Force of Arms
Force of Arms
| 13 August 1951 (USA)
Force of Arms Trailers

During the winter of 1943, the German army halted the American advance in the mountains of Italy; back-and-forth combat decimates Joe Peterson's platoon. On leave in Naples, Joe meets WAC lieutenant Eleanor MacKay; initially cool, she begins to melt during a bombing raid. Their romance develops despite Joe's periodic returns to the front. But whether he'll come back in the end becomes more than doubtful...

Reviews
Hellen

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

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Evengyny

Thanks for the memories!

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FeistyUpper

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

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Chirphymium

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

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swanningaround

As a combat veteran, I can tell you that this movie is one hundred percent authentic. The action is certainly more realistic than modern day movies like Saving Private Ryan, which was full of gimmicks. In Force of Arms, nothing much is happening most of the time, then all hell breaks loose and your pals mostly die. You do not see the enemy most of the time and when you do, they appear for a split second as a target. It seems that the closer a film is to the actual events, the more realistic it is. This film was made only 7 years after the event. Saving Private Ryan was made some 60 years after WW2, which is too big a gap. The acting by Nancy Olsen and William Holden is superb. The film also depicts Clark's triumphal entry into Rome. Clark was probably the best general of WW2. He brilliantly bypassed the places where the Germans were anticipating an attack and bravely went straight through to save Rome. He was given the title of American Caesar.

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edwagreen

A year after they joined Gloria Swanson with Oscar nominations for the memorable "Sunset Boulevard," Bill Holden and Nancy Olson were passionate in "A Girl for Joe," which was also known as "A Force of Arms." No matter what the title, the film was certainly a major disappointment.The writing is weak here. Holden is the Lieutenant in the Army who meets fellow Lieutenant Olson, on a cemetery hill in Italy, where she is grieving for a lost love. Within moments, love blossoms between the both.The film alternates between battle scenes and days off for enjoyment for the GI's. We soon find ourselves with a wedding and Olson in a family way, only to have Holden, who is distraught with the deaths of his friend and a superior, go missing. We then find Olson frantically looking for him. Remember Little Boy Lost? Substitute a grown man for the child.

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moonspinner55

A ludicrous war picture from Warner Bros., an uncredited rewrite of Ernest Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms" set in Italy during WWII. Stationed near Napoli, American army sergeant William Holden takes a midnight walk through the cemetery and bumps into female lieutenant Nancy Olson; he tries picking her up but she, a wholesome farmer's daughter and former teacher, sternly rebuffs him. The next day, after the sergeant has been promoted to lieutenant himself, the two go out for drinks and she talks seriously how war has made 'love' into a dirty word, but Holden is too busy smelling her hair and noticing how her eyes light up to give a response (due to the gummy cinematography, Olson never lights up). She's been hurt by true love before--hence her appearance in the cemetery--so we wait while Holden thaws her out...slowly. Tersely-written screenplay by Orin Jannings leaves no foxhole cliché unturned! This was the third teaming of Holden with Olson--they should have quit while they were ahead. *1/2 from ****

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dinky-4

Some have called this an updated version of "A Farewell to Arms," but if the time has been moved forward from World War I Italy to World War II Italy, the quality has also been moved down from "memorable" to "routine." There's really nothing much wrong with this production but there's little to distinguish it, either, and one sometimes gets the uncomfortable feeling that the death and destruction of the greatest war in human history is simply being used as the background for yet another boy-meets-girl story.William Holden has a shower scene which shows he was still, at this point in his career, in his "hairy-chested" mode. Just a few years later, beginning with "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing," he entered his "shaved chest" period.Dick Wesson supplies some "comic relief" which is just as grating as his work in "Destination Moon."

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