Home of the Brave Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Home of the Brave Blu-ray Movie Review

Red, white blue. . .and black.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 21, 2014

There’s an old saying that “there are no enemies in a foxhole”, but the kind of discipline and perhaps forced camaraderie that is part and parcel of being a member of the military often mask deeply held prejudices which can spill out when least expected. That’s one of the salient points of Home of the Brave, a well intentioned 1949 opus bearing the imprimatur of several left leaning social activist filmmakers, including Stanley Kramer, Mark Robson, Carl Foreman and Arthur Laurents. Laurents, perhaps best known to younger audiences as the book writer for West Side Story, penned the original play upon which the film is based, positing a Jewish volunteer attempting to matriculate into a squadron which looked askance at his faith (and perhaps ethnicity) in what might be thought of as “Gentleman's Agreement Goes to War”. The film changes the protagonist to a black man, which brings in a whole host of other issues that include some fairly frequent uses of the “N-word” for deliberately provocative effect. Even with some language contemporary viewers may deride as decidedly politically incorrect, Home of the Brave can come off as positively quaint at times, especially with regard to its central conceit of a kindly Army psychiatrist (there must have been lots of those in theater during the conflict, don’t you think?) who attempts to cure a young black man of amnesia and psychosomatic paralysis.

We meet that kindly doctor (Jeff Corey) as he discusses the case of Private Peter Moss (James Edwards) with two of Moss’ buddies, or at least fellow squadron members, Sergeant Mingo (Frank Lovejoy) and Major Robinson (Douglas Dick). They’re both obviously concerned about Moss, and the doctor reveals he’s attempting to get to the bottom of Moss’ issues by injecting the soldier with a narcotic and then more or less hypnotizing him. (The medical verisimilitude of the film is not its strongest attribute.) Home of the Brave then plays out as a series of flashbacks, the first those of Mingo and Robinson and then, later, those of Moss himself. We find out that Robinson was tasked with putting together a small squad of guys to infiltrate a nearby island already occupied by the Japanese in order to draw up maps of what exactly was there. Robinson “invites” Mingo and two other men, T.J. Everett (Steve Brodie) and Finch (Lloyd Bridges), to perform the mission, but Moss is the only surveyor available and is sent from another battalion. (Though armed forces were fully integrated in 1948, the film’s timeframe is obviously World War II.) Even Robinson himself, a well meaning if youngish guy who would probably be part of a country club crowd stateside, is shocked to see a black man standing in front of him, but he’s upbraided for his idiocy by his commanding officer—though not for the reasons one might expect. It does so happen that Finch and Moss went to college together and played on the basketball team together, so those two at least have a preexisting bond.

Home of the Brave even aside from its intermittent flashback conceit is rather oddly structured, with long, talky episodes interrupted by occasional wartime violence. The small special ops group does manage to get to the island and in fact gets their mission mostly accomplished with no major issues other than T.J.’s barely tamped down bigotry. But things starts to go haywire right as the group is preparing to get off the island, at which point Moss’ long relationship with Finch hits a speed bump which is then exacerbated by some enemy action. Out of this melodramatic stew of interpersonal drama and battle casualties Home of the Brave weaves its tale of psychological distress.

It’s interesting to contrast the malevolent therapists in films like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest or Frances with the much more benevolent portrayals of similar helpers that were the stock in trade of an earlier generation of films, including this one and others like The Snake Pit. Here, the doctor seems almost sanguine in his belief of what’s really ailing Moss, but has to jump through the hoops of Moss’ psyche to get the patient there himself. It’s a patently silly artifice, but it gives the film a kind of underlying mystery aspect that some may find appealing.

What’s ultimately kind of odd about Carl Foreman’s formulation of Laurents’ thesis is that Moss has suffered a lifetime of bigotry and abuse, and so according to the psychiatrist has every right to be angry, but on a more fundamental level needs to pretty much “just get over it”. It’s a weirdly ambivalent take on the subject matter, one which tends to undercut the very real trauma that an excellent James Edwards is able to convey as Moss. There’s a certain patness as well to the way the film utilizes the “N-word” as both a thoughtless pejorative and (believe it or not) an instrument of healing, but that’s perhaps at least a little understandable given the film’s era and frankly bargain basement approach to the rigors of psychoanalysis.

The film does much better in its perhaps subtler examination of the universality of the war experience, especially the experience of those who see a buddy killed before their very eyes. Eve Merriam’s almost anarchic poem The Coward is quoted at the film’s close, and it helps to make clear that there’s no shame in feeling scared when confronted by the horrors of battle. That’s a thesis that really doesn’t even need a racial element to have an impact.

Home of the Brave Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Home of the Brave is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. This presentation is much in line with another vintage forties' title also released recently by Olive, Johnny Come Lately, though Home of the Brave doesn't boast quite the consistent contrast that the Cagney film does. This film also utilizes quite a bit of stock footage, most of which is even lower contrast, as well as fairly badly damaged at times. Even the "contemporary" elements here have some passing issues, including scratches, flecks and specks. There are also some slight but noticeable instability issues—note for example when the bamboo curtains are closed in the doctor's office how there's very slight aliasing going on in the background. Overall, though, Home of the Brave looks very good, if not great, and like most Olive releases it shows no signs of digital tampering with the image.

Home of the Brave Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Home of the Brave's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track has just the barest hint of low level distortion in the lower midrange, something that is more noticeable when Dimitri Tiomkin's music is playing than in the dialogue or battle scenes. (Speaking of Tiomkin, how thrilled must he have been to hear his opening credits theme buried under a hail of gunfire?) While things are a bit on the narrow side here, there's no other damage to report and fidelity is very good if not outstanding.

Home of the Brave Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

Home of the Brave Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Home of the Brave is an interesting exercise in what passed for progressive thought in the late forties, and if that seems quaint (and maybe a bit horrifying at times) to cynical modern day eyes and ears, that's okay. Bolstered by an impressive performance by James Edwards, along with great work by a small but dedicated supporting cast, Home of the Brave probably finds too many easy answers to ever seem very real or even very cathartic, but there are some minor truths shared along the journey Moss takes to recover his memory and his legs. This Olive Blu-ray has some minor issues in both video and audio, and like most Olive releases features no supplementary material. Still, Home of the Brave comes Recommended.