THE LONG GRAY LINE (1955) *** The first thing you don't need to worry is that it's a movie about West Point. I'm not a particularly gung-ho militarily individual, I have reasonably enough been described as occasionally undisciplined and I think a lot of that tradition is baloney.not that it's not about West Point, in fact the locale, military discipline and ethos are quite central to the film. What a difference a star makes. A real one. Tyrone Power. Without him this would have been a film about important things, but it just wouldn't have had the gravitas to pull it off. Gravitas, pathos, you know, the words writers use when they're trying to describe things they can't lift. Tyrone Power is immune to gravity. Oh sure it helps, at least for people like me, that he's Irish and a wee bit off kilter himself. It's an incredible romance. Frankly I don't think that either Tyrone or Maureen O'Hara is particularly credible in their role, or as any other nonfiction character either, but-and this doesn't happen much-they portray so much of so many things that are so real that they stimulate this illusion that they're more real than so many people who have more successfully eluded the screen to the point of living outside it. Not beyond it, as the principals (and principles) here just reach out and grab ya. Oh, I'm sure that the story's told selectively, as are they all, and that there may be a wee embellishment here and there, as tends to happen when Irishmen are around, but there's a ring of truth about the whole thing that just cannot be denied. It's the story of a lifetime, several lifetimes. And no story that ambitious could ever fall for naught. And yes, that is "Love Me Tender" they keep playing in the background, except that it's the Civil War classic "Aura Lee." There's a lot of common ground between us all, I'm tellin' ya. And it may be surprising how much of the rest of it we can overlook, if we can just get a better hold on those things that are really important.
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