The movies plot is set during the American Civil War. This movie mainly shows the events of the Battle of Chancellorsville. The movie shows all aspects of the war including music, thoughts/feelings of the soldiers and the damage that is done. The movie mainly revolves around one character, Henry which shows his growth during the war. He starts off questioning why he is a soldier and is very frightened but ends up being very brave and sure of himself in the end.

The Red Badge of Courage is directed by John Huston who also co-adapts to screenplay with Albert Band from the novel of the same name written by Stephen Crane. It stars Audie Murphy, Bill Mauldin, Andy Devine, Robert Easton, Douglas Dick, Royal Dano, Arthur Hunnicutt and Tim Durant. Music is by Bronislau Kaper and cinematography by Harold Rosson. The American Civil War and Union soldiers head South to confront the Confederate army. Young Henry Fleming (Murphy) is ill prepared for the horrors of war, so when the crunch comes he retreats from the first battle he's faced with and has a life choice of either being known as a coward, or find something from within to make him strong enough to return to the front line. Nutshell History Of The Production. John Huston believed that this could have been his masterpiece, but an MGM power struggle saw the film butchered. A narration was insisted upon after poor test screenings, Huston washed his hands off the picture, while Lillian Ross produced a critically acclaimed book about the production. With no fanfare or bunting put out by the studio to promote the picture, the eventual 70 minute cut of the movie flopped as audiences didn't quite like the tonal flows of the piece. Over time, even in its truncated form of just under 70 minutes, pic has garnered praise to become something of a classic as it stands, while also being considered as a lost masterpiece due to the cut material apparently being lost forever. Beautifully photographed by Rosson, it's a film that has often been tagged as some sort of arty exercise. Yet it never once feels like it has ideas above its station, it quite simply is a very intimate and touching portrayal of Americans fighting Americans. It doesn't soft soap anything, deftly imbuing the narrative with the awfulness of the war and the effect on those wearing the uniforms. The period design is superb, the battle sequences crafted with great skill by Huston, and in Murphy the pic has a great fulcrum for youthful confusion acted with a skill that many still think he didn't have. Up close and personal, with raw emotional seeping from its pores, The Red Badge of Courage is a potent exercise in war film making. As Audie stands there at culmination of battle charge, holding in his hands the battered flags of both the Union and the Confederacy, the impact is quite something to behold. 8.5/10

A young Union soldier in the Civil War is getting tired of endless drilling. Finally he gets his wish, as their regiment is told that they are to be shipped out to battle soon. However, the news troubles him. He is afraid that during the fighting he will become scared and run away. He shares his fears with his cocky comrades, but they do little to quell his ever increasing doubts. Finally the next day comes when they all leave for the battle field.As they march towards their destiny, the young soldier sees multiple bodies. He finally gets to the battle field, and he doesn't lose his cool during their first skirmish, but when the second wave comes he loses it and runs. Feeling guilty and saddened, he wanders throughout the forest aimlessly, witnessing first hand the gruesome truth of war.This film would have been absolutely amazing. If it was it's original length. When I finished the film, I was fuming. Not because I didn't like the film, but because it was a butchered masterpiece. The studio mercilessly slaughtered the film, with no thought to it's creative integrity. The film lost so much continuity, that they had someone read quotes from the book to maintain some kind of balance. It makes it hard to review this film, not for what is there, but for what could have been. Perhaps someday someone will take control of the film and restore it to greatness (ahem, Criterion).As it is, I'll focus on reviewing the film as it is. Simply speaking it is one of the best civil war movies of all time. The battle scenes are taught and suspenseful, the acting is top notch and the direction may be some of Huston's best. For starters, Audie Murphy gives a genius performance as the Young Soldier. Having been a war hero himself, Murphy completely immerses himself in the film, and the result is genius. In the earlier parts of the film, his vulnerability is outstanding, and in the later parts of the film when he rages across a bloody battlefield, the fierce determination in his eyes is stunning.By casting unknowns, Huston allowed his film to be not distracted by star-power, and relying on performance only. As the Loud Soldier, Bill Mauldin displays the same vulnerability as Murphy, only on the outside, rather than in a contained fury like Murphy. All the actors give a great semblance of realism to the film, something quite striking for a film of the period. I wish to bring up one scene at this moment, the scene in which the Young Soldier meets an older comrade, who is wounded and dying. The scene where he dies is so aesthetically different from the rest of Huston's oeuvre that I found it hard to believe this film was made by the same man who would later make something so tonally different as The African Queen.I have not read the novel by Stephen Crane (though I probably should), but from what I've seen I can see why the novel is famous. The screenplay, or what's left of it, is brilliant, and manages to be simplistic while still invigorating. The quality of the version I saw was not the best, but I saw enough of the film to be able to say that the cinematography is amazing. The black and white images contrast the bloodshed in the foreground against the clear gray sky in the background. This sharp, crisp, realistic images are incredibly detailed, especially for the period.The way the film is shot reminds me of some period war films, and as Huston shot three I can see where the inspiration came from. The battle scenes are, as I said above, simply amazing. They show a brutal reality that few war films dare to attempt. The brutal combat, with an enemy that is never fully shown. Men die right next to you, and yet you carry on, oblivious to why you're fighting, and what you're fighting for. All of this against the clear American sky. It's not hard to see why the film bombed at the box office; it cut to close to the bone.Huston obviously cared for this film, and he knew it would be special. His meticulous craftsmanship is most easily noticed during the battle scenes.They resonate with a power no "lazy" director could accomplish. Despite the choppy nature of the 69 minute cut, Huston's calm direction is a constant guiding line throughout. No studio could fumble badly enough to lose the spark that the film contains. This brings me to my problem with the film. It feels incomplete, as if someone took scissors and cut out a bunch of random parts. To make matters worse, the opening narration explaining who Stephen Crane is seems like an attempt to elongate the film.The running narration throughout is exasperating, as at many points the narrator will interrupt the flow of the film to quote Stephen Crane, while saying something that does absolutely nothing to help the viewer. This is distracting, and with the fact that the film is only 69 minutes makes the film end way too early, and you are left feeling shortchanged.Overall, this film could have been amazing. As it is, it is only great. It is my hope that someday a restored version will be released, similar to Metropolis. However, as it stands, this is still one of Huston's best, no matter how many people tamper with it.The Red Badge Of Courage, 1951, Starring: Audie Murphy, Bill Mauldin and Arthur Hunnicutt, Directed by John Huston, 8.5/10 (A-)(This is part of an ongoing project to watch and review every John Huston movie. You can read this and other reviews at http://everyjohnhustonmovie.blogspot.ca/)

This is the best movie ever made about the American Civil War, and also ranks among the best ever made about war in general. That is all the more surprising since, as has been mentioned before, the studio didn't want this movie to be made at all, and the final version was drastically cut.As in "All Quiet on the Western Front", "The Red Badge of Courage" presents the viewer with a worm's-eye view of war. Almost nothing is mentioned about the "Big Picture", the reasons and aims of the war, or of the strategies pursued by the military commanders. Instead, The viewer is confronted with the war of the common infantrymen, the men who know nothing about what is happening beyond their own immediate surroundings, and even those are often obscured by the smoke and confusion of battle."The Red Badge of Courage" (a euphemism for a war wound) is the story of one such infantryman. After months of tedious drilling, he suddenly learns that he is finally about to be committed to actual combat, and wrestles with the problem of whether or not he will have the courage to cope with it. It is a very personal story and, since the dialogue is quite terse, requires an actor who really understands such feelings and can get them across without the aid of a lot of talk.John Huston's surprising choice to play that role was Audie Murphy who, at that time, may not have had much experience as an actor, but who undoubtedly knew plenty about how it felt to be a very young man going into battle for the first time. Young as he looks in this movie, Murphy already had extensive combat experience as an infantryman in World War II, during which he earned a battlefield commission and just about every decoration for valor.As "The Loud Soldier", the second lead in the film, Huston picked another famous WW-II veteran, Bill Mauldin, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the memorable cartoons he drew for the military newspaper, "Stars and Stripes". Mauldin did a surprising good job in the film, considering he was not a professional actor.There are many small but memorable moments in this film it is almost impossible to enumerate them all. There is the Loud Soldier hearing a rumor about how the army is about to break camp and go into action - and then immediately disregarding his informant's strict injunction to keep the information to himself by telling everybody in earshot! There is the soldier who, while marching into battle, says to himself, "I wonder what the name of this battle is going to be?" (It is an odd fact that the soldiers who participate in such memorable battles such as Waterloo, Gettysburg or The Marne never actually know that they have done so until afterwards, when the historians have written about them) There are the looks on the faces of the soldiers at the moment when, on the way to the battle, they encounter the first dead man lying in the road. There is the young Lieutenant's habit of twisting the end of this mustache, either out of vanity or nervousness (or possibly a bit of both?). Those are all exactly the sort of things one would expect to see real people to do under such circumstances, and they are the little touches that make "The Red badge of Courage" stand out.