Wow! Such a good movie.

What makes it different from others?

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

In the 1972 megahit "The Godfather," Marlon Brando, playing Don Vito Corleone, uttered one of the most quotable movie lines of that decade: "We'll make him an offer he can't refuse." But 22 years earlier, Brando was presented with an unrefuseable offer himself, after being given a chance to read Carl Foreman's script for the upcoming film "The Men." In 1950, the 26-year-old Brando had not yet appeared on screen, but since 1944 had been something of a sensation on Broadway, especially after portraying Stanley Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire" in '47. An early member of the Actors Studio as well as being an early practitioner of "The Method," Brando could not pass up the chance to appear in producer Stanley Kramer's film concerning the plight of paraplegic servicemen and their rehabilitation process in a veterans' hospital. The actor apparently dove into his first screen role, spending weeks observing the inmates at the Birmingham Veterans Administration Hospital (in Van Nuys, California; not Alabama, as I initially assumed), where much of the film was later shot; 45 patients of the hospital also appear in the finished film. And, as might be expected, Brando is simply terrific, giving an emotionally complex performance, eliciting the viewer's affection, and clearly demonstrating to the world that a new screen star had arrived.When we first see Brando's Ken, he is an armed infantryman, a lieutenant prowling the deserted streets of an unnamed European town with his squad. A sniper's bullet catches Ken in the lower back, immediately paralyzing him from the waist down. A full year later, the ex-G.I. lies in a vets' hospital, sullen, withdrawn, angry, and completely antisocial. "I was afraid I was gonna die...now I'm afraid I'm gonna live," he thinks to himself. Fortunately for Ken, his doctor, Brock (a hugely ingratiating performance here from Everett Sloane), moves him from his private room to a ward with other men, in the hopes that a little social interaction might do him some good. Though initially surly to his three immediate neighbors--Norm (a goateed Jack Webb, here in one of his earliest roles at age 30, and right before appearing in "Sunset Blvd.," which was released just two weeks after "The Men"), Angel (a muscular Hispanic dude, the nicest guy on the floor, and well played by Arthur Jurado) and wheeler-dealer Leo (Richard Erdman)--Ken soon comes out of his shell, makes friends, and enters into the rehab process in earnest. The reason: his ex-girlfriend, Ellen, who, despite Ken's constant rebuffs, seems eager to enter into matrimony with him. Ellen is played by Teresa Wright, by the way, who, eight years earlier, in "Pride of the Yankees," portraying Lou Gehrig's wife, Eleanor, had similarly cared for a severely disabled man....During the course of "The Men," we get to know many of the inmates of the Birmingham facility and see, in some detail, the rigorous physical rehab regimen that Ken undergoes. The film also spotlights some of the problems that disabled men and their spouses experience, although, given the era, does tend to shy away when the subject of sexual intimacy arises; Brock simply tells Ellen that some paraplegic men are able to have families and some are not. Brock, I might add here, is the kind of doctor we all wish we had--one who is at once deeply caring, patient, understanding, and tough when necessary--and Sloane is just perfect in the part. Besides the fine players already named, "The Men" features an uncredited De Forest Kelley as a doctor, a good 16 years pre-Dr. "Bones" McCoy, whose only line in the film (concerning Ken) is "He's got a lot of pain," as well as John "Perry White" Hamilton as Ken and Ellen's wedlock priest, here just a few years before "The Adventures of Superman." The picture sports any number of wonderful scenes, among them: the men's and staff's reaction when Angel suffers a very serious reversal (a truly upsetting sequence); Ellen discussing her marriage plans with her disapproving parents; Ken and Ellen entering a nightclub and being at the receiving end of multiple stares; Brock revealing something of his own past to Ken, in the hopes that the young man will learn to embrace his future life; and, most especially, Ken and Ellen returning home after their wedding, with the reality of her future hitting Ellen forcefully, with unfortunate results. Throughout, director Fred Zinnemann's work is sensitive and involving (what a decade Zinnemann would have, with such films as "High Noon," "From Here to Eternity" and "The Nun's Story"!), and Dimitri Tiomkin's score perfectly matches both the darker moments (particularly in the film's earlier scenes, when Ken lies in his shadowy private room) as well as the more upbeat. But towering above all--despite the fact that he naturally remains either supine or sitting in a wheelchair for the bulk of the picture--is Brando, who easily steals his first film (hardly the only time he would do so, of course!). Running the gamut from grief and hopeless withdrawal, to hope and determination, back to grief and anger, and ultimately on to a tentative acceptance and happiness, it is a marvelous performance for the first-timer...and yes, he even gets to give us the first of his many on-screen temper tantrums, destroying several windows after his disastrous wedding night. Just watch how wonderful Brando is, as Ellen seriously discusses marriage plans; we can see the dawning realization that he just MIGHT have a stab at happiness clearly written on his face. Plainly exhibiting the three H's that can guarantee an actor's success (handsome, hunky, and a helluva performer), it is no wonder that Brando's star was immediately on the rise. His initial, early screen promise here was soon to be fully realized in the following year's screen adaptation of "Streetcar," in which Brando surely gave a performance for the ages, but those viewers who are curious to see where it all began should be more than impressed with Marlon's tyro work in "The Men"....

A fantastic film, and a very important one, based on the story of Carl Foreman (who's screenplay was nominated for an Oscar). Actors and and real veterans portray men/soldiers, who were injured during war. Everyone especially Marlon Brando, who plays Ken and is paralyzed below the waist, gave a superb performance.I could quote the whole film, there are just so many good moments! They know they will never walk again, but that doesn't hold them from living their lives. They joke around with the doctors, with the nursers and make fun of each other. Of course there are also the sad and depressing moments, i.e. when they realize they will never have children, or their wives want to get divorced, they stop loving themselves and hate the fact they need help from others. I'd say "The Men" is a classic everyone can watch, even if it's just to see Marlon Brando (who allegedly lay in a bed in a veterans' hospital for a month to to prepare for his role as paraplegic) at the beginning of his wonderful career.

Marlon Brando in "The Men" played a character quite similar to the one portrayed by Harold Russell in "Best Years of Our Lives." Both men had been seriously damaged (physically and psychologically) by the ravages of wartime combat. Both had major problems returning to civilian life. Both were decent men caught up in the terrible personal conflict of reconnecting with sweethearts left behind who still wanted to marry them. Ultimately both adjusted to their situation and the ending in both films----if not happy-----was certainly optimistic."The Men" is by far the more worthy story because it contained the greater reality. The many details that contributed to the Brando character's attitude are fully fleshed out----and leave no doubt about what they were and why they were important to better understand his feelings and emotions. Russell's character is not fully realized----perhaps because there were several other story lines in his film.Is Fred Zinnemann a better director than William Wyler? Maybe not. But in this one instance---when each directed a similar story----Zinnemann achieved the greater work of art----a classic in its own right.

"The Men" comes from a time when movies didn't have long credits, from a time when a black and white frame was the only and the most beautiful thing existing in the world. It also comes from a time when what today sounds unbelievably clichéd, sounded perfect and accurate; exaggeration was a common thing.Some of the phrases in Carl Foreman's screenplay would probably make people laugh ridiculously nowadays (only some), but in this film they appear as reflexive and honest lines spoken by normal human beings. Then, "The Men" comes from a time when a young actor by the name of Brando, Marlon Brando; was bursting into the cinematic industry.Ironically, Brando is the most positive and the most negative element in "The Men"; I'll explain why soon enough. He plays Ken, a lieutenant shot in war who now lies in a hospital bed, paraplegic. In a powerful scene, Dr. Brock (Everett Sloane) gives a speech about the condition, and afterwards desperate mothers and wives bombard him with questions about how he thinks their sons and husbands are: if they'll be able to make it.In this scene, one lady, Elle (Teresa Wright), approaches the doctor, asking about a patient who is her fiancée but apparently doesn't want to see her; this is Ken. The reason is that he doesn't want her to see the man he's become, because she might not be able to cope with it. Or maybe he's still the same man and, with the help of his new friends Norm (Jack Webb), Leo (Richard Erdman) and Angel (Arthur Jurado), he is going to figure it out.Thus, a lot of training to get well arrives; completely depicted in a scene with musical background, kind of like what "Rocky" would do more than a decade after, but with his legs. In that scene, the music works, but through the rest of the picture I found it a total mess, accentuating moments that didn't need accentuation and making the voices of the actors difficult to listen to. However, maybe this was because of the fact that the score (or sound) of the film was 'muffled', as they told us in the theater. This wouldn't make sense though, because muffled is quiet, not loud…Whatever.Another great moment is when Elle eventually visits Ken, and he shows his legs to her: "This is what you wanna see?", he shouts; obliging her to look. In this particular moment, Marlon Brando's characterization is so strong that it seems to be coming from another film. And this is the double-sided aspect of Brando's fantastic acting skills in this movie: you can perfectly realize he was superior to all of his peers, but out of place because they couldn't pair him.For example, Wright's overly calm and exaggerated tone (perhaps common with some actresses at the time), confronting Brando's expressive loud voice in some scenes, makes the actor look like a madman; when he is actually capturing the essence of these scenes. Same to be said about Brando's sense of reality when talking to Webb and Erdman, who act as if they were living a joke.Being a paraplegic is no joke; the movie and Fred Zinnemann's care for the characters (just like in "From here to eternity") try to make this clear, as he takes them to deal with society in several situations: "Do you see how they're staring us?", Ken tells Elle when they go out for dinner. Of course some people may want to face the condition by laughing about it; but that's another story.And "The Men" is also a love story, and a good one with an ending so predictable and classic that, after watching Mikio Naruse's "When a woman ascends the stairs", comes as a breath of fresh air.