A great performance by the always commanding Ben Gazzara and a sensitive subplot dealing with a shell shocked soldier threatened with court martial during a war helps raise this often tedious World War II TV movie to a decent level, although overall, I wasn't really too interested in the goings on.
Gazzara steps in as a general to help turn a troubled troop around, and he finds the morale to be very low to the point of nearly no return. He goes up against Dana Elcar in regards to aiding Morgan Paull from the court martial, showing a humanity that obviously the previous commander didn't have.
Performances by Eddie Albert and Ricardo Montalban are good, involving the less personal story of the troop's issue with saboteurs, finding the culprit a little too close to home, and revealing some dark truths about why loyalties go certain ways during a war. It's slow and tedious at times, just one of many later war movies that doesn't really give any new insight to why we fight, but Paull's story certainly is touching.
Gazzara steps in as a general to help turn a troubled troop around, and he finds the morale to be very low to the point of nearly no return. He goes up against Dana Elcar in regards to aiding Morgan Paull from the court martial, showing a humanity that obviously the previous commander didn't have.
Performances by Eddie Albert and Ricardo Montalban are good, involving the less personal story of the troop's issue with saboteurs, finding the culprit a little too close to home, and revealing some dark truths about why loyalties go certain ways during a war. It's slow and tedious at times, just one of many later war movies that doesn't really give any new insight to why we fight, but Paull's story certainly is touching.