MovieChat Forums > The Red Badge of Courage (1951) Discussion > The narration

The narration

posted 15 years ago by thao
2 replies | jump to latest

Just saw The Red Badge of Courage for the first time. It was a pleasant surprise. A well crafted and beautifully filmed war drama. It reminded me in many ways of The Passion of Joan of Arc by Dreyer. It focuses on the inner battle of the characters and uses a lot of glorious close ups. And the acting is amazing, especially by Audie Murphy (the Youth).

The film is not without faults though. Huston should have dropped the narrator. There was no need for him and he is often irritating, especially in the end (the film is so well directed, filmed and acted that anyone should get what's happening within the characters). There are parts which are a little too melodramatic and/or over played, but all in all this is a fantastic film. I gave it 8/10.

- No animal was hurt during the making of this burger -

[–] pacificboy 14 years ago

I'm with you on the narration, if for no other reason than because it dates the film so badly. It's delivered in such an arch tone, like someone reading from a pulp novel.

I particularly disliked it at the beginning, when it started to tell the story itself, and made that weird comment about what the narration was and why it was there.

I know Red Badge is a very internal novel, but Huston did a fine job (even with Mayer's hatchet work), and I don't believe that any of the narration is necessary if you haven't read the book.

"My brain rebelled, and insisted on applying logic where it was not welcome."

[–] teaandoranges 10 years ago

The narrator was added after Mayer did his hatchet job.