To Hell and Back [DVD]

The Kino Lorber blu-ray of To Hell and Back is the only way to watch this film. If you’ve seen this in the past or are simply interested in war films in general, this wonderful HD presentation does this move justice and honors the spirit in which it was made. THaB is an important milestone in the genre and entertains while illuminating Audie Murphy the man.Growing up, I had watched this film several times during Saturday afternoons. I found it engaging as a child and was surprised that Audie Murphy played himself. Even being a youngster, I figured it must have been very hard for him to reenact those combat and death scenes. It was because of To Hell and Back that I knew of Audie Murphy since I never encountered any of his other films. Regardless, many of the moments in the movie stuck with me. On a side note, when I was in Basic Training, the Drill Sergeant was supposed to teach my platoon The Army Goes Rolling Along, but he preferred The Dog-faced Soldier and we sang that instead. So I developed a soft spot for that tune which is used extensively in different arrangements in the film.For WWII movies, it’s important to remember that there is a time before Saving Private Ryan and a time after Saving Private Ryan. What I mean by this is that audiences raised on a harder action films with gore will often find older war films wanting. But it was just not possible to show the level of carnage allowable today in 1955 when To Hell and Back was made. This has to be understood as not making the movie any less dramatic but rather a theatrical convention of it’s time. The horror of war doesn’t come from depicting bloody slaughter but from watching your best friends die just as Audie Murphy did in real life.To Hell and Back is a “B” film that was given a few extras that pushed it to higher level of quality. It was shot in color and in widescreen CinemaScope which really helps it pop on modern HD screens. The Blu-ray also has a nice commentary track by two historians and I appreciated that the cover of the case actually used the original poster for the artwork.A few negatives, the lame introduction by the general dulls the opening and the combat scenes were shot in Yakama Washington, and while picturesque, this area doesn’t really look like Sicily, Italy and France. Plus, nobody had a panzer so an American tank fills in for that, but as you probably already know, this happened a lot in most WW2 flicks. Finally, Audie Murphy was 30 but playing himself as he was at 17 to 20, so some suspension of disbelief is needed.To boil it down To Hell and Back is a coming of age story amidst the terror of war and about the loss of friends. It was made when those raw memories were still fresh and is a good time capsule of 1950s moviemaking. Recommended!

Great movie

Greatvmivie. True American hero

Old style true story movie done right with no political agenda. Nowadays it would take a miniseries of 10 episodes or more which would be great because true stories are the best.

Awesome movie especially if you like Audie Murphy this is a true story of his service during WW2. You won't be disappointed watching this movie

Entertaining movie based on true story!

Great movie done is the old style fashion (1950's). The old style has a gentler way of presenting the violence of war. We all know war is horrible! There is going to be death, blood, and violence. But based on true events this movie focuses itself on the facts of the heroics of one man/boy, nothing else. The softer music, clearly understood speech, lack of foul language, and no blood and gore like the present day films was so refreshing to me! I came away feeling that there still are good, honest, sensible, intelligent, and brave people left in our country.

We recently went on a Viking Rhine River cruise and visited the town of Colmar, France and saw the valley where the Americans pushed the German Nazis out of the place they had been entrenched for 4 or 5 years. American forces alone fought this portion almost concurrently with the Battle of the Bulge, it was a very hard location to fight, Americans were at a large disadvantage. This was the battle field Audie Murphy was decorated with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the film was a reenactment of his actions during his Army career, he starred and directed the movie. Excellent war flick!