The Story of G.I. Joe
Encyclopedia
The Story of G.I. Joe, also credited in prints as Ernie Pyle's Story of G.I. Joe, is a 1945 American war film
directed by William Wellman, starring Burgess Meredith
and Robert Mitchum
. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards
, including Mitchum's only nomination for Best Supporting Actor
.
The story is a tribute to the American infantryman ("G.I. Joe") during World War II
, told through the eyes of Pulitzer Prize
-winning war correspondent
Ernie Pyle
, with dialogue and narration lifted from Pyle's columns. The film concentrates on one company, ("C Company, 18th Infantry"), that Pyle accompanies into combat in Tunisia
and Italy
. The friendships that grow out of his coverage lead Pyle to relate the misery and sacrifice inherent in their plight and their heroic endurance of it. Although the company has the designation of an actual unit, that unit did not participate in the combat in Italy that makes up the preponderance of the film, and actually stands in for the units of the 34th and 36th Infantry Divisions that Pyle did cover in Italy, and thereby represents all American G.I.s.
Although filmed with the cooperation of Pyle, the film premiered two months to the day after he was killed in action
on Ie Shima during the invasion of Okinawa. In his February 14, 1945, posting entitled "In the Movies", Pyle commented: "They are still calling it The Story of G.I. Joe. I never did like the title, but nobody could think of a better one, and I was too lazy to try."
) allows war correspondent
Ernie Pyle (Burgess Meredith
), himself a rookie to combat, to hitch a ride with the company. Ernie surprises Walker and the rest of the men by deciding to go with them all the way to the front lines. Just getting to the front through the rain and mud is an arduous task, but the diminutive, forty-two year old Ernie manages to keep up.
Ernie gets to know the men whose paths he will cross and write about again and again in the next year:
Their "baptism of fire" is at the Battle of Kasserine Pass, a bloody chaotic defeat. Ernie is present at battalion headquarters when Lieutenant Walker arrives as a runner for his company commander; Walker has already become an always tired, seemingly emotionless, and grimy soldier. Ernie and the company go their separate ways, but months later he seeks them out, confessing that, as the first outfit he ever covered, they are in his mind the best outfit in the army. He finds them on a road in Italy, about to attack a German-held town, just as the soldiers are elated or disappointed at "mail call": letters for Murphy and Dondaro, a package with a phonograph record of his son's voice for Warnicki, but nothing for now Captain Walker. Ernie finds that Company C has become very proficient at killing without remorse. In house-to-house combat, they capture the town. Fatigue, however, is an always present but never conquerable enemy. When arrangements are made for Wingless Murphy to marry "Red", his Army nurse fiancee, in the town they have just captured, Ernie is recruited to give the bride away, but can barely keep awake.
The company advances to a position in front of Monte Cassino
, but, unable to advance, they are soon reduced to a life of living in caves dug in the ground, enduring persistent rain and mud, conducting endless patrols and subjected to savage artillery
barrages. When his men are forced to eat cold rations for Christmas dinner, Walker obtains turkey and cranberry sauce for them from a rear echelon supply lieutenant at gunpoint. Casualties are heavy: young replacements are quickly killed before they can learn the tricks of survival in combat (which Walker confesses to Ernie makes him feel like a murderer), Walker is always short of lieutenants, and the veterans lose men, including Wingless Murphy. After a night patrol to capture a prisoner, Warnicki suffers a nervous breakdown
when, finally hearing his son's voice on the record, his pent up frustrations at the war are released. Ernie returns to the correspondents' quarters to write a piece on Murphy's death and is told by his fellow reporters that he has won the Pulitzer Prize
for his combat reporting. Ernie again catches up with the outfit on the side of the road to Rome after Cassino has finally been taken. He greets Mew and a few of the old hands, but the pleasant reunion is interrupted when a string of mules is led into their midst, each carrying the dead body of a G.I. to be gently placed on the ground. A final mule, led by Dondaro, bears the body of Captain Walker. One by one, the old hands reluctantly come forth to express their grief in the presence of Walker's corpse.
Ernie joins the company as it goes down the road, narrating its conclusion: "For those beneath the wooden crosses, there is nothing we can do, except perhaps to pause and murmur, 'Thanks pal, thanks.'"
, part seer, and part common man
, and himself pleaded with a fellow correspondent, headed to Hollywood to contribute to the storyline: "For God's sake, don't let them make me look like a fool." The choice narrowed down quickly to three character actors resembling Pyle or his perceived personna: James Gleason
, Walter Brennan
, and Meredith, who was then little-known and serving as a captain in the Army. Meredith was chosen because he was lesser known. Cowan was advised that if Capt. Meredith appeared in the film, all profits would have to be donated to the Army Emergency Relief Fund, and the Army refused to release him from active duty. According to Meredith, the Army was overruled by presidential advisor Harry Hopkins
, and his honorable discharge from the Army was approved personally by General George C. Marshall. Meredith himself spent time with Pyle while the correspondent recuperated in New Mexico from the emotional after effects of surviving an accidental bombing by the Army Air Forces
at the start of Operation Cobra
in Normandy
.
The movie studio initially wanted to place a leading-man type for the main role, but Wellman wanted a physically smaller man to better portray middle-aged Pyle. As a compromise, Mitchum was chosen to play Lieutenant (later Captain) Walker. The film was one of the first starring roles for Mitchum.
Nine actual war correspondents are listed as "For the War Correspondents" in technical advisor credits: Don Whitehead
(Associated Press
), George Lait (International News Service
), Chris Cunningham
(United Press), Hal Boyle (A.P.), Jack Foisie (Stars and Stripes
), Bob Landry (Life Magazine), Lucien Hubbard
(Readers Digest), Clete Roberts
(Blue Network
), and Robert Reuben (Reuters
). Three appear as themselves in the scene in which Ernie learns he has won the Pulitzer prize.
Wellman's wife, actress Dorothy Coonan Wellman, appeared in an uncredited speaking role as Lt. Elizabeth "Red" Murphy, the combat zone bride of character "Wingless" Murphy.
The Army agreed to Wellman's request for 150 soldiers, then training in California for further deployment to the Pacific and all veterans of the Italian campaign, to use as extras during the six weeks of filming in late 1944. Their training continued when they were not filming to present the best image possible for the Army, although the War Department allowed them to grow beards for their roles. Wellman insisted that actual soldiers speak much of the "G.I." dialogue for authenticity. He also insisted that the Hollywood actors ("as few as possible") cast in the film were required to live and train with the assigned soldiers or they would not be hired.
with the same high degree of prestige as Air Force. In October he came to terms with United Artists
for financial support and distribution of the proposed film, then developed a story outline based on Pyle's columns reproduced in Here is Your War, which the Army approved on November 27.
Attempts to write a script that would accurately translate Pyle's style and sentiments to the screen while being acceptable to all of Pyle's readers and fans delayed filming for a year. Cowan came up with his final concept—Pyle's "love affair" with the ordinary infantryman—by June 1944, but developing a storyline proved more difficult. After the D-Day Invasion of Normandy, believing that the end of the war was in sight, the script moved in the direction of Pyle covering the infantry in its final advance to victory.
However the final form of the screenplay developed through the input of several war correspondents and associates of Pyle, chiefly Don Whitehead, Lee Miller, and Paige Cavanaugh, who assisted the writers in selecting details from Pyle's columns for inclusion in the film, and from the desires of director William Wellman, who worked directly with Pyle.
, even though he had completed only two films before going into the service. Cowan was impressed by two feature combat documentaries Huston had made for the war effort, Report from the Aleutians
and The Battle of San Pietro
, but was unable to gain Huston's services from the Army.
In August 1944, unable to complete the writing of the screenplay, Cowan sought the services of William A. Wellman. One film history (Suid) has Cowan walking into Wellman's home univited, making a strong pitch for Wellman's services, then engaging in a heated argument when Wellman refused. Wellman told Cowan that he "hated the infantry" because of his own experiences as a fighter pilot
in World War I
, and because the infantry commander assigned by the War Department to assist in the making of Wellman's acclaimed Wings
in 1927 so disliked the Air Corps
that he had attempted to renege on the cooperation and obstruct the filming.
Cowan made two other attempts to cajole Wellman into accepting the assignment, first by bringing a personal letter from Pyle to Wellman (who was quoted as saying it was "like waving a red flag in front of a bull" and resulted in Wellman slamming the door on Cowan), and by bribing Wellman with gifts for his children. The latter resulted in Wellman threatening Cowan if he came back again.
Cowan persisted, however, and had Ernie Pyle (who had returned to Albuquerque for a rest from combat) personally telephone Wellman. Pyle overcame Wellman's resistance by inviting him to his home where two days of discussions resulted in a complete change of heart by Wellman. Suid goes on to note that although Wellman was dictatorial in his management of the filming and crucial to the style and final form of the script, that Wellman's greatest impact was as the "catalyst" for the "collective process" (as opposed to the more modern philosophy of filmmaking as a "director's medium") of bringing together "Pyle, his stories, the actors, and the Army to create a uniquely realistic movie."
to prepare for the Allied invasion of France
, while the film's "Company C" is said to have made a landing under fire at Salerno.
While the screenwriters chose the 18th Infantry Regiment to be depicted in the film, Pyle made clear that his favorite outfit, "my company", was in the 133rd Infantry Regiment (originally part of the Iowa National Guard
) of the 34th Infantry Division, a unit he had covered in 1942 while it was still stationed in Northern Ireland
, then again in Tunisia. Pyle devotes Chapter Thirteen, "The Fabulous Infantry", of his book Brave Men to this unnamed company of the 133rd Infantry, which he accompanied between December 1943 and February 1944, concentrating on eight G.I.s who were the last survivors of the original 200 shipped to Europe. The chapter's vignettes are very similar to the final form of the film, including portrayal of the well-liked and competent company commander, 1st Lt. John J. "Jack" Sheehy. At least three characters were based on subjects in this outfit, including Sgt. Warnicki (Sgt. Jack Pierson, who also had never seen his son "Junior") and the company's mascot dog, in this instance a small black-and-white female named "Squirt".
The events in Italy portrayed in the film are based on Pyle's experiences with soldiers of the 36th Infantry Division in the Battle of San Pietro
, and the 133rd Infantry in the Battle of Monte Cassino
. Mitchum's character, Capt. Bill Walker, was modeled on two soldiers who deeply impressed Pyle. Walker was a stand-in for Capt. Henry T. Waskow
of the 36th Division's Company B 143rd Infantry, and the vehicle for conveying the reflections expressed to Pyle by Sgt. Frank Eversole of the 133rd Infantry. Walker's death—and the reaction of his men to it—is a faithful recreation of the death of Waskow on Hill 1205 (Monte Sammucro) on December 14, 1943, which was the subject of Pyle's most famous column, The Death of Captain Waskow. Sgt. "Buck" Eversole was a platoon leader in Lt. Sheehy's company and the subject of several Pyle stories.
by the Library of Congress
for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant and will be preserved for all time.
War film
War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles...
directed by William Wellman, starring Burgess Meredith
Burgess Meredith
Oliver Burgess Meredith , known professionally as Burgess Meredith, was an American actor in theatre, film, and television, who also worked as a director...
and Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
, including Mitchum's only nomination for Best Supporting Actor
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
.
The story is a tribute to the American infantryman ("G.I. Joe") during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, told through the eyes of Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning war correspondent
War correspondent
A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories firsthand from a war zone. In the 19th century they were also called Special Correspondents.-Methods:...
Ernie Pyle
Ernie Pyle
Ernest Taylor Pyle was an American journalist who wrote as a roving correspondent for the Scripps Howard newspaper chain from 1935 until his death in combat during World War II. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1944...
, with dialogue and narration lifted from Pyle's columns. The film concentrates on one company, ("C Company, 18th Infantry"), that Pyle accompanies into combat in Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. The friendships that grow out of his coverage lead Pyle to relate the misery and sacrifice inherent in their plight and their heroic endurance of it. Although the company has the designation of an actual unit, that unit did not participate in the combat in Italy that makes up the preponderance of the film, and actually stands in for the units of the 34th and 36th Infantry Divisions that Pyle did cover in Italy, and thereby represents all American G.I.s.
Although filmed with the cooperation of Pyle, the film premiered two months to the day after he was killed in action
Killed in action
Killed in action is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their own forces at the hands of hostile forces. The United States Department of Defense, for example, says that those declared KIA need not have fired their weapons but have been killed due to...
on Ie Shima during the invasion of Okinawa. In his February 14, 1945, posting entitled "In the Movies", Pyle commented: "They are still calling it The Story of G.I. Joe. I never did like the title, but nobody could think of a better one, and I was too lazy to try."
Plot
In the Tunisian desert, the untested infantrymen of C Company, 18th Infantry, U.S. Army, board trucks to travel to the front for the first time. Lt. Bill Walker (Robert MitchumRobert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
) allows war correspondent
War correspondent
A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories firsthand from a war zone. In the 19th century they were also called Special Correspondents.-Methods:...
Ernie Pyle (Burgess Meredith
Burgess Meredith
Oliver Burgess Meredith , known professionally as Burgess Meredith, was an American actor in theatre, film, and television, who also worked as a director...
), himself a rookie to combat, to hitch a ride with the company. Ernie surprises Walker and the rest of the men by deciding to go with them all the way to the front lines. Just getting to the front through the rain and mud is an arduous task, but the diminutive, forty-two year old Ernie manages to keep up.
Ernie gets to know the men whose paths he will cross and write about again and again in the next year:
- Private "Wingless" Murphy, a good-natured man who was rejected by the Air CorpsUnited States Army Air CorpsThe United States Army Air Corps was a forerunner of the United States Air Force. Renamed from the Air Service on 2 July 1926, it was part of the United States Army and the predecessor of the United States Army Air Forces , established in 1941...
for being too tall; - Dondaro, an Italian-American from BrooklynBrooklynBrooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
whose mind is always on women and conniving to be with one; - Sergeant Warnicki, who misses the young son ("Junior") he has never seen;
- Private Mew, from Brownsville, TexasBrownsville, TexasBrownsville is a city in the southernmost tip of the state of Texas, in the United States. It is located on the northern bank of the Rio Grande, directly north and across the border from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Brownsville is the 16th largest city in the state of Texas with a population of...
, who has no family back home but finds one in the outfit, exemplified by his naming beneficiariesBeneficiaryA beneficiary in the broadest sense is a natural person or other legal entity who receives money or other benefits from a benefactor. For example: The beneficiary of a life insurance policy, is the person who receives the payment of the amount of insurance after the death of the insured...
for his G.I. life insuranceLife insuranceLife insurance is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death of the insured person. Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness may also trigger...
among them.
Their "baptism of fire" is at the Battle of Kasserine Pass, a bloody chaotic defeat. Ernie is present at battalion headquarters when Lieutenant Walker arrives as a runner for his company commander; Walker has already become an always tired, seemingly emotionless, and grimy soldier. Ernie and the company go their separate ways, but months later he seeks them out, confessing that, as the first outfit he ever covered, they are in his mind the best outfit in the army. He finds them on a road in Italy, about to attack a German-held town, just as the soldiers are elated or disappointed at "mail call": letters for Murphy and Dondaro, a package with a phonograph record of his son's voice for Warnicki, but nothing for now Captain Walker. Ernie finds that Company C has become very proficient at killing without remorse. In house-to-house combat, they capture the town. Fatigue, however, is an always present but never conquerable enemy. When arrangements are made for Wingless Murphy to marry "Red", his Army nurse fiancee, in the town they have just captured, Ernie is recruited to give the bride away, but can barely keep awake.
The company advances to a position in front of Monte Cassino
Monte Cassino
Monte Cassino is a rocky hill about southeast of Rome, Italy, c. to the west of the town of Cassino and altitude. St. Benedict of Nursia established his first monastery, the source of the Benedictine Order, here around 529. It was the site of Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944...
, but, unable to advance, they are soon reduced to a life of living in caves dug in the ground, enduring persistent rain and mud, conducting endless patrols and subjected to savage artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
barrages. When his men are forced to eat cold rations for Christmas dinner, Walker obtains turkey and cranberry sauce for them from a rear echelon supply lieutenant at gunpoint. Casualties are heavy: young replacements are quickly killed before they can learn the tricks of survival in combat (which Walker confesses to Ernie makes him feel like a murderer), Walker is always short of lieutenants, and the veterans lose men, including Wingless Murphy. After a night patrol to capture a prisoner, Warnicki suffers a nervous breakdown
Nervous breakdown
Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...
when, finally hearing his son's voice on the record, his pent up frustrations at the war are released. Ernie returns to the correspondents' quarters to write a piece on Murphy's death and is told by his fellow reporters that he has won the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
for his combat reporting. Ernie again catches up with the outfit on the side of the road to Rome after Cassino has finally been taken. He greets Mew and a few of the old hands, but the pleasant reunion is interrupted when a string of mules is led into their midst, each carrying the dead body of a G.I. to be gently placed on the ground. A final mule, led by Dondaro, bears the body of Captain Walker. One by one, the old hands reluctantly come forth to express their grief in the presence of Walker's corpse.
"Then the first man squatted down, and he reached down and took the dead hand, and he sat there for a full five minutes, holding the dead hand in his own and looking intently into the dead face, and he never uttered a sound all the time he sat there. And finally he put the hand down, and then reached up and gently straightened the points of the captain’s shirt collar, and then he sort of rearranged the tattered edges of his uniform around the wound. And then he got up and walked away down the road, all alone."
Ernie joins the company as it goes down the road, narrating its conclusion: "For those beneath the wooden crosses, there is nothing we can do, except perhaps to pause and murmur, 'Thanks pal, thanks.'"
Cast
- Burgess MeredithBurgess MeredithOliver Burgess Meredith , known professionally as Burgess Meredith, was an American actor in theatre, film, and television, who also worked as a director...
as Ernie Pyle - Robert MitchumRobert MitchumRobert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
as Lt./Capt. Bill Walker - Freddie SteeleFreddie SteeleFreddie Steele was a boxer and film actor born Frederick Earle Burgett in Seattle, Washington. He was recognized as middleweight champion of the world between 1936 and 1938. Steele was nicknamed "The Tacoma Assassin" and was trained by Jack Connor, Johnny Babnick, and Ray Arcel, while in New York...
as Sgt. Steve Warnicki - Wally CassellWally CassellWally Cassell is an American character actor.- Biography :Castellano was born in Agrigento, Sicily, and moved with his family to the United States at the age of two....
as Pvt. Dondaro - Jimmy LloydJimmy LloydJames Lloyd , is a British former boxer. Representing the United Kingdom, Lloyd was the Welterweight bronze medalist at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games, losing in the semfinals to Nino Benvenuti of Italy. Lloyd was also the ABA Light middleweight champion in 1962.- External links :...
as Pvt. Spencer - John R. Reilly as Pvt. Robert 'Wingless' Murphy
- William MurphyWilliam Murphy (actor)William “Bill” Murphy is an American actor active from the 1940s through the 1970s.The eccentric actor was a long-time friend of John Wayne and Robert Mitchum and spent many nights together with Elvis Presley and his guys from the Memphis Mafia, and regarded Hollywood as an open invitation to party...
as Pvt. Charles R. Mew - Dorothy Coonan Wellman as Nurse Lt. Elizabeth 'Red' Murphy (uncredited)
- Sicily and Italy Combat Veterans of the Campaigns in Africa as Themselves
Casting notes
Casting of the role of Ernie Pyle began in June 1944, after speculation about the role brought forth a large number of names as possibilities to producer Lester Cowan. Pyle was seen by Americans as part saintSaint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
, part seer, and part common man
Common People
"Common People" is a song by English alternative rock band Pulp. It was released as a single in 1995, reaching number two on the UK singles chart. It also appears on the band's 1995 album Different Class. The song is about those who were perceived by the songwriter as wanting to be "like common...
, and himself pleaded with a fellow correspondent, headed to Hollywood to contribute to the storyline: "For God's sake, don't let them make me look like a fool." The choice narrowed down quickly to three character actors resembling Pyle or his perceived personna: James Gleason
James Gleason
James Austin Gleason was an American actor born in New York City. He was also a playwright and screenwriter.-Career:...
, Walter Brennan
Walter Brennan
Walter Brennan was an American actor. Brennan won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor on three separate occasions, which is currently the record for most wins.-Early life:...
, and Meredith, who was then little-known and serving as a captain in the Army. Meredith was chosen because he was lesser known. Cowan was advised that if Capt. Meredith appeared in the film, all profits would have to be donated to the Army Emergency Relief Fund, and the Army refused to release him from active duty. According to Meredith, the Army was overruled by presidential advisor Harry Hopkins
Harry Hopkins
Harry Lloyd Hopkins was one of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's closest advisers. He was one of the architects of the New Deal, especially the relief programs of the Works Progress Administration , which he directed and built into the largest employer in the country...
, and his honorable discharge from the Army was approved personally by General George C. Marshall. Meredith himself spent time with Pyle while the correspondent recuperated in New Mexico from the emotional after effects of surviving an accidental bombing by the Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
at the start of Operation Cobra
Operation Cobra
Operation Cobra was the codename for an offensive launched by the First United States Army seven weeks after the D-Day landings, during the Normandy Campaign of World War II...
in Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
.
The movie studio initially wanted to place a leading-man type for the main role, but Wellman wanted a physically smaller man to better portray middle-aged Pyle. As a compromise, Mitchum was chosen to play Lieutenant (later Captain) Walker. The film was one of the first starring roles for Mitchum.
Nine actual war correspondents are listed as "For the War Correspondents" in technical advisor credits: Don Whitehead
Don Whitehead
Don Whitehead was an American journalist. He was awarded the Medal of Freedom. He won the 1950 George Polk Award for wire service reporting....
(Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
), George Lait (International News Service
International News Service
International News Service was a U.S.-based news agency founded by newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst in 1909.Established two years after the Scripps family founded the United Press Association, INS scrapped among the newswires...
), Chris Cunningham
Chris Cunningham
Chris Cunningham is an English music video film director and video artist. He was born in Reading, Berkshire in 1970 and grew up in Lakenheath, Suffolk....
(United Press), Hal Boyle (A.P.), Jack Foisie (Stars and Stripes
Stars and Stripes (newspaper)
Stars and Stripes is a news source that operates from inside the United States Department of Defense but is editorially separate from it. The First Amendment protection which Stars and Stripes enjoys is safeguarded by Congress to whom an independent ombudsman, who serves the readers' interests,...
), Bob Landry (Life Magazine), Lucien Hubbard
Lucien Hubbard
Lucien Hubbard was a film producer and screenwriter. He is best known for producing Wings, for which he received the first Academy Award for Best Picture. Lucien produced and or wrote ninety-two films over the course of his career...
(Readers Digest), Clete Roberts
Clete Roberts
Clete Roberts was a pioneer in Los Angeles local broadcast journalism. The urbane, mustachioed newscaster was a fixture on Southern California television screens for over thirty years.-KNXT Channel 2:...
(Blue Network
Blue Network
The Blue Network, and its immediate predecessor, the NBC Blue Network, were the on-air names of an American radio production and distribution service from 1927 to 1945...
), and Robert Reuben (Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
). Three appear as themselves in the scene in which Ernie learns he has won the Pulitzer prize.
Wellman's wife, actress Dorothy Coonan Wellman, appeared in an uncredited speaking role as Lt. Elizabeth "Red" Murphy, the combat zone bride of character "Wingless" Murphy.
The Army agreed to Wellman's request for 150 soldiers, then training in California for further deployment to the Pacific and all veterans of the Italian campaign, to use as extras during the six weeks of filming in late 1944. Their training continued when they were not filming to present the best image possible for the Army, although the War Department allowed them to grow beards for their roles. Wellman insisted that actual soldiers speak much of the "G.I." dialogue for authenticity. He also insisted that the Hollywood actors ("as few as possible") cast in the film were required to live and train with the assigned soldiers or they would not be hired.
Screenplay
The film's concept originated with Lester Cowan, an independent producer, in September 1943, when he approached the War Department for cooperation in making a movie about the infantryInfantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
with the same high degree of prestige as Air Force. In October he came to terms with United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
for financial support and distribution of the proposed film, then developed a story outline based on Pyle's columns reproduced in Here is Your War, which the Army approved on November 27.
Attempts to write a script that would accurately translate Pyle's style and sentiments to the screen while being acceptable to all of Pyle's readers and fans delayed filming for a year. Cowan came up with his final concept—Pyle's "love affair" with the ordinary infantryman—by June 1944, but developing a storyline proved more difficult. After the D-Day Invasion of Normandy, believing that the end of the war was in sight, the script moved in the direction of Pyle covering the infantry in its final advance to victory.
However the final form of the screenplay developed through the input of several war correspondents and associates of Pyle, chiefly Don Whitehead, Lee Miller, and Paige Cavanaugh, who assisted the writers in selecting details from Pyle's columns for inclusion in the film, and from the desires of director William Wellman, who worked directly with Pyle.
Finding a director
Cowan's first choice for director was John HustonJohn Huston
John Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , Key Largo , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Moulin Rouge...
, even though he had completed only two films before going into the service. Cowan was impressed by two feature combat documentaries Huston had made for the war effort, Report from the Aleutians
Report from the Aleutians
Report From the Aleutians is a 47-minute documentary propaganda film produced by the U.S. Army Signal Corps about the Aleutian Islands Campaign during World War II...
and The Battle of San Pietro
The Battle of San Pietro
The Battle of San Pietro is a 1945 documentary film directed by John Huston about the Battle of San Pietro Infine during World War II. It was shot by Jules Buck.Huston and his crew were attached to the US Army’s 143rd regiment of the 36th division...
, but was unable to gain Huston's services from the Army.
In August 1944, unable to complete the writing of the screenplay, Cowan sought the services of William A. Wellman. One film history (Suid) has Cowan walking into Wellman's home univited, making a strong pitch for Wellman's services, then engaging in a heated argument when Wellman refused. Wellman told Cowan that he "hated the infantry" because of his own experiences as a fighter pilot
Fighter pilot
A fighter pilot is a military aviator trained in air-to-air combat while piloting a fighter aircraft . Fighter pilots undergo specialized training in aerial warfare and dogfighting...
in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and because the infantry commander assigned by the War Department to assist in the making of Wellman's acclaimed Wings
Wings (film)
Wings is a silent film about World War I fighter pilots, produced by Lucien Hubbard, directed by William A. Wellman and released by Paramount Pictures. Wings was the first film, and the only silent film, to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Wings stars Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, and...
in 1927 so disliked the Air Corps
United States Army Air Corps
The United States Army Air Corps was a forerunner of the United States Air Force. Renamed from the Air Service on 2 July 1926, it was part of the United States Army and the predecessor of the United States Army Air Forces , established in 1941...
that he had attempted to renege on the cooperation and obstruct the filming.
Cowan made two other attempts to cajole Wellman into accepting the assignment, first by bringing a personal letter from Pyle to Wellman (who was quoted as saying it was "like waving a red flag in front of a bull" and resulted in Wellman slamming the door on Cowan), and by bribing Wellman with gifts for his children. The latter resulted in Wellman threatening Cowan if he came back again.
Cowan persisted, however, and had Ernie Pyle (who had returned to Albuquerque for a rest from combat) personally telephone Wellman. Pyle overcame Wellman's resistance by inviting him to his home where two days of discussions resulted in a complete change of heart by Wellman. Suid goes on to note that although Wellman was dictatorial in his management of the filming and crucial to the style and final form of the script, that Wellman's greatest impact was as the "catalyst" for the "collective process" (as opposed to the more modern philosophy of filmmaking as a "director's medium") of bringing together "Pyle, his stories, the actors, and the Army to create a uniquely realistic movie."
Historical basis
Pyle covered the 1st Infantry Division, including the 18th Infantry, in Tunisia from January to May 1943, and wrote a column on the American defeat at Kasserine Pass. He also landed with the 1st Division during the invasion of Sicily in July 1943. However, after the Sicilian campaign, which is mentioned but not portrayed in the film, the 18th Infantry moved to EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to prepare for the Allied invasion of France
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that launched the invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings...
, while the film's "Company C" is said to have made a landing under fire at Salerno.
While the screenwriters chose the 18th Infantry Regiment to be depicted in the film, Pyle made clear that his favorite outfit, "my company", was in the 133rd Infantry Regiment (originally part of the Iowa National Guard
Iowa National Guard
The Iowa National Guard consists of the:*Iowa Army National Guard and the*Iowa Air National Guard-External links:* compiled by the United States Army Center of Military History*...
) of the 34th Infantry Division, a unit he had covered in 1942 while it was still stationed in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, then again in Tunisia. Pyle devotes Chapter Thirteen, "The Fabulous Infantry", of his book Brave Men to this unnamed company of the 133rd Infantry, which he accompanied between December 1943 and February 1944, concentrating on eight G.I.s who were the last survivors of the original 200 shipped to Europe. The chapter's vignettes are very similar to the final form of the film, including portrayal of the well-liked and competent company commander, 1st Lt. John J. "Jack" Sheehy. At least three characters were based on subjects in this outfit, including Sgt. Warnicki (Sgt. Jack Pierson, who also had never seen his son "Junior") and the company's mascot dog, in this instance a small black-and-white female named "Squirt".
The events in Italy portrayed in the film are based on Pyle's experiences with soldiers of the 36th Infantry Division in the Battle of San Pietro
Battle of San Pietro Infine
The Battle of San Pietro Infine was a major engagement from 8–17 December 1943, in the Italian Campaign of World War II involving Allied Forces attacking from the south against heavily fortified positions of the German "Winter Line" in and around the town of San Pietro Infine, just south of Monte...
, and the 133rd Infantry in the Battle of Monte Cassino
Battle of Monte Cassino
The Battle of Monte Cassino was a costly series of four battles during World War II, fought by the Allies against Germans and Italians with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome.In the beginning of 1944, the western half of the Winter Line was being anchored by Germans...
. Mitchum's character, Capt. Bill Walker, was modeled on two soldiers who deeply impressed Pyle. Walker was a stand-in for Capt. Henry T. Waskow
Henry T. Waskow
Henry Thomas Waskow was a US Army captain memorialized in Ernie Pyle's dispatch "The Death of Captain Waskow," which in turn was faithfully portrayed in the movie The Story of G.I. Joe...
of the 36th Division's Company B 143rd Infantry, and the vehicle for conveying the reflections expressed to Pyle by Sgt. Frank Eversole of the 133rd Infantry. Walker's death—and the reaction of his men to it—is a faithful recreation of the death of Waskow on Hill 1205 (Monte Sammucro) on December 14, 1943, which was the subject of Pyle's most famous column, The Death of Captain Waskow. Sgt. "Buck" Eversole was a platoon leader in Lt. Sheehy's company and the subject of several Pyle stories.
Awards and nominations
In 2009, it was named to the National Film RegistryNational Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant and will be preserved for all time.
Academy Award nominations
- Best Supporting ActorAcademy Award for Best Supporting ActorPerformance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
- Robert MitchumRobert MitchumRobert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time... - Best Original Song - Ann RonellAnn RonellAnn Rosenblatt, known as Ann Ronell was an American composer and lyricist best known for the jazz standard "Willow Weep for Me" .- Biography :...
for "Linda" - Best ScoreAcademy Award for Original Music ScoreThe Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...
- Louis ApplebaumLouis ApplebaumLouis Applebaum, was a Canadian composer, administrator, and conductor.He was born in Toronto, Ontario and studied at the Toronto Conservatory of Music with Leo Smith and the University of Toronto with Boris Berlin, Healey Willan and Ernest MacMillan...
and Ann RonellAnn RonellAnn Rosenblatt, known as Ann Ronell was an American composer and lyricist best known for the jazz standard "Willow Weep for Me" .- Biography :... - Best ScreenplayAcademy Award for Writing Adapted ScreenplayThe Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. It is awarded each year to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source...
- Leopold Atlas, Guy EndoreGuy EndoreSamuel Guy Endore , born Samuel Goldstein and also known as Harry Relis, was a novelist and screenwriter. During his career he produced a wide array of novels, screenplays, and pamphlets, both published and unpublished...
, and Philip Stevenson