A complex portrait of a man who never rises above his lot in life yet finds himself enmeshed in an institution he both loves and fears. Far from being a jingoistic film of the glory that is the U.S. army, Ford allows Martin Maher's story to be one about the unavoidable passage of time, what it takes and gives to us. There's a circular nature to much of this film: lives born and lost, generations pass through the halls of West Point, parades march on and Martin is there for all of it. In many ways I was reminded of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp which I rewatched not too long ago and is similarly a wide-spanning portrait of one man's service in the military. But Colonel Blimp is a comparatively patriotic film about paying respects to the past while embracing the future while The Long Gray Line is an ambiguous mix of celebrating life and questioning what one man can amount to in a world that never seems to learn its lesson. Martin Maher and Clive Candy are devoted to their institutions but Clive Candy is out on the battlefields while Martin must watch from the sidelines as the men he treats as his own sons are sent to die from the place he calls home. Tyrone Power is magnificent in the role, capturing the bushy tailed charm of Martin's first years in West Point and his final years with such precision it's as if he was born to play it. There's a lot of ground this film covers and yet it never really feels bogged down by its scope. An incredible vision from John Ford and something I'll be picking at for a while.
A complex portrait of a man who never rises above his lot in life yet finds himself enmeshed in an institution he both loves and fears. Far from being a jingoistic film of the glory that is the U.S. army, Ford allows Martin Maher's story to be one about the unavoidable passage of time, what it takes and gives to us. There's a circular nature to much of this film: lives born and lost, generations pass through the halls of West Point, parades march on and Martin is there for all of it. In many ways I was reminded of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp which I rewatched not too long ago and is similarly a wide-spanning portrait of one man's service in the military. But Colonel Blimp is a comparatively patriotic film about paying respects to the past while embracing the future while The Long Gray Line is an ambiguous mix of celebrating life and questioning what one man can amount to in a world that never seems to learn its lesson. Martin Maher and Clive Candy are devoted to their institutions but Clive Candy is out on the battlefields while Martin must watch from the sidelines as the men he treats as his own sons are sent to die from the place he calls home. Tyrone Power is magnificent in the role, capturing the bushy tailed charm of Martin's first years in West Point and his final years with such precision it's as if he was born to play it. There's a lot of ground this film covers and yet it never really feels bogged down by its scope. An incredible vision from John Ford and something I'll be picking at for a while.
