THE YOUNG LIONS is a war drama about three soldiers in the World War Two, whose stories are overlapping in certain periods of time. The film was based on the 1948 novel of the same name by Irwin Shaw. On the eve of the World War Two,an Austrian ski instructor in the Alps meets an American tourist. Flirting is not escalating into something more serious. The tourist is confronted with German nationalism. A famous singer is trying to take the best possible position at the time of recruitment in the US Army. An American Jew, who has started an affair with a young girl, has to face the anti-semitism which, it seems, is not behind the German. The ski instructor joins, as a patriot, German forces in a battle for the occupation of Paris ...Three completely different stories are accidentally connected in the war circumstances. The protagonists who exposed to emotional and physical shocks. The three protagonists, which are faced with bloodshed and inhumane circumstances, exhibit strange moral values and personal rebellion.Marlon Brando as Christian Diestl is the ski instructor and a German lieutenant. He is an idealist, who was disappointed with the war, casualties and a regime at the end. Nazism has destroyed his character. He looks at war with sadness that goes into depression. One human spirit is completely defeated and disappointed. This character evokes sympathy.Montgomery Clift as Noah Ackerman is the young Jew. His character is unusual, sensitive and unclear. Characterization could be better in this case. It is difficult to determine the nature of his character, because he is usually helpless or dazed. However, he shows vague defiance in some scenes. Syndrome of a rebel without a cause is inappropriate in this case.Dean Martin as Michael Whiteacre is a showman, who is in the military against his will. However, he has participated in a great battle in the end. The struggle between conscience and compassion is evident in him.Maximilian Schell as Captain Hardenberg, a vicious Nazi commander, is probably the most compelling character in the film. Female characters in the film are presented as a kind of voice of reason in different circumstances. Hope Lange as Hope Plowman is a very honest character, who is involved in a touching romance at the beginning of the film. Unfortunately, that love dreaming, later, lost its purpose.Although Mr. Dmytryk has elaborated extremely important war themes, through episodic war stories, the overall effect is too lenient for a movie that lasts almost three hours.

This Twentieth-Century Fox film, based on Irwin Shaw's novel and produced by Edward Dmytryk, depicts the horrors and anxieties felt by soldiers and their mates during WWII. Marlon Brando, as the German lieutenant Christian Dietsl is definitely a lion, passionate about Hitler and what he believed that he Hitler could do for Germany, though he did not like to kill innocent civilians. The outstanding Montgomery Clift as the Jew Noah Ackerman was also willing to fight, not only the enemy but also the fellow soldiers who began to hate him. Dean Martin as Whitacre seemed to change his character as he transitioned from a night club entertainer to a more firm soldier himself. Who wouldn't have felt for Hope Lange, (who acted as Hope Plowman) the lady who became Ackerman's wife? Again, griefs and anxieties were felt by people both in Germany and in the US. The war scenes were realistic, and the scene depicting anemic captives in a German concentration camp was realistic and very graphic. The next-to-last scene in the movie was exciting and good, (depending on who you were for), and the very last scene was warm and endearing. Because of the war scenes, scenes depicting passionate feeling on the parts of the main characters, and occasional romantic scenes, the movie was another three-hour drama which captured and maintained viewers' attention well.

"The Young Lions" is a war movie from the late '50s, but it is different from any other war movie I have seen.The film tells the story of three very different soldiers told from three very different points of view. The first (portrayed by Marlon Brando), supplies one of the most interesting aspects of this movie : he is a Nazi named Christian Diestl who isn't completely sure he agrees with what Hitler is doing, but isn't quite sure he disagrees either. The second is Noah Ackerman (Montgomery Clift), an American Jew who is very sweet and shy. The third is Michael Whiteacre (Dean Martin in the role that proved he wasn't just a crooner who could play comedy-- he was a crooner who could do drama, too!), a singer who is battling fear but doesn't want to be a coward. Though all three leads are great actors and are good in their parts, I would have to say that this is Clift's movie, though Martin ran him a close second. Brando is great, and I love Dino to pieces, but Monty really steals the show in this one. His performance as Noah is very touching and real.All in all, an interesting drama that is very well done. I would definitely recommend it.

War films tend to be a snap shot of the time they were made as much as the time they are portraying. "The Young Lions" is no exception. A sprawling epic over 167 minutes includes a fine cast, a thoughtful script, and some messages which resonate as much with the time they were written, as with the time they portray.The plot centres around three main characters, a playboy actor/ singer, Michael Whiteacre, ( Dean Martin), a Jewish immigrant conscript, Noah Ackerman ( Mongomery Clift), and a German Officer, Christian Diestl, ( Marlon Brando). Filmed in 1958, the war was 13 years past, the Nuremburg Sentences had been either enacted or commuted or in many cases served, the Cold War was at its height, and McCarthyism was raging. The Second World War had moved on from being simply a story of good versus evil. Based on Irwin Shaw's novel of the same title, some of the plot differences explain some "clunky" bits of the screenplay.Whiteacre's role is the one most underwritten. He appears as a cowardly lounge lizard who meets Ackerman at the draft board .He introduces Ackerman to his future wife, befriends him while he battles anti-Semitic prejudice, uses his influence to avoid front line service, then sees the patriotic heroic light and joins the front line at the end. Yet in quite a long film, Whiteacre gets precious little screen time and appears in vignette. The book has him as a more thoughtful ands his distaste for war being more cerebral, rather than cowardly.Montgomery Clift has the most satisfying part. From mumbling virgin innocent with Hope Plowman, through battling Barrack Room bullying and prejudice, to heroism in battle and a safe return to wife, children and the American Dream. He acts the part superbly and his bloody defiant resistance to his tormentors viscerally unfolds. Sadly the comeuppance of the prejudiced junior officer who allows the bullying is awkward, sudden and unsatisfying, as if a moral point had to be made.Marlon Brando is quite superb as the doubting Nazi. He is the conscience of the film. At the pinnacle of his youthful good looks he convinces as he is confronted by a series of moral dilemmas throughout the story. He mainly plays opposite Maximilian Schell as Captain Hardenberg, his commanding officer who obeys orders but for whom the audience still has considerable sympathy. A stand-out scene (of many) is when Deistl is asked by his commanding officer to deliver a present to his wife in Berlin. He finds her, May Britt, in an alluring evening dress and in a beautifully constructed seduction and tease they succumb. In a savage coda, Deistl subsequently revisits her to discover that her rejection of her critically injured husband has resulted in his committing suicide, this time he rejects her amorous advances in disgust.The women in the film excel in both performance and beauty. Britt is gorgeous and convincing and it is surprising that she did not have a more successful subsequent career. Hope Plowman playing Ackerman's wife is the epitome of the wholesome all- American gal, Barbera Rush and Dora Doll glow. And in a supporting role Lee Van Cleef is rather good as a Barrack Room bully too.So why does it fall short of greatness? The stories are poorly interwoven and the 20 minute turnarounds on the respective stories feel awkward. A Concentration Camp scene towards the end feels forced and unconvincing, the nexus with Ackerman's character doesn't quite work. And crucially, Deistl's role is so symbolic that on several occasions, in real life, his CO would have had shot or at the very least Court Martialled.And where does it excel? It gives both Clift and Brando parts that they can really act in. Clift's marathon journey to take his future wife to be home on their first meeting is wonderful, and Brando's scene with his seriously injured CO when he asks for a bayonet to enable a fellow injured soldier to commit suicide, ostensibly, is poignant and moving. Dean Martin is of course in his element with a Bourbon in his hand, a piano in front of him and girls by his side. However with all of this going for him, I doubt that Director Edward Dmytryk will feel too disappointed with what didn't quite make the grade.