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The Naked and the Dead

Play trailer Poster for The Naked and the Dead 1958 2h 11m War Play Trailer Watchlist
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Reviews 44% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
While stationed at a U.S. Army base on an island in the Pacific, idealistic Lieutenant Hearn (Cliff Robertson) has the nerve to question the morality of his mentor, grizzled veteran General Cummings (Raymond Massey). As a consequence, Hearn is reassigned to lead a squad of soldiers on a dangerous mission -- much to the dismay of the previous squad leader, cynical warmonger Sergeant Croft (Aldo Ray). As the squad nears its goal, the relationship between Hearn and Croft rapidly deteriorates.

Audience Reviews

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Crom W 03/20/2023 Kind of Oliver Stone's Platoon in WW2 time. See more 11/02/2019 Lots of gratuitous flashbacks to B girls and cheating spouses, stock combat footage that often bears little resemblance to the action on the screen, cliché characters, a contrived plot, totally awesome (American) hand grenades that defy the laws of physics and chemistry, lots of moralizing, and, eventually, a (sort of) feel good ending make for a tiresome 131 minute trek through the Philippine jungle. See more deke p 08/03/2019 Norman Mailer wrote this 'anti-war' story in 1948 after he served in Pacific in WWII. Nice. Low audience score correct. Tho the 'professional critics' loved it twice as much. Was on local tv tonight 8.2.2019. btw What's this notice i see on RT: "Thanks! Your review has been submitted! Reviews may take some time to be published and are subject to our Community Code of Conduct." First time I've ever seen that here. Count me out. I don't care if you 'publish' it. I just use RT for my own reference. See more 08/08/2015 Although a bit corny at times and also way overlong, this was a tough warn drama that I was not previously familiar with. Cliff Robertson plays an idealistic young officer who clashes with his commanding officer on how to lead the men, wether ruling by fear or by compassion is better. When handsome Robertson puts his views up against general Raymond Massey and sergeant Aldo Ray (who crushes wounded baby in his bare hands), you can probably guess which side of this argument the filmmakers are going to side with. From a Norman Mailer novel (who apparently complained about how sanitized the film adaptation was), it's significantly more gritty than most Hollywood war films, looking much more like something you'd see form Samuel Fuller. This one was directed by the talented Raoul Walsh, who's films tended to be a bit hit or miss at times, I can't help but think that Fuller would have made so much more of this material, though I'm not sure he would have agreed with the material's thesis. Still, it's an intelligent and quite good war film. You also get an excellent Bernard Herrmann score. See more 09/25/2012 my parents had this book in thier library i don't think this bears alot of resemblence to it See more 09/30/2011 Goodish, but not great. Had a decent central plot, but the sub-plots were overwraught. The characters of the general, lieutenant and staff sergeant were too extreme, yet stereotypical. All the personal confrontations seemed contrived. Moreover, every philosophical point was made in a speech-laden preachy sort of way. Some subltety would have been great. Allied to this is the paint-by-numbers acting of Cliff Robertson and Raymond Massey, as the Lieutenant and the General, respectively. Aldo Ray was pretty good as the staff sergeant though. This all said, the battle scenes are very good, and feel realistic. The director should probably have concentrated on making a war movie, rather than making some (ultimately lame) statement about power and leadership. See more Read all reviews
The Naked and the Dead

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Movie Info

Synopsis While stationed at a U.S. Army base on an island in the Pacific, idealistic Lieutenant Hearn (Cliff Robertson) has the nerve to question the morality of his mentor, grizzled veteran General Cummings (Raymond Massey). As a consequence, Hearn is reassigned to lead a squad of soldiers on a dangerous mission -- much to the dismay of the previous squad leader, cynical warmonger Sergeant Croft (Aldo Ray). As the squad nears its goal, the relationship between Hearn and Croft rapidly deteriorates.
Director
Raoul Walsh
Producer
Paul Gregory
Screenwriter
Denis Sanders, Terry Sanders
Distributor
Warner Bros. Pictures
Production Co
RKO Pictures, Warner Brothers/Seven Arts
Genre
War
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Aug 6, 1958, Original
Runtime
2h 11m