Posted on 12.10.2024

Fred Zinnemann never ceased to inject realism into the Hollywood machine. Case in point, The Men, an unvarnished movie about paraplegics in the aftermath WWII.

The Men by Fred Zinnemann, 1950 © DR

 “There's nothing new or extraordinary about the idea of using non-professional actors to play themselves on screen. It’s been done often in the past, in Robert Flaherty's movies, for example, and doubtlessly it will be done again in the future.” On 8 June 1950, a few weeks before the American release of The Men, Fred Zinnemann gave New York Times a genuine discourse on his method, more neo-realist than ‘Hollywood’, reminding us from the get-go that, according to him, his greatest artistic influence was the work of filmmaker-explorer Flaherty.

In this first collaboration with producer Stanley Kramer, who also believed that cinema should explore the world's problems, Zinnemann undertook an investigative project: the fate of soldiers who returned as paraplegics from WWII. True to his idea, Zinnemann set up shop in a California hospital for veterans, spoke with a specialist doctor, interviewed dozens of patients with his screenwriter Carl Foreman, and asked his leading man, Marlon Brando, making his film debut, to spend a month with patients who had lost their legs.

Beyond the dilemma posed by the story and valiantly portrayed by Teresa Wright (can one fall in love with a paraplegic?), The Men (a neutral yet intriguing title), excels in its group scenes. The hospital ward is reminiscent of a barracks or prison camp, and the filmmaker knows how to make it come to life in a believable way. 

After contemplating if he should hire a professional actor, Zinnemann decided to give a key secondary role to a young patient of Mexican origin, Arthur Jurado. The latter’s personal story was strikingly similar to the character penned by Foreman. “Towards the end of the shoot,” commented Zinnemann, “he had picked up a few acting tricks, particularly from watching Marlon Brando. ‘I'm glad the film is almost finished,' Brando told me, “this guy is stealing the spotlight from me...’”

Aurélien Ferenczi

The Men by Fred Zinnemann (1950, 1h25)
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