look elsewhere.The Men focuses on the after effects of paralysis on a group of war veterans. The main focus is on Ken (Marlon Brando). Ken struggles to accept his paralysis and seemingly shuns help from anyone - at the start of the film he's effectively a martyr. He even refuses to allow his fiancé to visit him - this may seem cold, but in some ways it's understandable when we learn that he was a very active person, he was a football player, a war hero. I suppose he wants her to remember him like that and he doesn't want her to pity him. However, his fiancé Ellen (Teresa Wright)still loves him even though he's paralysed and that's because she sees that he's still the same person that she fell for before he went to war.The thing I really liked about this film is the screenplay; it actually challenges the viewers thoughts and pre-conceptions. Ellen loves Ken in spite of his paralysis, but her parents and Ken's doctor try to talk her out of marrying him. The doctor reasons are more rational and relate to the practical cost and time involved in looking after someone with paralysis. However, her parents basically don't want Ellen to be with Ken because they no longer deem him to be the perfect son now that he's paralysed. Ellen defies her parents' wishes which wouldn't seem like much now, but was probably quite brave in 1950. It really was wonderful to see Ellen stick by Ken.Ken's character was also well-written in the sense that he's never made likable in such a way that we pity him (which is good because I don't think that was the effect that the writers were striving for). However, he's also never so repulsive that we end up hating him. The balance was just about right with his character.Another strong factor working in the film's favour is the wonderful chemistry between Ken and Ellen. They both put in terrific, heart felt performances which only helped to increase the appreciation that I have for this film.If you're a fan of moving dramas then this is definitely worth checking out.

More curiosity piece than good cinema, Fred Zinnemann's "The Men" stars Marlon Brando in his film debut. Brando plays Lieutenant Wilozek, a WW2 veteran who returns to the United States paralysed. Taking place largely in Army medical facilities, the film watches with grim fascination as wounded soldiers and paralysed men struggle to cope with their debilitations. Some men crawl slowly back to some semblance of physical and psychological health, others seem lost, trapped in broken shells of flesh.While Brando is riveting and some of the film's moments are appropriately sensitive, the film mostly reeks of producer Stanley Kramer. Kramer specialised in heavy handed "message movies" which pretend to say the right thing but do something else. In "The Men's" case we have a syrupy soap opera about the tolls of war, the suffering of paraplegics, the self-loathing and shame engendered by armed conflicts, that suddenly shifts from becoming a glorified public awareness video to a story about the healing power of both love and never-give-up military medics. By the film's end, it becomes "Brando's responsibility to heal". Progress can't be made unless he "stops being a bad boy".Fred Zinnemann, a sometimes excellent director, elevates some moments, hits us with a somewhat dark ending and goes in some territory which was deemed shocking back in the 1950s (Brando's sexual impotency), but much of the film is overly talkative. Blame Kramer.6.9/10 – Worth one viewing.

The Men (1950)Well, you do have to see a movie like this partly to see Marlon Brando before his stellar rise to fame (ultra-fame) in "On the Waterfront" (1954) and "Streetcar Named Desire" (the next year, 1951). This is his first role, and he's already the famous, complex, simultaneously macho and tender Brando. He plays Ken, and he is bedridden because he can't walk.Around him are a host of actors, amateur and professional, who are all unable to walk, probably permanently, from war injuries. This is a story of adjusting to being in a wheelchair, getting others to accept you like this, and ultimately getting to accept it yourself. It's an emotional more than a physical battle, and a powerful one.The doctor in charge is in some ways the main character, or the most present, throughout, and he's strong if somewhat uncomplicated in his portrayal of a devoted, tireless medical worker. He's played by Everett Sloan, who has just come off a bizarre but terrific role as a rich lawyer with difficulty walking in "Lady from Shanghai" (a Welles movie--and Welles gave Sloan his entrance into Hollywood in "Citizen Kane").The woman who is both lovingly sympathetic and also scared in her uncertainty as Ken's girlfriend and wife. She's kind of perfect, turning into that somewhat disconnected 1950s housewife before our eyes (influenced surely by her officious if kindly parents, a kind of 1930s Republican do good but also look out for yourself first attitude). It's a perfect fit, set up by the screenwriter and worked by with surprising believability by the young director, Fred Zinnemann ("From Here to Eternity") with Stanley Kramer producing. These two men were among the most socially conscious in a post-war Hollywood that had many directors trying to make a difference in their films (Kazan and Lumet would be two others). And "The Men" is certainly about showing a problem with realism and optimism at the same time. It's a kind of parallel to the film noir films which made dramatic fictions out of many returning servicemen. This was closer to the reality for many.Is it a great film? For some small reasons, no, as much as Brando is convincing in his role. For one thing, it's just too clear what the motivation of the director and producer is, so the movie movies forward without clear dramatic tension (even though you don't quite know the outcome). For another, the acting is generally very good without being wrenching (and the subject is frankly wrenching). It feels a little like we're being given a lesson, a good lesson, but still a bit like schoolwork made vivid on the screen. This will be apparently right from the first scene where a room full of wives and girlfriends ask questions (frank and important questions) of the doctor, who wisely and frankly answers them.Good stuff, great stuff, and as a film experience, incomplete stuff.