View movie

View thumbnails
Run time: 117 min

Play / Download (help)

(485 MB)Ogg Video
(508 MB)512Kb MPEG4
(3 GB)MPEG2

Resources

Lewis MilestoneA Walk in the Sun (1945)

The setting is WWII Italy, with Dana Andrews starring as Sgt. Tyne, one of the officers leading a platoon in an attempt to take a farmhouse in the Italian countryside, which is now a German stronghold.
As the troops prepare to attack, they contemplate the lives that have led them to this place and think about how to most effectively do their jobs.


This movie is part of the collection: Feature Films

Director: Lewis Milestone
Producer: Lewis Milestone
Production Company: Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp.
Audio/Visual: sound, black & white
Keywords: Drama; War
Contact Information: www.k-otic.com

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

Individual Files

Write a review
Downloaded 16,642 timesReviews
Average Rating:

Reviewer: theschizoidman - - February 11, 2008
Subject: Lewis Milestone and the Human Beings
One of the great war movies of all time. Complaining soldiers have existed as long as there have been wars. Press treatment of Iraq make it seem like "Bush's war" is the only time such complaining happened. Pure hogwash.

Clearly you can see the influence of this film on Spielberg and his Saving Private Ryan. You can even match up the characters quite easily.

Lewis Milestone understood the concerns of the everyday man and how he comes to the fore every time he's called. He complains, he groans, and he bleeds. But he does it. This is the story of those men. It is our loss, not theirs, if we forget them and what they accomplished with what they had. Milestone's treatment of their story makes it a little less easy to forget.

Don't let the jaded, 'sophisticated' movie goer discourage you from enjoying this film. In fact, don't listen to anyone. Just watch it. That's the recommendation for any film, of course. But especially old films, films that use stock footage, films that have effects not equaling the latest so-called cutting edge flick that will be forgotten in two weeks. This film is about courage, hope, and flawed human beings trying their best. Not about effects, unless you count the effect it will have on you, if you have a soul.

Good luck.

Reviewer: seekingclassics - - March 4, 2007
Subject: All War Movies Should Be Like This
If you want nothing but action, this may be too slow for you. The personalties and concerns of the combatants, however, are very important if you want the real picture, and this movie has it. Some of us veterans don't want to think about war at all, but for those of us who do care to look back a perspective like this does us justice. A Canadian in the Gulf War ('91) described war as months of agonizing boredom followed by a few moments of absolute terror. Here you have it. It is apparent the film was low budget but they did a good job with what thae had and during the film I was thinking about the story, not film effects.

Reviewer: robcat2075 - - January 9, 2007
Subject: Misfire
I'm sure this was an attempt to show us the real men inside the uniforms, and how they were all-around, average Joes. But the result is that we spend a lot of time watching them talk while they walk, or talk as they sit, or talk as they stnd around, spinning out their unremarkable backstories. The few action sequences seem cheap and out-of-place.

Reviewer: IAmTheRedDragon - - January 7, 2007
Subject: Unusual, thoughtful 40s war film
I really enjoyed this. I'm not a big fan of all those same-y all-action, cartoonlike 40s chest-thumping WW2 films where the US soldiers are always right and always triumph, and this movie was a huge cut above the usual, with amazing realism for its time.

It depicts ordinary young men cast into the horrific situaton of being sent off to fight strangers in a strange country, and how they, as just average, not perfect, and slightly bewildered, guys try to cope with what they have been assigned to do, which is to find a certain farmhouse that they have been told to take from the enemy. They first have to get there alive, which not all of them do successfully due to various skirmishes with the enemy along the way. The men talk much amongst themselves, bantering back and forth, along their journey, so you get to know them as individual characters, therefore it is then all the more heartbreaking when one or another is either killed or left behind as too wounded to travel further. Sometimes their own goofs and miscalculations lead to one of their own being killed, portaying them as fallible human beings and not all-knowing supermen, and this is very touching. They are also shown as having inadequate weapons and ammo and needing to be as resourceful as possible with these, which also adds a further sense of realism.

Some people have metioned this film as possibly having been an inspiration for 'Saving Private Ryan', and you can see the parallels. An intelligent, thoughtful film which you will enjoy if you're not simply intent on seeing blood & guts. Highly recommended.

Reviewer: jimelena - - December 13, 2006
Subject: Gee, i don't know.
It ought to be good but it's not.
For a war movie there's not a lot of action.
These retrospective war dramas generally stink.
This one ought to be pretty high on the odor list.