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The Young Lions

The Young Lions

War · Drama · Action · 1958

The lives of three young men, a German and two Americans, during WWII.

Movie details

The Young Lions

“Irwin Shaw's monumental best-seller”

1958 War · Drama · Action 2h 47m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.8 / 10

Community rating

The lives of three young men, a German and two Americans, during WWII.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Young Lions?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Memphis Belle

Memphis Belle

Drama · 1990

The "Memphis Belle" is a World War II bomber, piloted by a young crew on dangerous bombing raids into Europe. The crew only have to make one more bombing raid before they have finished their duty and can go home. In the briefing before their last flight, the crew discover that the target for the day is Bremen.

Greyhound

Greyhound

War · 2020

A first-time captain leads a convoy of allied ships carrying thousands of soldiers across the treacherous waters of the "Black Pit" to the front lines of WWII. With no air cover protection for 5 days, the captain and his convoy must battle the surrounding enemy Nazi U-boats in order to give the allies a chance to win the war.

The Longest Day

The Longest Day

War · 1962

The retelling of June 6, 1944, from the perspectives of the Germans, US, British, Canadians, and the Free French. Marshall Erwin Rommel, touring the defenses being established as part of the Reich's Atlantic Wall, notes to his officers that when the Allied invasion comes they must be stopped on the beach. "For the Allies as well as the Germans, it will be the longest day"

The Guns of Navarone

The Guns of Navarone

Action · 1961

A team of allied saboteurs are assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers.

The Counterfeit Traitor

The Counterfeit Traitor

War · 1962

Blacklisted in modern day WW2, a Swedish oil trader opts to assist British Allies, by means of infiltrating and surveying Nazi Germany.

Exodus

Exodus

Drama · 1960

Ari Ben Canaan, a passionate member of the Jewish paramilitary group Haganah, attempts to transport 600 Jewish refugees on a dangerous voyage from Cyprus to Palestine on a ship named the Exodus. He faces obstruction from British forces, who will not grant the ship passage to its destination.

Hell Is for Heroes

Hell Is for Heroes

Drama · 1962

World War II drama where the action centers around a single maneuver by a squad of GIs in retaliation against the force of the German Siegfried line. Reese joins a group of weary GIs unexpectedly ordered back into the line when on their way to a rest area. While most of the men withdraw from their positions facing a German pillbox at the far side of a mine-field, half a dozen men are left to protect a wide front. By various ruses, they manage to convince the Germans that a large force is still holding the position. Then Reese leads two of the men in an unauthorized and unsuccessful attack on the pillbox, in which the other two are killed; and when the main platoon returns, he is threatened with court-martial. Rather that face the disgrace, and in an attempt to show he was right, he makes a one-man attack on the pillbox.

Uprising

Uprising

Drama · 2001

In the Warsaw ghetto in 1943, Jews rise against the Nazis.

The Six Triple Eight

The Six Triple Eight

Drama · 2024

During World War II, the US Army's only all-Black, all-women battalion takes on an impossible mission: sorting through a three-year backlog of 17 million pieces of mail that hadn't been delivered to American soldiers and finish within six months.

Sergeant York

Sergeant York

War · 1941

Alvin York a hillbilly sharpshooter transforms himself from ruffian to religious pacifist. He is then called to serve his country and despite deep religious and moral objections to fighting becomes one of the most celebrated American heroes of WWI.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Edward Dmytryk

Written by

Edward Anhalt

Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando

Lt. Christian Diestl

Montgomery Clift

Montgomery Clift

Noah Ackerman

Dean Martin

Dean Martin

Michael Whiteacre

Hope Lange

Hope Lange

Hope Plowman

Barbara Rush

Barbara Rush

Margaret Freemantle

May Britt

May Britt

Gretchen Hardenberg

Maximilian Schell

Maximilian Schell

Capt. Hardenberg

Court is in session

Put The Young Lions on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Ambition earns the room.”

The film reaches for consequence and scale, accepting the risk of seriousness instead of shrinking from it.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Importance has entered the chat.”

The production keeps announcing its significance, as though awards-season posture were proof of insight.