The reg'lar Armee O the Reg'lar Armee O

Rating: 8/10 (4 March 2007)

This is one of the great glimpse into another world films the world being the pre WWII American Army and a particular company. Burt Lancaster plays 1st Sgt.Milt Warden a "professional" professional soldier who in another time would've been senior centurion in the legions of Rome. His domain is his company which he runs for an empty shirt captain more interested in winning Boxing tournaments than leadership. Some of the NCOs in the company have earned their positions by being on the boxing team rather than individual merit but Lancaster's Warden keeps them in line;he can kick all their asses. Into this self contained world comes PVt Robert E.Lee Prewitt another regular with a very strong individualist streak. Played by Montgomery Clift in subtle macho mode the two lifers and the others that populate this film live in a special sealed off environment the dangerous romances with officer's wife Deborah Kerr and the hooker Donna Reed?, the Treatment Prewitt endures for not joining the boxing team, the drills, the monotony, and the friendships Prewitt and his good buddy Maggio Frank Sinatra in particular,and the forces of evil the bullying NCOs and Ernest Borgnine's brutal bear of a stockade overlord, are portraits of a lost world that would be ripped open by Japan's attack on December 7 1941. While John Wayne's Sgt. Stryker may be the NCO of Moviedom but Lancaster's Warden is three times as intelligent and just as macho with a ladykiller smile. This and Tunes of Glory and The Hill are good looks at a military world not on the firing line.